Charlie Austin And Jamie Vardy Earn First England Call-Ups As Latest Squad Announced

Chris Wright

21st, May 2015

7 Comments

By Chris Wright

Roy Hodgson has announced his England squad for the upcoming friendly against Republic of Ireland and the Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovenia and the headline news is that both QPR striker Charlie Austin and Leicester City forward Jamie Vardy have both received their first ever senior international call-ups, as well as Burnley goalkeeper Tom Heaton.

The England squad in full…

Goalkeepers: Rob Green (Queens Park Rangers), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Tom Heaton (Burnley)

Defenders: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Chris Smalling (Manchester United)

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Fabian Delph (Aston Villa), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), Ryan Mason (Tottenham), James Milner (Manchester City), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

Forwards: Charlie Austin (Queens Park Rangers), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Jamie Vardy (Leicester) Danny Welbeck (Arsenal)

Austin is the second-highest English goal-scorer in the Premier League this season so his inclusion is perfectly justifiable and perhaps even a little overdue – but Vardy? Really?

Don’t get us wrong, we’re as enthused for him as the next man – to say his rise has been meteoric is an understatement; he was playing non-league football three seasons ago – but he’s scored four goals in 2,178 minutes of Premier League football this season, barely making any waves in the long fallow months between his brilliant performance against Manchester United in September and his decent run of form throughout April that saw him nominated for Player of the Month.

Oh well, why not give him a chance? He certainly deserves more of a stab at it than Andros sodding Townsend.

That said, Roy’s reasoning is hardly reassuring…

Are we picking England players on the strength of their performances for Fleetwood Town now? Christ, how the mighty(ish) have fallen.

Posted in International football, Leicester City, Newsnow, QPR

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7 Comments

  1. Straight Dave says:

    “but he’s scored four goals in 2,178 minutes of Premier League football this season, barely making any waves in the long fallow months between his brilliant performance against Manchester United in September”

    You mean the performance where he spent ninety minutes kicking the opposition and diving? Yeah, brilliant.

    • Chris says:

      @Straight Dave: He definitely made a nuisance of himself while dabbling in the dark arts, but that’s the kind of thing defenders hate.

  2. Bob says:

    He wont play.

  3. Inno says:

    I don’t get the Vardy pick… Gary Hooper never got a sniff at England squads when he was playing and scoring regularly in the Champions League, yet Vardy whose main strength appears to be “he runs about a lot” according to Roy gets in. Bizarre.

  4. Giddy for Zelalem says:

    And its precisely the kind of thinking behind selecting Vardy that will keep England perennially struggling at the international stage.I might be inclined to understand if Hodgson has a soft spot for players like him and wants to reward him with a one-off cap. But there are literally a shit tone of players like him, perhaps even better ones in the Championship.

  5. juan lunair says:

    I’m a Leicester fan and I’m quite surprised by Vardy’s call up, but he’s in now so we might as well get behind the team. And like Bob said, he probably wont play. Anyway it’s not like our golden generation of players won anything, we make qualifying look easy and then look totally inadequate on the main stage. You know what, Vardy could be the best English striker since Emile Heskey! Ha ha. Also @Straight Dave your defence was awful that day.

  6. Bob says:

    @Juan

    Well, maybe 3 minutes at the end of a friendly.

    I agree though about your main stage point. I think against big teams we need to embrace being the underdog and focus on the hard-working, spirited, scrappy, ne’er-say-die attitude, and players like Vardy embody that.

    There’s no point trying to outplay Germany, Spain, Brazil etc. and even teams like Croatia and Chile have more talent than us in that respect. We just aren’t good enough. We need fighters.

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