Top 5 English players who failed on the international stage

#3 Tony Cottee

Tony Cottee of Leicester City and Igor Stimac of Derby County

Tony Cottee was hailed as England’s next big thing after emerging from West Ham’s famed academy in the mid-’80s. The problem for Cottee was that his game was very similar to England’s then big thing; Gary Lineker.

In 1986, aged 21, Cottee was named PFA young player of the year following a prolific season at West Ham, bagging 20 goals for the Hammers as they reached the giddy heights of 3rd place in Division 1.

In the same year, Lineker scored 30 for Everton who finished 2nd and reached the cup final. Lineker went to the World Cup won the Golden Boot and signed for Barcelona.

At the start of the following season, Cottee made his England debut as a sub and he managed 22 goals for West Ham thanks to a deadly partnership that he formed with Frank McAvennie. But with Lineker almost never injured or out of form, more England chances were coming at a premium.

Two years on, Cottee finally left West Ham for Lineker’s old gig at Goodison Park- surely his chance at the bigtime. Unfortunately, he joined Everton a year too late and the Howard Kendall glory era was starting to fade.

Cottee did score a respectable 72 goals in 6 seasons at Merseyside, but it wasn’t quite the prolific showings he needed. Cotten finally made his first England start in 1989 against Scotland at Hampden Park, but he didn’t find the back of the net.

Unfortunately for him, England debutant Steve Bull did score that day and got the final forward’s spot in the ’90 World Cup squad.

Cottee never played for England again although he did play on in the Premier League all the way until 2001 (aged 36) before dropping down the divisions and retiring. His last 3 Premier League seasons were spent at Leicester City with Walkers Crisps emblazoned on his jersey. The irony.