AUSTIN’S CLUB IS NO ISSUE... ENGLAND JUST HAVE BETTER OPTIONS
If Charlie Austin played for a big club he would be in the England team by now. That’s the populist stance, anyway, and parroting it is much easier than working through the logistics.
If we think a squad should contain four strikers, who should Roy Hodgson drop to make way? Wayne Rooney, the captain, poised to overtake Sir Bobby Charlton as the greatest goalscorer in England’s history? Danny Welbeck, the top scorer across this European Championship qualifying round, with six goals in five games? Harry Kane, English football’s leading goalscorer — or Daniel Sturridge, the man whose partnership with Luis Suarez almost propelled Liverpool to the title last season?
Every few years an England manager must ride this accusation of big-club favouritism. Remember when Grant Holt of Norwich City was thought to have been unjustly ignored by Hodgson in 2012? Not hearing so much of that since his career nosedived into the Championship, and probably League One, with Wigan Athletic. Austin ( left) is different from Holt, whose finest form came towards the end of his career. He will probably move on from Queens Park Rangers at the end of the season and may even earn an England call-up then. Critics will say it is because he now plays for a fashionable club. That isn’t true.
Austin has had an excellent year but England have goalscorers who are in even better form, or have earned their place in the squad. Make no mistake, if he was playing this well as a right back or centre half, he’d have made his debut long ago. BEST show at Augusta yesterday? Miguel Angel Jimenez’s stretching routine on the practice tee, 10am local time. The cigar, only marginally smaller than his driver, did not leave his lips the entire time. ANOTHER delightful story from that sporting hotbed — literally — Qatar, where an attempt by the Al Sadd Club to break the world record for the number of participants in an athletic event ended with labourers being bussed in and pressganged into running, in the full heat of the afternoon.
Eyewitnesses spoke of men of South Asian appearance, some wearing jeans or flip flops, being ordered to compete, until the half-marathon was abandoned amid scenes of chaos when it became clear that the organisers were significantly short of the 50,000 runners required.
A spokesman for Human Rights Watch said the Qatar Athletics federation should investigate urgently. And what difference would that make, considering each arm of sports administration in the country seems linked to its central command?
It is the International Olympic Committee who should take an interest in this one — particularly when Doha’s ambition, long term, is to be a host city. Diego Costa limping out of the win over stoke City was widely interpreted as a severe setback for Chelsea. Not necessarily. Costa (right) has had a brilliant debut season in english football. His 19 goals have outstripped the 16 scored by Didier Drogba in his first campaign — indeed Costa would have outscored Drogba in six of the eight seasons he has completed at the club. Yet it is inescapable that there is a marked difference between Costa’s form in the first half of the campaign and the second. after a blistering start he has now scored just two goals in his last 10 matches. Loic Remy, by contrast, is in decent nick. He has two goals in two games, and two goals in his last three starts. it may not be the worst time to give him a run in the first team. Certainly, they will be only too aware of the threat he represents at Queens Park Rangers on sunday.