In this example it would be Alex Scott's nose getting out of joint and accepting a call up to Scotland or Wales seniors! He looks the biggest talent of the three at the moment too. Does he warrant a call up ahead of Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford or Ivan Toney though? I'd say that he doesn't. I'd agree that Balogun is more of a grey area here but I'd rather secure Toney as he's a more complete player. Ivan Toney is a dual that's made his desire to play for England as strongly as any player I can remember. It always amazes me how one interest group can see the same situation completely differently to another interest group. Jamaica fans think England are cynically using the dual system to cap-tie players whilst England fans are angry that the FA are not cynical enough in cap-tying duals. Regarding Toney, when he was last called up he didn't get an appearance so I'm not sure how it can be interpreted that England are cynically trying to cap-tie him. We lost Musiala because we were only offering him u21 football whilst Germany were offering him senior football before he made any impact in first team football. The England approach is not to overpromote players just to cap-tie them. On balance it's something I agree with although it will lose us some good players because of it.
Maybe, It is a shame it didn't work out for him at Man utd. Otherwise I think he'd have had over 30 caps for England.
All that said, Zaha wouldn't have made a difference to England's fortunes. It's like mourning the loss of Iwobi. He may have won some caps but he is really isn't that good at a tournament level.
This is the point when Southgate deserves criticism. Two pull outs and no replacements called. You could easily pick Balogun and Eze at this point and have more than enough time to bring them in.
Eze why? He has had a pretty rough season, couldn't even get a game for such a woeful side. I'd rather call up Sancho or Barnes. Tge criticism for Southgate is legit though.
And then he complains that he doesn’t have a big enough pool of players to pick from or he’s been hinting at this recently and then he doesn’t bother to call up replacements just doesn’t make much sense.
We have an answer here now. Omari Hutchinson is not in Jamaica's recently named side to face Mexico on the 26th in a crucial CONCACAF Nation's League tie. The reason? He contacted the coach this past week and confirmed he wouldn't be available due to "personal reasons". I think this is a confirmation that, despite his now 3 full senior caps for Jamaica, he remains fully in play for England. What he is doing is simple: use Jamaica for some additional playing experience and some additional clout/notoriety of being a full senior international. Leverage that to hopefully play your way into an England opportunity later, once you get more senior club gametime. Avoid making any competitive appearance for Jamaica in the interim to keep that door open. I personally believe we need committed players in the squad who are willing and able to assist on the road to 2026. It is clear he is not one of them, and he should not be called up again until we are certain that has changed. This is also interesting news. Jamaica made a serious effort to recruit English-Jamaicans for its last U20 cycle, something it hadn't really done much of before (this recruiting effort previously only occured at the senior level). 5 or 6 of those guys have been brought into the senior setup now just a few months later, 2 have full senior caps and another, Boyce-Clarke, is getting called for the first time now to the senior side. Would definitely expect to see this trend continue and there might be another former England youth international or two who is impacted by this in coming cycles.
He has never made a bold substitution in his life. He had arguably the strongest bench in the last tournament and wasted it. Yet he is whinging about our strength in depth. I mean talk about brass neck.
Seems like he will go then, not really a fan of his attitude and certainly from his previous interviews he's been one of most precarious duels who doesn't apparently feel much loyalty to any option and certainly he likes to talk up his duel status, but with all that said I think we've been quite foolhardy losing him. He's having a genuinely good season, he's not just someone who'd be capped to tie down a duel national he can actually say he warrants it. Rashford dropping out was the perfect opportunity to bring him in to the fold and it appears we've chosen to cut our nose off to spite our face. Can only hope we don't live to regret it given a big paucity of options behind Kane. Integrating new players into the squad has gone from probably Southgate's biggest strength, to another of his weaknesses since Euro's. The only players to have been capped since 2020 in the current squad are Ramsdale, Gallagher, and Guehi.
Potentially unpopular opinion, but I actually think we need to lose a dual and have it cost us in order to give us a kick up the backside regarding how we approach these situations. As I have said before I am against calling players up just to tie them down as an insurance policy and/or speculating to accumulate. As you said though, Balogun actually warrants the call given his form, whilst the combination of having both two very eager competitors for him and the centre forward position being potentially light within a few years would’ve made it a no brainer to anybody not either Southgate or the FA.
The weird thing is Southgate was relatively proactive about such things previously but post Euro's that's just came to a halt and he seems intent on largely sticking with that same squad regardless of performance or play time in many cases. I get the impression most likely due to him viewing his tenure at end shortly so less concerned about building for the future.
I think part of the reason is when he did bring in some new players we got beat 4-0 by Hungry. He's just become scared of this own shadow. Look at how he tried to make 5 at the back work.
He played the whole of the last match for Reims... Players skipping international matches isn't anything new, especially at youth level - but I'd be shocked if I saw him in a England shirt again.
Southgate didn’t have on paper such a challenging set of fixtures to start the next campaign after the Euros. That’s why it’s been less experimental. If it’s the same selection in June then I would certainly be inclined to agree with that ‘keeping the same squad’ theory. As for Balogun I’m not sure much has changed. Would be surprised if he made any decision this season. He’s either actually injured or attempting to make a point about what he’s worth to the set up.
I can't say I'm shocked, but I'm so annoyed at our management for not acting on this. He was ours to keep.