Anthony Patterson and Dan Neil were excellent for Sunderland in the FA cup vs Fulham. I wouldn't be surprised to see them both in the next squad but Patterson would be a certainty you would think given how well he's playing and who's in the squad.
Think this must have gone under the radar but Spence has signed on loan at Rennes for the rest of the season. Hope that works out for him after his strange move to Spurs.
Harrison Ashby to Newcastle. He'll be in the next scotland squad now just in case England get any ideas.
What's the story with this guy, I'm guessing he wasn't good enough to get on England's radar as a right back given all the options we have?
Yeah I'm guessing that's what it was. Don't think he's ever played for England ages groups, always scotland. If I'm being honest, I don't ever think we'd miss him with all the options we have at rb.
Balogun another goal tonight, really hope England are in contact. Can’t see the affinity with the US team, but could say the same with Musah
Hat-trick for Balogun & he's now the outright top scorer in Ligue 1 above Mbappe. Senior callup certainly shouldn't be out of the question at this point.
What makes you think that? He's already in the system having been with the U21s & is performing at a level that could definitely warrant a senior callup, especially if it continues. It's also not as if he has a particularly strong link to the US, he was only born there.
If we call him up to the next senior squad then we have a good chance with him. Remember he could’ve gone to the World Cup with the USA but stayed with our 21s.
The USA are hosting the 2024 Copa America and the 2026 World Cup, and he'll be a almost guaranteed starter. It seems more attractive than being Kane's back up for probably at least 2 years. I hope I'm wrong though.
I could understand Musah switching he was basically a U17 player, offered a starting berth in there midfield. The last US coach offered dual nationals caps like confetti, so I'm sure he's already turned down approaches.
Balogun is probably the biggest flight risk of our current dual nationals, but he's almost certainly turned down the US before now. The US national team is also in chaos at the moment with the fallout from this whole Berhalter/Reyna thing. How much longer he'd be willing to wait if he's in this kind of form and isn't called up in March is certainly up for question. Not a fan of just cap tying dual nationals as its an endless cycle, but there's no doubt that Balogun would legitimately warrant a call up in current form. He's the top scoring English striker, Kane aside. The competition behind Kane is very minimal though, and at any rate if England actually had a striker doing legitimately well at a top level club I'd imagine there's a good chance England would be happy to move Kane back a bit deeper, given a lack of midfield creatives.
There’s also Nigeria to consider as he said in the recent past that he’d be interested in playing for them.
I'd be very suprised if he went with Nigeria. Osimhen will be pretty much impossible to shift + they've got a number of other very good strikers.
Yeah I also can't see him going with Nigeria given their options. Unfortunately though, I think we'll struggle to keep both Nketiah and Balogun given their current stock, the fact Kane is still at the peak of his powers and how aggressive both the US and the West African nations are when it comes to pursuing duals. I hope I'm wrong but it's just my gut feeling. I saw an article the other day that said Nigeria had Chukwuemeka on their target list already even though he's essentially an embryo in football terms, so that shows you how predatory they are.
But how attractive is the prospect of travelling half way around the world intermittently to play qualifiers for a team that has no realistic chance of ever winning a trophy of any note? If he wanted to play at a World Cup he could have switched quite a while ago at started games for the USA at the last one. You have to assume that the reason he didn't is because he wanted to see if he'd be good enough to play for England first.
Our qualifying group for the 2025 U21 Euros Group F: England, Ukraine, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg
Our #YoungLions will warm up for a big summer by taking on France and Croatia in March! 💪— England (@England) February 2, 2023
Lewis Bate is a bit under the radar now, but apparently he's been doing well out on loan. 🎦 | LOAN WATCH: @LewBate is absolutely tearing it up in the #EFL!Clearly has all the ability to have a very successful future at #LUFC — certainly one to watch. Here are his 22/23 highlights so far! ⚪️💪 pic.twitter.com/tZpjhXNGvN— LUFC Reels (@LUFCReels) February 1, 2023
Cameron Archer with a brace yesterday against Sheff Utd. It was such a stupid thing not allowing him going out on loan earlier.