Quote: hula89 "As long as Hart is in goal, Rio is in defence, Rooney is upfront and they give Beckham another go then I dont care about the rest.
Those three could form an immense backbone to an England side if given the chance and I still think Beckham has it in him to carry on.
Out of interest does anyone know the record for oldest outfield player for England? Just to know how far Beckham would have to go.'"
Sadly I think Rio and Becks are both past their best. Good enough to be in the squad yes but not the backbone of a strong international team. Hart and Rooney yes but not Rio and Becks.
Now I am not one of these who claims that failing to win the European Championships or World Cup is an abject failure for a country like England, I think for us to be in the last 4 or last 8 of these tournaments, we are doing very well, given the number of countries out there.
However what worries me is that there is a general decline in quality compared to where we were a decade or so ago. Our lack of quality at centre back is alarming, behind Terry and an ageing Rio we are crap, we have seen a lot of guys like Lescott, Jagielka, Upson get glowing reports and earn big wages, but against the top players they just don't have the solidity required. Compare them to Campbell, Adams, Keown, Pallister, Bruce, Southgate, Ehiogu etc and I would regard the seven I have just named ahead of all of them.
And up front we have got Rooney and that is it. Bent seems to score a lot of goals but I am not convinced he is reliable when it counts. You still get bloomin Bolton fans banging on about Davies for England and they have a fair point that he is better than some of the other options in the frame! I am not over sold on Carroll either. Compare to Shearer and Sheringham - a proper pair of international class forwards, or a young Owen, back in the days when Cole, Ferdinand, Wright and Fowler could only be bit part players in the England team.....we have got nobody of their quality now! Defoe/Crouch are a million miles behind.
