Capello named a 23 man squad that will carry the burden of hopes of an entire nation at this summer’s World Cup in South Africa. His squad contained some highly baffling inclusions as well as omissions, nothing more so than the exclusion of Arsenal’s electric paced winger Theo Walcott, who ironically raised many eyebrows when he was included in the squad in 2006 By Sven Goran Erriksson and he does the same again but for the exact opposite reason. It’s his omission this time that raised eyebrows across the globe.
Walcott is being blamed for indiscipline behaviour and had apparently received a bashing from his manager at half time in the practice game against Mexico less than a week ago. Walcott was blamed for not following his manager’s instruction and veering towards the by-line more often than not and his final ball whenever he decided to play one was erratic to say the least. More often than usual he chose not to play the obvious pass and frustrated his team-mates. This may or may not be true but what about other English players whose performances in the two practice games against Mexico and Japan was poor than those put in by the young gunner? What about those more established players that failed to show up in the game? Perhaps the reason can only be that Capello does not have the guts to take on bigger personalities, and has used a humble, shy, young and aspiring player as a scapegoat to set his example, knowing that there will be no backlash or further repercussions from other team members. How cowardly of the Italian.
More than a few times Walcott was in acres of space on the right wing but a blindly obvious pass was not made by Rooney or Lampard or Johnson. Every time Rooney didn’t receive the ball he would just go berserk, waving his arms like a demented puppet with too many strings attached. Is it because that the young arsenal player is not one of the ‘in’ crew?
SWP is from the ex-Chelsea crowd of Cole, Lampard Terry and Johnson and he has made the cut. But surprisingly Walcott didn’t. The thing that everyone believes so conveniently that Capello removed the player power that was established under Sven Goran Erriksson.
Suddenly just before the World Cup there is talk of Lampard Gerrad partnership, Rio and Terry despite having patchy seasons are the heart of England defence and no one questions their inclusion.
I have a weird feeling that big egos have come to the fore again and that too at a very wrong time and the manager is now ever closer to the players not wanting to stop it
Sven's starting team from 2006, compared to Fabio's four years later:
Paul Robinson – after a disastrous qualifying its no surprise that he is replaced by Green
Gary Neville – at the age of 35 and not even getting enough games for Manchester United there was no hope of the manc making the cut, replaced by Gemn Johnson
Ashley Cole - In
Steven Gerrard - In
Rio Ferdinand - In
John Terry - In
David Beckham – despite being injured and not part of the 23 he will be with the team in some capacity or the other, his place in the squad is take by Aaron Lennon
Frank Lampard - In
Wayne Rooney - In
Micheal Owen – Injured and out of form, stood no chance of making the cut, replaced by Emile Heskeye
Joe Cole – IN
If you look at it only two of Sven’s choice of starting eleven are currently injured, Nevilles old legs are fit for World Cup and Paul was the most obvious to get the axe and so was Micheal Owen. Capello has only made two real changes in the squad and those are Heskey and Lennon.
It’s a bad time to be putting forward this conspiracy theory, but for all it seems that the Italian is throwing away all his hard work in the qualifying and giving in to player powers. As much as people may argue that Heskey played an important role in the qualifying campaign but the same people would agree that so did Walcott.
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