Still Trying To Reason With Capello

I have never really being an England fan, I never really knew why. I thought, maybe its because I was never able to relate to any of the characters in the squad, or maybe their style of football was a bit abysmal. But all I knew was that when I watch an  England game vs any country, although I always tried to pretend, in my heart, I always rooted for the other team. No matter who they were!

Then Came Theo. An arsenal man in the England fold, someone I could relate to and root for. He dazzled us with his hat trick against Croatia and annoyed us when his final ball was found wanting. But all in all he was good, a bit above average, but what do you expect from a 21 year old who has had a stop start season ever since he made it to the top flight of English football.

What I cannot get over is why my Theo got left out of the final 23 and why he is constantly singled out by the Arsenal hating media for not improving or having a bad game in the two friendlies. When judging players in the Mexico game, Ledley King in my opinion did not warrant a place, neither did Rio because he was at fault for the Mexico goal as well as sloppy defending. The same could be said about Michael Carrick, who needlessly gave the ball away time after time, when he was fortunate to get the ball, and offered no support to the back four. But when Theo whizzes past two/three defenders, and God forbid passes the ball to Rooney (who is at fault for being in an offside position), he gets a special rollicking from the commentators and pundits. In the Japan game, lets not be fooled, although England won, every team members performance was atrocious. Needing two own goals to win a friendly, does not spell World Champions.

I truly believed that with Walcott in the squad, England might have a chance in the Finals, because with a 0 - 0  score line in the semi finals with 20 minutes to go, you can always count on Theo to make an impact from the bench. He has done so several time at Europe's elite competition, against AC Milan, Barcelona, Liverpool, which can hardly be said about Lennon or Shawn Wright-Phillips or even Milner. Adding Heskey who has scored 3 goals this season and double that in his entire England careers was picked ahead of 25-goal a season Darren Bent. I am seriously lost for words.

Tottenham Boss Harry Redknapp echoes my assessment. He says" To win the World cup you need something special", and that could have been Walcott. He is feared by every defence, that is why they always double up on him to deny him space. Taking FIVE  centre backs, one of which can play as a Defensive Midfielder and Two Defensive midfielders, on of which is Carrick, definitely smells of typical Italian tactics, with small attacking intent. What Capello can't seem to understand is that England is not Italy. They cannot defend like Italy and soak up pressure like Italy. When England are 1- nil down by a dubious penalty with 15 minutes to go, and super Wayne is denied accesss to the ball (which basically means the England team cannot function), Capello will rue that phone call he had with Theo.

This rejection can do two thing for Theo, it can give him a well earned rest, because he didn't have one last summer, by playing for U21s . He can then have a wonderful pre-season and 2010/11 campaign, or it could be the end of him. Lets hope the latter doesn't happen.

Let's face it, Theo could never really fit in with the wife cheats, fists fighting, shoplifting thugs currently in the England set-up, he is a a genuinely nice guy! So he'd be better suited for the next generation of England stars, and he will have had more experience by then. So good luck England, because you will definitely need it !