JAMIE CARRAGHER’S comments might have been controversial – but they were also completely and utterly inevitable.
And if the FA studied the implications and reasons behind the Liverpool man’s indifference to playing for England compared to his club, they could also prove extremely helpful.
They might get to the real root of why the golden generation has gone decidedly rusty in its efforts to dominate the international stage.
Carragher’s view, which emerged in a serialisation of his autobiography in the Daily Mirror last week, is only what Liverpool supporters would expect from one of their own.
But the fact that his words hit a resonance with England supporters perhaps show how much the tide is turning.
Mark Perryman of the England Fans’ Group, said: “The Champions League provides international quality football from September to March to players like Carragher. The likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and the other big clubs can be expected to be in the Champions League final or the later stages every season.
“I do not blame players for seeing their club as being more important.”
A theory which perhaps explains many of the failings of England over recent years.
The togetherness and team sprit that always seemed to help England compensate for the lack of technical skill and flair compared to other nations’ individuals seems to have been flattened.
The vibrancy that was so evident in thrashings of Holland in Euro 96 and Germany in Munich five years later is a thing of the past.
Those games might seem fairly recent – but they were still played before the Champions League was as all-encompassing as it is now.
In fact, that 5-1win in the World Cup qualifier from September 2001 came at a time when Liverpool were embarking on their first season in the newly-formed European Cup format, yet they provided four of England’s attacking six on the night. And they treated it like the pinnacle of their careers that it should be.
Steven Gerrard’s face as he celebrates his first England goal belongs to a lad fulfilling all his dreams by inspiring his country to a famous victory over their old enemy.
It’s not dissimilar to the expression he had when he lifted the European Cup in Istanbul less than four years later.
These days it’s all worry lines and frustrated scowls.
He is just one example of how players find it difficult when the intensity of the football they play on the continental stage for their clubs is removed.
For them, international football has gone stale and nothing that happened in the painful struggles to break down the part-timers of Andorra on Saturday suggests otherwise.
So if players who have Champions League concerns really don’t need international football to fulfil their ambitions, does England really need them?
Tomorrow’s opponents Croatia probably won’t have any Champions League players but the fact that England will probably be relieved to get a draw shows how radical the upheaval needs to be.
Dropping the players from the elite top four clubs would, if Capello’s current squad was used a guide could result in tomorrow’s line-up being: James (Portsmouth); Johnson (Portsmouth), Upson (West Ham), Lescott (Everton), Barry (Aston Villa); Bentley (Tottenham), Bullard (Fulham) Jenas (Tottenham), Downing (Middlesbrough); Defoe (Portsmouth), Heskey (Wigan).
With Barry having to play at left-back it does have a worryingly makeshift look to it and, for a trip to a country that ruined England’s European Championship hopes, not perhaps the most wise selection policy.
But throw Jonathan Woodgate, Micah Richards, Ashley Young, Michael Johnson, Phil Jagielka, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Peter Crouch and England’s all-time top scorer in competitive internationals (Michael Owen) into the mix and it instantly starts to look more appealing.
An interesting, if risky, way to go but one that might give the big names the shake-up they need to prove they are worthy of an England shirt. Something to genuinely fight for.
And in doing so, it might just provide the ultimate solution to the dilemma so wisely highlighted by Carragher last week.
