Tuesday, March 19, 2013

England calling

Congratulations to Saylor who has, finally, been called up by Roy Hodgson to the current England squad. Having seen centre-halves drop like flies (or, in the case of Rio Ferdinand, complain for ages that he’s not being picked and then decline to turn up when he eventually is), Roy was left with little choice but to turn to our former England U21 captain.

Saylor’s prospects of making his senior debut for his country look reasonable, when you consider that the options in front of him are similarly inexperienced and in the majority of cases are short of game time this season. Hopefully he’ll enjoy the confidence boost and return reinvigorated (and still fit) for the games which lie ahead.

As one Newcastle player’s England career looks to begin, one of our old boys is calling time on his, with Little Saint Mick finally deciding to put himself out to stud at the end of the season. 

Of course, there are those who might suggest Owen stopped playing football a long time ago… 

Unable to force his way back into the England fold once Shteeve McLaren went Dutch, our one-time striker never managed to live up to the heights predicted when he emerged as a youngster who was widely expected to beat Bobby Charlton’s England scoring record.

As the list of goals/games in the BBC article illustrates, Owen's career never fulfilled the potential he showed at Liverpool, thanks in no small part to his appalling attitude when on Tyneside when he repeatedly put country before club to the detriment of all parties. 30 goals in 79 games over four years is frankly nothing but a pitiful return for a £17 million signing earning a ridiculous amount of money per week.

The fact that in a montage of career highlights, the Guardian completely glosses over the four years he was a paid employee of our club speaks volumes for the contribution made by our record signing.

Proud though he undoubtedly is at being called up by his country, I somehow don't think Saylor will make the same career choices.

Labels: , , ,

Share

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home