Top 5 English players who failed on the international stage

#2 Michael Bridges

Michael Bridges

Some folks reading this would say, "Michael who?"

Bridges is on this list for what he promised to be rather than what he achieved. After emerging in 1998, at the then high flying Sunderland, Bridges proved that he had the vision to play as a number 10 along with the pace and finishing skills to be a number 9 which resulted in people drawing early comparisons to Dennis Bergkamp.

His talent didn’t go unnoticed and aged just 21, he was signed by David O’Leary’s Leeds for £5 million. O'Leary claimed Bridges was a long-term project but after selling Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink that summer, Bridges was in the first team and immediately bagged a hat-trick.

He finished his first season with 21 goals as Leeds made an unlikely title challenge and made it to the UEFA cup semi-final.

An England call-up was expected next season (many of his young teammates were full internationals by then) but then disaster struck. Bridges was stretchered off in a Champions League group game in October and didn’t play again that season. An endless cycle of injury and rehabilitation began and he made only 10 appearances over the next 4 years.

After that, Bridges began to drop down the divisions even faster than Leeds and was last seen playing at the beautifully named Lambton Jaffas in his native North East. For the England under 21s, he played 11 times (all in those 2 seasons at Sunderland & Leeds) netting 3 times.

Injury has wrecked many a career but very few have been dismantled in such frustrating circumstances as Bridges, who showed so much promise in such a brief period.