Reaction: England World Cup squad announced
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By Bobo
This year the talk has been about one thing and one thing only in the England camp. The decisions made by Sven Goran Eriksson given that this is his last chance to shine on the International stage before he relinquishes his position.
And some of those decisions have been rather dodgy. Considering Sven's reserved character, a few of the players he has picked have gone against his natural selecting traits, and include an injured Wayne Rooney (over whom so much has been said over the last month or so that I'm not believing this is healthy for a young head on mature shoulders), along with a seventeen-year-old who has never played in the Premiership in the form of Theo Walcott, chosen in place of some much more sensible player ideas as Darren Bent, who was the highest English scorer in the Premiership last season, and Jermaine Defoe.
And of course, records are in the making. Should Sven decide to play Walcott, he will become the youngest player ever to start an England match, not reaching the age of 17 years and 111 days until after the end of the World Cup.
Other decisions have been rather more low-key and rather sensible. With the goalkeeping positions of Rob Green, Paul Robinson and David James pretty much decided four years ago (albeit having seen Robinson fall down a league before being rescued by Tottenham Hotspur), they are joined by defensive players Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Sol Campbell, Wayne Bridge and Jamie Carragher, midfielders Steven Gerrard, David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Owen Hargreaves, Jermaine Jenas, Michael Carrick, Aaron Lennon and Stewart Downing, and, upfront, the still-injured Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Theo Walcott and Peter Crouch.
Let's hope that these prove to be the right decisions. Full analysis of the World Cup will follow, along with dissection of the right and wrong decisions of Eriksson's last competition as manager. These points will then be argued to death over and over by the British press.. but...
It's time to go to the World Cup now. Show us all what these boys are made of.
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