You only get one chance... Drinkwater has blown his
IT REALLy doesn’t matter whether Danny Drinkwater now wishes to play for England. In all probability, that ship has sailed. International football is not like the club game. The matches do not come thick and fast.
After tonight’s meeting with Brazil, the next dates set aside for England internationals are late March, 2018. England will play two games and then probably three more after the season has ended. Time is almost up. Gareth Southgate will have most of the squad in his head now; and Drinkwater will not be in it.
Drinkwater is said to be very upset at the suggestion he snubbed England. There are conflicting accounts but it would appear Drinkwater told Southgate that he did not yet feel fully fit, and would be better served this international break by intensive work on a nagging calf injury at his club, Chelsea.
He feels Southgate accepted this and was, therefore, disappointed to read stories that the manager felt he was not sufficiently committed to international football.
These appear to have emanated from within the England camp but, again, specifics are cloudy.
What matters, however, is Southgate’s perception of Drinkwater (right). If he views him as a player who might lack dedication, his name is already erased. one chance. That is pretty much what international football amounts to; one game, or one conversation, maybe even one practice session in the most extreme cases.
Having made Scott Parker part of the 2010 World Cup preliminary squad, Fabio Capello did not think he was vocal enough in training and dropped him from the final 23. He did not play for Capello until the following February. Equally, a single good performance can cement a place for several years. This happened with Jermaine Jenas under Sven Goran Eriksson, when he was named to replace the suspended David Beckham in Azerbaijan, his first England start. It was a horrible night, the wind looked like taking the roof off the main stand at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium and there was a chance the game would be postponed on safety grounds. Football Association officials, fearing the reaction of Premier League clubs if the game was delayed a day or replayed in the summer, worked hard to ensure it went ahead. But the wet conditions, the cold, the pitch, had the makings of an upset. Instead, England won 1-0 and Jenas was excellent in Beckham’s role. He was named in every Eriksson squad after that. So Drinkwater is also pegged behind those who have taken their chances. It might be only one game, but Harry Winks came in and looked comfortable against Lithuania, while Ruben LoftusCheek impressed against Germany. neither of these matches was as important as Azerbaijan away in 2004 — England had already qualified by the time they reached Lithuania and Germany was a friendly — but those performances will have registered with Southgate. He will feel particularly well disposed to Lofus-Cheek who rose to the occasion in an exceptionally inexperienced England team, at a time when many pulled out.
Given the same opportunity, Drinkwater didn’t come. That will have registered, too.
Southgate will know that in a squad of 23, on average, roughly one fifth of players return from a World Cup unused.
Most coaches get by with a nucleus of 16, plus a goalkeeper. If there are injuries, the cover is usually found from the preferred group. So the four left out need to be good lads, good tourists, players who are happy to be involved even if they do not play.
Roy HoDGSon, agonising over the last names in Switzerland’s squad for the 1994 World Cup, was astonished to be told by his goalkeeping coach and sounding board Mike Kelly to ‘pick four you like’. Hodgson says he thought Kelly was being flippant and unprofessional, but years of experience have since persuaded him otherwise. The last four picked are the least likely to play. They need to be positive, encouraging types, not given to complaint.
If Southgate thinks Drinkwater is unmoved by international football, why would he want him moping around the camp?
The selection process for England is brutal. Between now and the next international break, Drinkwater, if selected, could play 23 Chelsea games rising to 32 depending on cup progress.
Southgate, meanwhile, has only the memory of that last telephone call. This may be a simple case of miscommunication but, for Drinkwater, it could spell the end of his England ambitions.
He now needs to make the most of it with Chelsea, having played himself out of the World Cup without so much as kicking a ball.