The Future of English International Football

Some of you International football fans might join me in feeling a little perturbed at the insistence by Rafael Benitez that Steven Gerrard must, right now, at this particular moment in time, have a groin operation and will thus not be available for the forthcoming England fixtures against Andorra and Croatia. This concern will be aggravated by the news that Alex Ferguson has declared that Owen Hargreaves is also unfit and will not be permitted to fulfil his international duties. Here the word ‘duties’ sounds a bit out of place. How long is it since a player felt a duty to his country?

It was probably Alex Ferguson who brought the issues into public debate with his assertion, a couple of years ago, that it is inter-club European football that produces the peaks of football competition and that the international game is relatively mediocre. He’s probably right in this and the money involved at top league level doesn’t help either. Managers and players are aware of the rewards of top performance for their club and international demands are gradually becoming a distraction. Arguably the value of a club player is raised with international recognition but this perhaps only applies in the early stages of an international career. Today’s recruitment of the Fulham midfielder, Jimmy Bullard, to the England squad, will have been met with delirious enthusiasm by his club but in a couple of years and twenty caps time, worth £15 million, he may well be suffering his own timely groin injury

Who Is Killing English Football?

Add to this the fact that a lot of Premiership managers are not English and you begin to see an accumulation of forces working against the quality of the England team and, possibly the future of serious international competition. Certainly Fabio Capello is not happy. His raised eyebrows reveal a suspicion of something more sinister afoot. His has not always enjoyed the most cordial relations with Rafael Benitez and it will be interesting to see if Gerrard is fit enough to play Manchester United at Anfield on September 13.