Can Psycho Question Commitment of Bale and Co?

It would be easy to write off the utterings of ex-England Under-21 Head Coach Stuart Pearce, in which he criticised former Tottenham Hotspur winger Gareth Bale and Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for rejecting his advances and opting out of international action, as those of a lover scorned. But does the renowned ‘hard man’ have a point and, more importantly, has he touched on an issue that goes right to the core of the Three Lions’ on-going malaise?

Pearce’s portrayal of his Wembley tenure reads like Western fiction; an instalment in which the odds of prevailing from a saloon bar shoot-out are heavily stacked against him and he must win some deadly duel against an unknown ‘outsider’ whilst surrounded by a squadron of assorted weaponry - including that of the Sheriff – with a ring of guns all pointed at his sleeve, where the embattled epitome of the ‘strong and silent’ type’s heart so often resides.

The Shepherds Bush-born former full-back, affectionately known as ‘Psycho’ during his playing days in Harrow with Wealdstone FC and beyond, recently claimed in an interview with Sky Sports, following his firing from the FA post this summer, as he was caught in the crosshairs of his employers in the wake of a disastrous European Championship campaign, that:

“In our wildest dreams do you honestly think that England or any nation in the world can turn up at a major tournament without six or seven – I think there were eight players with senior international caps – who could have played for the England Under-21s this summer?”

Whether it is a worthwhile exercise to dwell on the potential outcomes, had a full squad been at his disposal, may well be moot but, for the sake of argument, here is how the line-up could have been presented, all having been well with our erstwhile aloof eleven (those in red having been absent due to injury or conflicting engagements):

Jack Butland (20); Andre Wisdom (20), Phil Jones (21), Steven Caulker (21), Danny Rose (23); Jack Rodwell (22), Jack Wilshere (21), Tom Carroll (21); Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (20), Wilfried Zaha (20), Danny Welbeck (22)

Unfortunately, this far superior side was unavailable to Pearce and the outspoken manager, capped 78 times by his country as well as captaining on 10 of those occasions, spoke of the “apathy” affecting those players selected who allegedly deemed it remiss to risk appearing in the major international tournament, lest they harm their chances of progressing at club level upon the resumption of domestic action two months later.

“Once they go through the golden ivory towers of the seniors they don't want to come and play with the Under-21s any more” suggested Pearce who, having been cast in the role of both hero and villain during some of the pivotal moments in modern English football and who was awarded an MBE for his services to the sport in the 1999 New Year’s Honours List, knows a thing or two about patriotic passion and the emotions involved when representing his nation at the highest level.

Londoner Pearce, who also turned out for West Ham United toward the end of his playing career, continued his diatribe by going on to single out Jones and Gunners prodigy Oxlade-Chamberlain for their perceived shirking of duty, before then turning his ire to the world’s highest priced performer, Gareth Bale, for the Welshman’s part in the below-par showing at last summer’s Olympic Games, also overseen by the out-of-work boss:

“I've spoken to him seven months prior about going to the Games, I'm going to put the squad out on the Friday morning – on Thursday he rings me and says his back's not so good, he's going to have to pull out of the squad”, recalled Pearce.

“He plays his first game for Tottenham pre-season the same day as we play our first Olympic game. We've got the brightest talent in Britain at the time and he didn't want to go to the Olympic Games. And he wasn't alone, by the way.”

Blame for England’s current crisis of confidence is often apportioned to the money-making machine that is the Premier League, with another England man, Daniel Sturridge, drawing widespread criticism this week for comments made following his withdrawal from the national squad through injury to assist his recovery for club side Liverpool’s next fixture:

“I’m more worried about Liverpool and putting in good performances for us, us winning games and challenging for trophies. That is my main ambition - it’s not about playing for England”, insisted the striker.

This relatively innocuous quote then resulted in the ‘Twitterati’ predictably losing their collective sanity, as is their wont. However, in response to the furore, Sturridge definitively clarified the situation by asserting:

“Don't get it twisted. England is the pinnacle. To play for them is a dream come true. Just hoping to recover for Monday. Some people never understand. Read the interview. If I do well for my club I will play for England. If I'm not fit, I can't play.”

Therein lies the problem with our emerging national talents, in that professionalism and matter-of-fact appraisals before media outlets are met with cynicism and even outrage by the people who pay top dollar to see them play.

Moreover, that which ought to amount to a competent approach is obviously open to opinion. It is often stated that young players can fall prey to burnout when overused. However, as alluded to by Pearce, several big name foreigners who ply their trade on these shores have seen fit to go above and beyond what our latest crop have judged the call of duty and travelled to take part in lesser competitions, despite having reached the apex of the game.

Chelsea playmaker Juan Mata had already won the World Cup when he decided to participate in the 2011 edition of Europe’s under-21 football festival (running off with the Golden Player award as Spain took home the trophy) and responded to winning last summer’s senior tournament by swiftly signing up for his nation’s assault on the London Games later that same month.

Meanwhile, club team-mate Oscar was also handed a key role at London 2012, before featuring in no less than 64 of the Blues’ matches last season, but retained sufficient energy to star in Brazil’s successful Confederations Cup venture this summer.

