England NT: Throw out the old guard or keep them?

The question that has always been asked of the manager of the England football team, is not when the team shall have promising youngsters who can carry the team on for ten or fifteen years. Rather, the question is always when the older players will be kicked out. Which, if you ask me, is pretty cynical. When the question of revolutionizing a team comes in, especially a national side, the first thing to look for is the existence of skilful, mature and reliable players who are available at the moment, irrespective of their age. And since this is a team that is constantly competing at the highest level and has always been among the top five or six nations in the world, it is absolutely essential that the core of players are totally world class, professional and can handle any type of pressure situation.

Then, would someone care to enumerate players of the type mentioned above, for the Three Lions? With absolutely no hesitation a knowledgeable fan would fire away: Gerrard, Lampard, Ashley Cole, Terry, Rooney, Ferdinand, probably even David Beckham, who was definitely not given fair treatment by Fabio Capello who called time on his international career. These players are the ones whom a team can look towards in times of need. ‘We’re two goals down, get Steve on the next set piece.’ ‘It’s stoppage time and a spot kick to keep the team in the competition, blast it in Lamps!’ Or what about heroic defensive work from Cole or Terry or Rio?

Hodgson’s faith in Steven Gerrard was rewarded at Euro 2012 as the Liverpool skipper ended up as the most important player for his country

I am not for one moment suggesting that the new generation of players that will come up cannot do what the senior players can. But at the moment most of them are either a little too young to play at the international level or simply not good enough. Of course, players like Joe Hart, Gary Cahill, Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck and so many more will mature into magnificent sportsmen, but it’s a long way before they acquire the psyche of, say, a Terry or a Rooney.

Again, some say that the ‘Golden Generation’ has under-performed for England. I have to disagree here: England have qualified for most tournaments in style and reached the latter stages of almost every competition they have featured in. And even though they have made errors and had bad luck or been overpowered by better teams, nobody can question the commitment of the players. Consequently, they are now the third best team in the world, as per FIFA.

So in the next few years, the old guard will make the backbone of the team but slowly but steadily step away from centre stage as the new generation beds in. According to me players should be picked on the basis of their ability and commitment to the team and not the date on their birth certificate. And one only needs to look at the likes of Zidane or Pirlo to realize what experienced players can offer to the team.

To conclude, I honestly don’t know what to make of reports of the manager deliberately not selecting John Terry and Rio Ferdinand in the same squad, because of certain indifferences between the two, but these two are top professionals and once they cross the white line they are only footballers who play for their team and their country, and dragging off-field matters into the games is unthinkable for such players.