England Squad, Slimmed and ready to go.

The final 23 man squad is about to be announced for South Africa and the main shock is that after twice failing to impress in the warm up games Arsenal’s Theo Walcott is to be left home, I obviously feel very sorry for the lad who must be gutted but if you only have space on the plane for one nippy Right Winger you would have to think that Lennon is a better bet, slightly faster but with a much better final ball.

There were a lot of mixed messages with regards to Ledley King, as I said earlier from a purely selfish Spurs viewpoint I would have liked him to be excluded as he is so crucial to our team. But in the end he DID do enough in the warm ups to get a place.

Tom (The Tank) Huddlestone is also flying home as is Michael Dawson both of which are mistakes in my book as they offer something different, I honestly believe that Dawson should have got the nod ahead of Ferdinand but with Rio as Captain it never looked likely. The Tank for me gives England steel to midfield and a thunderous foot that could be a real game winner when we are up against it. However even as a Spurs fan I still can not be too unhappy at his exclusion against the likes of Gerrard and Lampard

Obviously the other Spurs players where automatic names on the team sheet so the mighty spurs will be represented by, not including King, Crouch, Defoe and Lennon.

The other players to be dropped were Parker, Baines, Bent and Adam Johnson. I don’t feel that any of these would constitute a surprise, whilst they may not be who I would have picked they are all peripheral players rather than England Regulars.
Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott and Tom Huddlestone shouldn’t be too disappointed as they have some world cups left in them; Bent, Baines and Dawson as well will only be 30 when they meet in Brazil so should have another chance. On the other hand Parker will probably not get another chance so this must be gutting. I have always rated Parker as a skilful player but much like Michael Carrick, who is included, he never seems to be able to fulfil his potential for England.