The fact is that young players need to play regularly in order to establish any semblance of consistency. At Emirates Stadium, extended rest has been no apparent aid to Wilshere as he seeks to regain full fitness, while Oxlade-Chamberlain remains on the periphery, regardless of having been given greater playing time by England manager Roy Hodgson.

So it is with heavy hearts and open minds that we again look to Germany as the model in Mode. One glance at the fresh batch of up and coming Wunderkinder shows us a whole host of players trusted by club coaches from an early age in the relatively humble environs of the Bundesliga; a division which, need we be reminded, provided both of this year’s Champions League finalists.

The über-talented trio of Mesut Ozil, 24, Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos, both 23, have 130 caps between them, while Julian Draxler is already a regular at Schalke 04 and the teenager will no doubt add to his eight caps and one goal in the near future. Mario Götze will likely do the same, once he has returned from injury to stake a claim for a starting berth with the European Champions, as Pep Guardiola sensibly adapts his side to find a place for the attacking midfielder, most probably as a ‘false nine’ in his new-look outfit.

Contrastingly, it would take the combined tally of Wilshere, Welbeck, Sturridge, Jones, Tom Cleverley, Chris Smalling, Kyle Walker and Theo Walcott, who accounts for almost half of the total, to surpass the 111 international appearances that Lukas Podolski has under his belt at the age of 28, with the versatile forward having also notched just three fewer than England’s record goal scorer; Bobby Charlton.

What makes the statistic all the more poignant is that none of the aforementioned England squad frequenters, with the possible, yet startling, exception of Walker, can lay claim with any certainty to a place in their domestic team’s starting XI. It is this level of competition at club level that drives players on but that also causes them to prioritise the needs of their employers over that of their country in order to satisfy the constant need to keep up.

Furthermore, the increased profile that comes with ‘playing’ for a Premier League club, allied to the inevitable lack of match practice arising from not actually featuring, leads to an imbalance between self-image and true worth in the international arena, as is currently being displayed when England take to the pitch and reflected by those watching on expectantly from the sidelines.

As Podolski enters what many feel to be a player’s prime, surely his experience and confidence, borne of being called upon by then-financially stricken FC Köln at only 18, offer strengths that cannot be taught and his subsequent success can most likely be traced back to this promotion of his potential from an early age, whatever the club’s motives at the time.

Dates of birth are not always the crucial factor, either. Nicolai Müller is another to watch out for in 2013-14, having been given his spurs by Germany coach Joachim Löw during the close-season and started this term with Mainz 05, for whom his consistent performances had originally earned him the call-up, in sparkling form. Müller is 25 but plays for what English fans would deem an ‘unfashionable’ club, with the attacking utility man holding little hope of progressing to Champions League football but every right to a run of games in which he can showcase his skills and increase awareness of his abilities on the stage that is traditionally seen as the grandest of all.

Another scholar of the highest acumen, Andre Schürrle, will hope not to go the other way and avoid a fate akin to that of his out-in-the-cold Premier League counterparts, following the former Bayer Leverkusen star’s move to West London at just 22 to join the queue for a place in Chelsea’s over-subscribed attack.

But it is not just our friends from der Vaterland following this path. Over in Holland, PSV Eindhoven’s fledgling team came close to eliminating AC Milan from the Champions League a fortnight ago and AFC Ajax recently announced an 80% conversion rate for those seeking to advance from under-17 level to full professional status.

Similarly, in neighbouring Belgium, RSC Anderlecht went one better than PSV and qualified for the tournament proper this season with a side whose average age is a mere 22.5, while the national team continues to benefit from the faith placed in their players by English top-flight management as they steamroller their way to Brazil, with their London contingent of Eden Hazard, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele, among others, to the fore.

From Ross Barkley - who has waited until now to even begin to enjoy an extended run in the Everton side and, for his troubles, has been told he was not yet worthy of such elevated status by former Goodison Park chief Howard Kendall - to Scott Sinclair; the 24-year-old whose career has seriously stalled since moving to Manchester City in 2012, we may never know where these players’ journeys might have taken them and carried the nation in tow if we do not ensure they are offered a fair crack of the whip.

But in a week when Spurs defender Walker’s summer exploits have been shown to have involved all the professionalism of Will Ferrell’s depiction of a newsreader and extracts from the autobiography of former Queens Park Rangers and Watford centre-half Clarke Carlisle – he of “s***houses” fame - have treated us to tales of one-time England hero Peter Beardsley being left to drag the muddy kit of ipod-engrossed apprentices at Newcastle United’s academy, sympathy will be in short supply once more for the travails of this, or indeed the next, set of wannabe multi-millionaires.

Whether the argument really relates to how the under-21 game is observed by those up and down football’s hierarchy in this country and/or whether it ought to revolve around the seemingly endless club versus country debate is not clear. One thing is for sure: the game is about more than just ‘giving 100%’, just as winning a World Cup, even qualifying for one, requires more than mere love for your country.

Maybe Pearce is right; just for all the wrong reasons.