England's No. 1: The Forgotten Man

England, a nation with a proud history of developing great goalkeepers. Ray Clemence, Peter Shilton, Gordon Banks, and David Seaman are just four names that are proof of this.

Bar from Clemence in the list above, all the others held the title of ‘England’s No. 1’ for the majority of their playing careers.

Shilton, Banks and Seaman were in the goalkeeping elite of there day. Clemence himself was one of the best, but it was unfortunate for himself that he played in the same era as Peter Shilton. How England would like to be blessed with such a player as any of the named above now.

It’s not that we don’t have any ‘good’ English goalkeepers at the moment. We do.  But that is it. In an age where we have five or six ‘good’ English goalkeepers, we have no one who really stands out from the rest, like Seamen, Banks, Clemence, and Shilton did.

Listening to '’Sunday Supplement’ last Sunday they spoke of how you don’t necessarily have to have a ‘world class’ goalkeeper to win the World Cup, but just for them to have a good month. Highlighting Brazil as prime examples of this. Though this is true, you still want the best man in between the sticks that your country has to offer so the decision should not be made lightly, of which knowing Mr. Capello, it certainly won’t be.

Since David Seaman retired we have struggled to find someone to really make the number one spot there own. Paul Robinson, David James and most recently Robert Green have all held the mantle, but non have really been able to stamp there authority on it fully.

After Robert Greens’ sending off in Ukraine, it seems that David James is in pole position to land the jersey for the World Cup next year.

James is a player who we all know on his day is an extremely good goalkeeper; however, every once in a while, he will drop a howler. Every goalkeeper makes mistakes, but with James, for however good he is 95 percent of the time, you know he is liable to make a really bad error! I have nothing against David James, as a player or a professional. However, I just don’t think he is the answer, short or long term.

Who then should be No. 1 in my opinion? Paul Robinson.

After firmly establishing himself as Spurs' No. 1, Robinson replaced David James as No. 1 choice under Sven Goran Eriksson during the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers and went to the finals still as No. 1 choice.

The 2008 European qualification campaign was a mixed one for Robinson. A few high profile mistakes for his country meant people started to ask questions about whether the former Leeds United stopper was up for the job.

It wasn’t just his international career that was starting to stutter, his club form suffered massively. It got that bad that Spurs felt that a change was in order. Stand up Horelo Gomez. In hindsight, maybe not Spurs' wisest of moves. Inconsistent is the best way to describe his final six months at White Harte Lane.

Robinson needed a fresh start to re-start his career and he found this up North with Blackburn Rovers, becoming Paul Ince’s first signing in a deal worth a reported £3.5 million.

His move to Blackburn has been great for him. After the high profile mistakes and his indifferent form at Spurs, Paul just needed to get back to basics and concentrate fully on his game.

The last year, since his move to Blackburn, has seen him move out of the spotlight, which has allowed him to get back to his best. Now 29 and in the peak of his career, Robinson is now ready to take that step back into the spotlight and reclaim the No. 1 jersey.