We’ve all heard and seen it before within club football. Players using smaller teams as a stepping-stone to give them regular first team football and put themselves in the big boys shop window. However it seems like this disgusting exploitation of clubs has now stretched over into international football.
Last week Paul Scholes let his opinions be heard and claimed that the England team is full of self-centered players only interested in showing off to bigger clubs or securing a more lucrative contract. The recently retired midfielder quit the England scene in 2004 and many thought it was a combination of being played out of position and a hunger to further his club career that were the main reasons behind his decision to walk away from the three lions. Despite the efforts of Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello, who both tried to coax him out of international retirement, Scholes resisted their overtures.
Only now has this new reasoning behind Scholes’ international exile come to light and his words could prove to be disastrous for an England side already under heaps of pressure to bounce back from last years World Cup horror in South Africa. However what he says does make sense and resonates with a feeling I’ve had for years about new players coming into the England side. There is evidence to prove that players are using England caps for their own personal gain and that reaching the pinnacle of footballing recognition just doesn’t mean as much as it did in the past.
Scholes explained his feelings to the Daily Telegraph: “I always felt when I first started going away with England, players — especially players at clubs like your Aston Villas’s — try to use England as a way to get to a top club. Which, I don’t know, you feel: are they there for the right reason? I think they are very selfish people.
“It happened in my day, I think they are all there to get their bit of glory, their headlines, to think, ‘Oh, I will get a move from this’. That is the biggest problem with English players: that most of them are just too selfish”
Whilst I do partly agree with what Scholes is saying my opinion on the matter is that it’s the fault of the clubs for this sudden surge in one cap wonder signings. Both Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson made their England debut last season in the defeat to France. Carroll was praised for his performance up front alone whilst Henderson slipped by the wayside after his abysmal showing. Despite the two contrasting performances both earned big money moves to two of the leagues top clubs despite their lack of experience at Premier League level. Even the likes of Michael Ricketts, Shaun Wright Phillips and Emile Heskey have made moves to bigger clubs in the wake of international recognition.
I’m 50-50 with Scholes and I am going to dispute his views even though he was actually a part of the England but I do disagree with his opinion that players use the national side as a stepping stone, it’s impossible. I do agree with the sentiment that playing for your country doesn’t mean what it used too. Players do expect the limelight to be on them when they’re thought to be good enough to represent their country. However I think it is the fault of the clubs who seem to want to snap up anyone who gets within a whisker of an England cap never mind trotting out onto the Wembley turf and actually performing.
I honestly think it’s ridiculous to say that players are using England as a vehicle to a better career. It’s even more ludicrous to blame this as the reason why we’ve failed miserably when it comes to the World Cup and European Championships. I’d like to believe him but the truth is that some of the players that have played and are playing for England aren’t good enough to perform against the worlds best. The last 10 years have shown that Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard can’t play together for example. The squad never has any consistency unlike the Spainiards, who he mentioned all play for each other, with too many squad changes every game.
Frankly there are times when players in the England team look like they are playing for themselves but I don’t think it’s a deliberate ploy to garner interest from bigger clubs. Scholes’ insinuation that playing for your country isn’t as important as it used to be is 100% correct but to imply that players are stepping out with the three lions on their chest in an attempt to earn more pound coins is absurd. Sorry but those are the words of a bitter man.
Written by Jak Penny for FootballFancast.com.
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