England head coach Fabio Capello has left fans scratching their heads after calling up Chris Smalling and Jay Bothroyd and leaving Gary Cahill out of the squad for this Wednesday’s friendly against France (England evens to win).
Capello brought in four new faces but also discarded in-form Bolton striker Kevin Davies – seemingly consigned to the international scrapheap as a 32-year-old ‘one-cap wonder’.
The decision to omit Davies may be understandable, given that the Wembley clash is a chance to assess his options for the future and build towards the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and the Ukraine.
But anybody watching the form of Cahill recently, and Capello was at Molineux to see another accomplished performance from the ex-Aston Villa defender on Saturday, will know that he is worthy of his place.
Smalling, although playing well himself when given his chance by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, has not started a single Premier League game this season – rendering his selection at best puzzling.
Micah Richards has also been brought out of the international wilderness in the week that he went public and moaned about his lack of opportunities under Capello.
But the Manchester City man was dropped by his club manager Roberto Mancini after playing in back-to-back defeats to Wolves and Lech Poznan, losing his place to Jerome Boateng.
Is the England coach now offering spots in the squad to players who, because of the competition for places at their clubs, cannot get regular football and simply need a game ?
West Ham striker Carlton Cole has been called into the squad as cover for Andy Carroll and Gabriel Agbonlahor who suffered injuries playing for their clubs on Saturday.
Cole has seven caps and no goals as yet for his country, but has shown glimpses in the past of being able to finally banish the prospect of Emile Heskey ever pulling on a jersey with the Three Lions on its chest again.
However, he is playing poorly and has so far managed one goal in sixteen appearances for the Hammers this season – statistics that would make even Heskey wince.
Cardiff striker Bothroyd becomes the first player in the Bluebirds’ 111-year history to be called up by England – and the latest from outside the Premier League – after going on a remarkable scoring run.
After bagging in his last seven matches, Bothroyd now has 15 goals to his name and surely must rank as the most in-form frontman of the pack (Peter Crouch not having scored so far in the Premier League), assuming that Carroll is not fit enough to play, but will he start ?
Only Capello knows, but with his muddied thinking, you tend to think not.
Bothroyd is 13/2 in First Goalscorer betting, Carroll 5/1, Agbonlahor 13/2 and Crouch 6/1.
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