You’re about to read a statement that, a mere 12 months ago, would have been the byword for free bed, board and behavioural therapy at most of the country’s finest mental health institutions.
Bobby Zamora has got a chance of making the England World Cup squad.
Not just a chance, but a good chance. Zamora’s 14th goal of the season in Fulham’s 2-1 win over Uefa Cup/Europa League holders Shakhtar Donetsk – a sublime effort that crashed in off the underside of the crossbar – has shot him to the forefront of the national consciousness once more, and Fabio Capello can’t have failed to notice.
Nor was it a fluke. Zamora has scored goals against opposition of the calibre of Liverpool and Manchester United this season, it was his brace in Basel that shot Fulham through to the knockout stages of the Europa League, and he’s scored the same amount of goals as Peter Crouch and Emile Heskey put together during the campaign.
It’s a far cry from last season, when Zamora – a £4.8million signing from West Ham in the summer of 2008 – scored just two goals in 35 league games. It was a run of form that saw many Fulham supporters turn on the former Brighton and Tottenham forward, who failed to score a single league goal in 16 Spurs appearances in the 2003/04 season. Zamora, supposedly a regular on Fulham websites and messageboards, often reads the criticism that comes his way from anonymous internet bloggers, and he’s started to turn it to his advantage.
The sight of the forward cupping his hands to his ears in front of Craven Cottage’s Hammersmith End – supposedly where his fiercest critics are sat – is now a regular one at the old ground. Zamora is an angry man, and while virtually all Fulham supporters are now fully behind their top scorer, he hasn’t forgotten the few dissenters who weren’t, and it seems to be working for him.
Surely there would be few complaints if Capello decided to give Zamora a call up to the squad before next month’s friendly with Egypt at Wembley. In a World Cup year, these fixtures should be used as a chance for the manager to get a closer look at players he hasn’t seen first-hand before. What more would the Italian learn about Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and co during an ultimately meaningless match anyway?
Claiming that Zamora should automatically go to the World Cup on the back of his recent form might still be enough for the men in white coats to pay you a visit, but where’s the harm in giving him a run out at Wembley in the white shirt?
The Fulham bloggers have already been made to eat their words. Maybe it’s time to give Zamora a national audience.
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