It's Sink Or Swim Time For England Hopefuls

By Luke Edwards on Jul 14, 10 11:23 AM

With adverts for the new Premier League campaign virtually on repeat on any Sky channel we are already been herded up for another gruelling ten months of domestic football.

When the England team fails, we always round on our domestic game, its failings and its shortcomings, the lack of young players coming through and the sheer number of foreign imports blocking their way.

And then.....we forget all about it as soon as we get to within excitement distance of a competitive ball being kicked..

This is just the way it is, and you fear, always will be. The national side let us down because of unrealistic expectations and our domestic competition, with a sprinkle of the Champions League, eventually repairs the damage until it starts all over again in two years time in the aftermath of the European Championships.

However, for a moment I would just like to dwell on our early World Cup exit and the dreadful football that proceeded it. As I've said before on this blog, it is time for many of this current group to be pushed into international retirement.

Of the 23-man squad in South Africa I would keep the following; David James, Joe Hart, Ashley Cole, Michael Dawson, Glen Johnson (he just about survives even though he really needs to work on his defending), John Terry (he should still be ok with an athletic partner alongside him) Steven Gerrard, James Milner, Joe Cole, Aaron Lennon, Peter Crouch, Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe.

That's 13 players, two of which are goalkeepers, but the real problem confronting Fabio Capello is who does he replace them with. Well, there are a few names that spring to mind.

Rio Ferdinand will play if fit and you can even seen David Beckham coming back into the squad if he can come back strongly enough after his Achilles problem. As for Owen Hargreaves, we can only pray his career isn't already over. Bobby Zamora is no spring chicken but he deserves an opportunity to show what he can do, as does Sunderland's Darren Bent, yet again.

Hardly looking to the future, but there are a few obvious candidates for a call up. Adam Johnson will definitely get a chance to establish himself, as will the likes of Tom Huddlestone, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Michael Mancienne and, of course, there is still Theo Walcott to come back into it as well following his South African snub.

But what else is there? Not much, Newcastle's new signing to be Dan Gosling won't play until the New Year, Jack Rodwell is another candidate, but he has hardly played regularly for Everton.

Newcastle's Andy Carroll? Possibly, if he starts the season well in the Premier League and Sunderland's Lee Cattermole, Michael Turner and Jordon Henderson may also have an outside chance. The same is true of Gary Cahill at Bolton, even Titus Bramble at Wigan.

Fabrice Muamba at Bolton, Kyle Naughton at Spurs, Victor Moses at Wigan, Henri Lansbury at Arsenal, these are all Under-21 internationals but with the exception of Muamba, they lack league experience, let alone international. Connor Whickham at Ipswich might be a special talent and could be fast-tracked.....

England have two years to rebuild, while still hopefully qualifying for Euro 2012, but we may as well chuck a good number of these young players in now. It's sink or swim time, but it worked for the Germans and I've had enough of seeing the same old players come up with the same old excuses after the same old failings.

And in the meantime, all the Premier League managers will say the right thing about trying to bring a new generation through and then they will sign a couple of foreign players to give their first team squad an instant pick me up.... even Steve Bruce can't help himself and he has more local talent at his disposal than most!