The new Chris Powell
Thu Jan 31 08:51AM
An England manager's first squad is invariably his most interesting - and Early Doors is particularly keen to see the contents of Fabio Capello's brain. If the coach is foreign, he can make an objective assessment without the media's indoctrination and preconceptions colouring his judgement. It also means he produces some shocking selections.
England might have thrashed Spain in Sven Goran-Eriksson's first game but that hardly justified the presence on the field of Gavin McCann and Chris Powell, who made his debut aged 31.
Powell went on to win five caps before the timely emergence of one Ashley Cole - a reminder that once upon a time the tabloid punchbag was both a decent player and not universally despised.
Despite his conservative reputation Sven boasts an impressive track record for left-field selections - let us not forget he also capped Michael Ricketts, Francis Jeffers and Anthony Gardner.
In Steve McClaren's case, he showed the price you pay when you let the wife watch Ugly Betty repeats when the Spanish football is on, and ended up accidentally dropping England's most famous player of all time.
McClaren realised his error too late, and had to pretend that David Beckham was genuinely a worse player than Jermaine Jenas.
Even Peter Taylor got on the act in his caretaker cameo in 2001, picking Seth Johnson for a friendly against Italy.
As all these managers were enjoying honeymoon periods, their ludicrous decisions were greeted not with derision but with admiration - as though they had unearthed some previously overlooked gem.
And so it will be when Fabio Capello names Dave Kitson in his provisional 30-man squad for the Switzerland game today.
The Reading forward has eight goals this season but was nobody's idea of an international-class striker until it leaked out that Don Fabio has a sneaking admiration for the Scholes-coloured front man.
Other names in the frame include Everton's pint-sized benchwarmer Leon Osman, player of the 2002 World Cup Nicky Butt, balloon victim Joe Hart and as many grizzled old veterans as Capello can coax out of retirement.
One man likely to miss out is 99-cap flake David Beckham, who recently forgot to turn up to training with Arsenal, visiting Sierra Leone and Brazil instead. Still, he is the most professional, dedicated and committed player anyone has ever seen.
Another who should be dropped but probably won't is Michael Owen, who was last seen contributing usefully on a football pitch some time in 2001.
Poor Newcastle fans have seen his performance level drop through the floor since arriving at St James' in 2005. This season he has totalled just one league goal, and has been utterly abject since taking the captain's armband under Kevin Keegan.
Capello is known for his eye for detail so probably doesn't need it spelling out that Owen was good because he was fast; now he is slow and rubbish.
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The instant historians at Sky have already installed Cristiano Ronaldo's free-kick against Portsmouth as the greatest ever scored. Nonsense.
Early Doors has sent Cleethorpes into raptures many times with similar strikes in the beach football arena.
It's easy. Get one of those light, plastic 'Shoot 5' balls, and smack it as hard as you can. Then stand back and watch it wobble crazily in the air, giving the hapless 'keeper no chance as it rockets into the corner.
Do you think it is any coincidence that Ronaldo grew up on the holiday island of Madeira? He probably spent his entire childhood walloping the ball past exasperated family members before standing back with a smug grin, astonished by his own brilliance.
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After seeing Jonathan Woodgate's post-match interview last night, Early Doors can't help but wonder if the Spurs new-boy was the victim of a dressing-room prank.
It was not the ludicrous pseudo-baker-boy hat as much as the constant fidgeting that set alarm bells ringing. Did Tottenham's resident japesters dust off the old itching-powder in the jockstrap gag? We can only hope so.
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MISGUIDED OPTIMISM OF THE DAY: A Liverpool fans' group is attempting to buy the club from Tom Hicks and George Gillett. All they need is 100,000 people to contribute a mere £5,000 each. £35 a head to buy Ebbsfleet it definitely is not.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I've seen the replay and it is difficult. Maybe it's the best, maybe, I don't know. It's difficult to say." See, the thing is, I've scored so many brilliant goals, says beach football ace Cristiano Ronaldo.
FOREIGN VIEW: Martin Vasquez is set to become the 'new Joachim Loew' as Juergen Klinsmann's assistant manager at Bayern Munich. Does that mean he will be getting a trendy haircut and a scarf?
COMING UP: It's transfer deadline day, so get set for mass hysteria as Sunderland complete the signing of Andy Reid. Eurosport-Yahoo! is jumping on the bandwagon with live updates throughout the day. Later on, there is live football from the African Cup of Nations with Tunisia v Angola and South Africa v Senegal at 5pm.
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IM this storyI saw Dave Kitson at Spurs when they beat the Goons 5-1. Hes a massive Spurs fan and was jumping around celebrating with all the Spurs fans. He loved it! For that alone he deserves to play for England
From dansanders1 on Thu Jan 31 09:28AMThat Ronaldo thing is the funniest thing I've heard in ages!
From darrell.doyle on Thu Jan 31 09:32AMLove your daily irreverent look at the world of football. Today's sent a shiver down my spine re all those toilet footballers who earned caps - I'd completely forgotten most of those mentioned who wore the 3 Lions. Just one correction - Leon Osman may be pint sized but benchwarmer he ain't! When fit he has been first choice in the midfeild, and he has been in cracking form this season. Not sure he is international class though, and I am a toffee!
From andywalker269 on Thu Jan 31 09:46AMif England had 11 players with the pride and passion of Beckham playing for his country we would be the best in the world as most of the current so called internationals are only in it for the money and don't perform
for their country
Vince67From vincent.hardie on Thu Jan 31 10:10AMAs I recall, Sven picked Chris Powell to prove that there actually was a left sided defender in the Premier League, and we didn't have to play Phil Neville facing backwards, or create a 3-4-1-1-1(Diamante!!!) system to accomodate all our world class midfield players.
