Londerachiever XI

After an opening weekend which saw a record-low 33.6% of Premier League players eligible for England duty, the future of the national team appears uncertain, at best.

However, the present qualifying campaign is as much of an issue and the past has played its part in the current state of unease at FA Headquarters. Here are eleven examples of players with London links who, for a litany of reasons, could have achieved so much more for their country.

1. Ben Foster – The West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper is always thought of as one for the future but turned 30 this year and has just six caps to his name. Foster was given his opportunity on loan at Watford and helped them to the top flight before winning their Player of the Year award and being touted by Sir Alex Ferguson as “England’s next goalkeeper” who was, according to then-Hornets manager Aidy Boothroyd, set to become “the best goalkeeper in the world”. Unfortunately, he fell victim to the pressures of the Premier League and slipped down the pecking order at parent club Manchester United following a string of absences through injury and a poor run of form at the start of the 2009-10 season, eventually announcing his international retirement in 2011. Now back in the fold, the WBA keeper now represents a respectable number two but never threatened to fulfill Boothroyd’s now surreal-sounding prophecy.

2.  Micah Richards – Arsenal fan Richards, who has been the subject of much conjecture in relation to a move to North London this summer, has never quite held down a place for club or country in a position in desperate need of reinforcement in recent years for the Three Lions. Pacey, strong, mobile and energetic, the Manchester City right-back, who has also performed well in the centre, would appear to have it all but was never fancied by Fabio Capello - the Italian picked him just once in four years - and has not yet received a call from Roy Hodgson during the former Fulham manager's 18-month tenure. Again, injuries have had a huge impact, and he may not be the right choice for an under-pressure Arsene Wenger right now for that very reason. His attitude has also been called into question after reports suggested he had refused to be on the stand-by list for Euro 2012. However, the 25-year-old has been loyal to the City cause and must add to his paltry 13 caps to reach anywhere near the potential his talent has promised.

3. Ashley Cole – A controversial choice this; but when someone has been the best player in the world in their position on the pitch for so many years, for the rest of the team around him to be so significantly off the pace in the international arena and especially on the biggest competitive stages must mean that the phenomenal full-back has underachieved overall. Despite extraordinary success at club level, winning the Champions League, the Premier League with both Chelsea and Arsenal and becoming the most decorated player in FA Cup history, his 103 caps and counting will amount to little when he looks into his international trophy cabinet when time is called. Since his performance against Portugal at Euro 2004 that led Cristiano Ronaldo to name him as his toughest ever opponent, his status as the greatest left-back on the planet has been undisputed but there will be a slight nagging in the back of his mind when he hangs up his boots that it never quite happened for England. He’s never even scored a goal for his country.

4. Scott Parker – With the tenacious midfielder turning down a move from Tottenham Hotspur to Queens Park Rangers this week and instead plumping for Martin Jol’s project at Fulham, there has been  extensive debate over the enduring abilities of the 2011 Football Writers’ Player of the Year. It says a great deal that the 32-year-old garnered his first four caps while playing for four different clubs and it seems a travesty that the talented ex-Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, West Ham United and Spurs man has not earned more than his current tally of eighteen. His is another story affected by injury, often, like Bryan Robson before him, as a by-product of his all-action style that has seen pundits doubt his suitability to international football due to his propensity to execute tackles that would customarily commit fouls before a foreign judiciary. It feels unfair that no England manager has managed to harness and utilise the skills of a box-to-box player who was not merely a water-carrier but an excellent all-round footballer in his day. He will hope that his move to the Cottage can give him one last shot at redemption next summer.

5. Ledley King – The travails of former Tottenham Hotspur captain and role model King are well documented, after a tackle from Rory Delap on his senior debut for Spurs necessitated surgery and consequently resulted in his only being able to participate in matches and not to train beforehand. It was a miracle that the lionheart defender, who was frequently referred to as one of the best in his profession, in spite of his injury torment, still enjoyed the career that he did. But his one trophy, won at the 2008 League Cup Final in which he captained his side to victory over Chelsea at Wembley, when added to his 21 caps, represent a sad return for such a gifted stopper and starter of attacks. His performances during Euro 2004, a tournament at which he exhibited his well-honed technical skills by appearing in holding midfield for the final group game, were immense and Spurs fans, who remember him as “Deadly” for his record fastest Premier League strike after 10 seconds at Bradford City in 2000, will always recall his displays in their colours as among the best to have been witnessed at White Hart Lane before his enforced withdrawal from all football last year.

6. John Terry – Where to start? Terry was King’s team-mate at boyhood club Senrab in East London, where they both played with QPR striker Bobby Zamora and Tottenham Hotspur’s Jermain Defoe, but the two centre-halves will be commemorated as polar opposites, both in style and character, by the paying public. Terry has captained every side he has represented - including this one - and the long-time Chelsea skipper still warrants a banner at Stamford Bridge that reads “Captain, Leader, Legend”. He has won everything in the game during his time in West London, was voted PFA Player of the Year in 2005 and has been vaunted as the best in his position on several occasions by UEFA with his exceptional reading of the game and his remarkable consistency off and on the ball, which has marked him out as one of the best of his generation. However, his decision-making off the pitch has been less inspired and his role in a series of tasteless incidents combined with our nation’s over-promotion of the England captaincy has seen his international career come to a bitter end with the team in dire need of the stability at the heart of defence that his towering presence undoubtedly brings, as showcased at Euro 2012 before his sudden retirement later that year. 78 caps and 6 goals mark a respectable return by anyone’s standards but he and his teams could have had so much more.