Webbo - long suffering wednesdayite.From janesmith798 on Thu Jan 31 10:35AMRonaldo best goal ever. My Ar$e. Whenever United score a goal it's always the best ever seen like the Giggs goal at Villa Park. Has anyone ever noticed that not one defender put a challenge in on him. It's got to be great because it's United. Well what about Elano's goal against Newcastle ?? Oh no, that can't be considered can it ??? It wasn't United.I want to vomit
From nisbet1957 on Thu Jan 31 10:39AMthe only left footed player worthy of wearing an england shirt is gareth barry as much determination and passion as beckham
From paulwalker70 on Thu Jan 31 11:00AMthen go vomit, that boy strikes the ball like no other , credit where its due yes that does include other top flight players, just so happens most of them have at some stage played for utd..... charlton best law whiteside hughes cantona becks giggs and that boy ronaldo....etc etc etc
From cuanmufc on Thu Jan 31 11:03AMWho cares about a second rate team who's only claim to fame was a lucky win in 1966, remembr 1967 and slim jim's keepy upppy against the so called world champions.
From stuart_turnbull on Thu Jan 31 12:04PMThis wont count as it was in Scotland and we dont seem to matter ....but Jorg Albertz goal against Celtic a few years ago has to be one of the best free kicks of all time
From karenmci on Thu Jan 31 12:25PMThe Hammer always comes to mind as one of the best, even sweeter when it was against the *ic, and at last someone else who shares my views about Yahoo Sport !!!!!!!!! remember 67
From stuart_turnbull on Thu Jan 31 12:37PMWhy do we bash players who have given there all for our country.People have short memories.Remember when Beckham several times dragged the team to achieve qualification results.Not many players get 100 caps, the one"s that do are up there for a reason.Beckham will come back to the team,not in the next game as he wont be fit enough,but probably the next one.Keep training hard Becks,get the cap you want,lets hope they are big enough to give you the captains armband as well for that game.
From stevehill213 on Thu Jan 31 12:48PMCut all the @#$%. that goal was magic. Story Ends
From adewaleadediran2005 on Thu Jan 31 12:53PMI could not agree more with your comments about Beckham and Owen respectively. Good article.
From chrisburin_2000 on Thu Jan 31 01:10PMSometimes i read ur article and i laugh...its good at times but mainly stupid most of the times...do u have a problem with the boy ronaldo.. i am an arsenal fan but i know a good player wen i see one...wen the likes of ronaldinho started hitin the ball like beckham we had no complaints...now ronaldo brings something no one does in soccer and u condemn him...i say if u have evr played soccer then u will no directing a ball aint that easy...i guess if u could do wat he does then u wont be here writing rubbish about his abilities
From nas_don1 on Thu Jan 31 01:35PMnas_don1 - he was taking the piss. He loves Ronaldo. Indeed, he has a signed copy of his picture biography on his desk. Oily.
From redamaher1978 on Thu Jan 31 02:23PMcristiano should have been kicked out of the premiership after euro champs just like alpay for aston villa after world cup just cos he plays for man u nothing happened
From ctatterton on Thu Jan 31 03:06PMRonaldo kicked out like Alpay? Alpay wasn't kicked out he was just not very good so they knew they could let him go, after all what has done since? nothing! (he has a good world cup but many do and then are terrible after for the club they sign for Salif Diao, Karel Poborsky etc.) No team would get rid of one of the best players in the world cos of something that happened on international duty. He sorted it out with Rooney (the player involved and club team mate) so why do you have a problem? I'm sure if Fabregas, Torres, Essien, Arteta, Berbatov etc. did the same none of their respective clubs would want rid?
From ima_fat_tw on Thu Jan 31 03:51PMRe: Vince67's comment. If passion were the only determinant in winning trophies then certainly a number of England internationals would not be playing for their country and we'd put a bunch of England supporters on the pitch. However the main reason we never come close to winning anything is our players' lack of technical ability (which really gets found out at the highest level) combined with a succession of tactically inept managers. Of course it's not helped by the continued inclusion of over-rated, technically mediocre players like Beckham (am I the only one who noted that he required 10 attempts during the game against Greece before he finally got that free kick on target?) simply because they care. No amount of passion can make up for the inability to consistently kick a ball accurately.
From scohen147 on Thu Jan 31 03:58PMafter match against england he didn't last long at villa people wanted him out and he went should have been the same for cristiano he plays in the premiership and disrespected the country he plays in for that he should have gone aswell, i just don't like man u and think its wrong how people thought he would go then cos he sorted it out with the 1 team he stays should have done more to say he was sorry i'm a big fan of other players like fabregas, torres, arteta and berbatrov not essien though.
From ctatterton on Thu Jan 31 04:08PMJust read the article on Capelos first squad. Seems like Alex Chick knows something we dont, David Bentley (Man Utd), funny I dont remember hearing about that transfer. And I think United have enough wingers. Oh and on Ronaldo's free kick! Cracking goal!
From nickyclarke7 on Thu Jan 31 05:40PMah yeah seen he's not there yet then seen better freekicks would have looked much better if he was wearing different shirt
From ctatterton on Thu Jan 31 06:19PMnas_don1 - CRonaldo copied this style of free-kick taking from the real expert, Juninho Pernambucano. Don't u watch any football that doesn't take place at The Theatre of Dreams??!?
From richard_p_brown on Thu Jan 31 06:55PMOwen needs to get beeter fast or we should sell hime he is doing nothing for us and it is like we are playing 4-4-1 coz he never gets the ball aand he should be dropped for england. Howay the Toon!
From grantturnbull on Thu Jan 31 08:00PM
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