7. David Bentley – Playing out on the right, wearing the number 7 shirt and with a name five letters away from that of an illustrious predecessor on any Google search can prove a troublesome existence. The former Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United winger and one-time Arsenal youth team captain has been conspicuous by his absence from the elite for many a year and his journey from “a great talent with a bright future” according to Mark Hughes while winning club Player of the Year with Blackburn Rovers to unwanted free agent has been a long and arduous one. Seven caps do a disservice to a prodigious talent that somehow fell by the wayside as a result of an apparently over-inflated ego that has led to the enigmatic wide man falling victim to England’s image obsession and over-indulgence of under-thought comparisons and labelings of its professional footballers. Valued between £15m and £17m by Spurs in 2006, Bentley was at one point compelled to emigrate to Russia in the search for first-team football with FC Rostov and, notwithstanding continued interest from former boss Harry Redknapp at QPR and reported enquiries from Levski Sofia of Bulgaria, he is now largely viewed as a luxury player whose capabilities look certain to have been forsaken, even as the 28-year-old enters what ought to be his playing prime.

8. Michael Carrick – On the face of it, the West Ham United academy graduate can boast a first-class career and continues to do so. However, underneath the surface of Premier League titles and a European Cup win with Manchester United, the ex-Tottenham Hotspur anchorman remains under-appreciated at international level and has a mere 29 caps to his name as he enters his 33^rd year. Among his highlights in an England shirt will be his virtuoso display as part of an experimental side that probed and stroked its way to a 2-1 friendly victory over Germany in Berlin in 2008, after which he was merited with the Man of the Match award in many parts. Unfortunately, Fabio Capello was still not taken by the composed creator, whose renaissance last season in the title-coasting United midfield undermines the argument that has seen him confined to the fringes of the international set-up for so long by the underwhelming partnership of Steven Gerrard and Chelsea’s Frank Lampard in the England engine room. With a World Cup in Brazil on the horizon and the powers of Lampard, in particular, seemingly on the wane, he may perhaps be afforded one last opportunity to shine on the grandest of all stages but will nevertheless surely have been reduced to a status disproportionate to his ability once his race, too, is run.

9. Jermain Defoe – Another former West Ham United player who has really been round the houses, taking in spells with a number of clubs, including Charlton Athletic, before settling in his second stint with Tottenham Hotspur, the pocket rocket still finds himself the subject of rumours linking him with a drop to the Championship with QPR, even today. Defoe has scored goals wherever he has played but only emerged as a proven scorer of genuine international pedigree in recent years, notching prolifically during qualification for Euro 2012. However, he has been the victim of numerous injustices while on England duty, chief among them the disgusting decision taken by Sven-Goran Eriksson to omit him from the 2006 World Cup squad in favour of the crocked Wayne Rooney, then-17-year-old Theo Walcott - who did not feature and was never llikely to - and nine midfielders, including the meaningless Jermaine Jenas. He has scored 19 goals in 54 appearances for his country but these incorporate a record 32 from the substitutes bench and did not include a full 90 minutes until September last year, on the occasion of his 51^st cap. Here’s hoping he reclaims a Spurs starting berth and forces his way onto a plane to Brazil next summer so that he can right some of those wrongs.

10.Joe Cole – Cole’s improvised finish for West Ham United against Cardiff City on Saturday brought to mind memories of the maestro’s past feats in the opposition third that once terrorised the best defences around. Goals that immediately stand out include a waltz beyond the challenge of former Hammers team-mate Rio Ferdinand for the strike that sealed the title for Chelsea in 2006 and his screamer at that year's World Cup against Sweden that featured in the top five of a recent poll to recount England fans’ take on the Three Lions’ greatest ever goals. Yet, the diminutive playmaker’s failure to cement a formal position, combined with England’s renowned rigidity as regards formation, have led to Cole’s only stake to a regular place in the national side coming by way of a run on the historically problematic left-hand-side, from which he smashed home that stunner at FC Köln’s Rhein Energie Stadion seven years ago. Given time in his favoured spot behind the strikers – “in the sausage roll” as he refers to it – there is no telling what havoc the 31-year-old could have wreaked. As it is, Cole’s eternal legacy will lie alongside that of Gazza, John Barnes and others who have lit up the English top-flight without ever quite hitting the heights to which their stars threatened to soar in his country's colours and he looks unlikely at this late stage to add significantly, if at all, to his 56 caps and 10 goals.

11.Theo Walcott – The Arsenal man’s equaliser against Scotland at Wembley last week was heralded as a well-taken piece of finishing but there was something about the way in which Walcott’s extra yard of pace was negated by his first touch before being aided by a lacklustre Scottish rearguard and an ill-thought-out, scuffed finish that says all one needs to know about the player who seems uncomfortable in the position in which he has largely been employed throughout his career to date. Walcott is not a right winger; he appears to be at his best when using his pace to beat the last man and finish instinctively, rather than dwell on which option to favour. When he was accused of having no “football brain” by Chris Waddle in 2010, it was with this in mind but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has for the most part refused to play the 24-year-old centrally and this has been to his, his club’s and, most certainly, his country’s detriment. Since becoming the youngest player to plunder a hat-trick for England in Croatia in 2008, he has scored just twice and much of this is down to the fact that he is limited as an out-and-out wideman. His kick-and-run approach does not cut it on the biggest stage and, if he is not to be played up front due to the erratic but often sublime contribution of Wayne Rooney in that area, his best bet at having a sustained impact on the international fold would be to swap wings and use his pace to turn defenders onto their weaker side and draw others in by playing simple one-twos with Rooney and club colleague Jack Wilshere to unlock defences at the highest level. With 34 caps under his belt, it is now time to see the full range of Walcott’s talents in a position from which he can do the most damage.