GIVE VARDY LEAD ROLE
LIONS NEES BITE
GARY SOUTHGATE or Gareth Cahill... is there any difference?
To use their correct names, Gareth Southgate and Gary Cahill were England manager and skipper for the not-tooembarrassing 1-0 friendly loss in Germany on Wednesday.
Both are decent guys who won’t let England down, but, at the same time, they surely cannot inspire the country to glory and end over half a century of hurt? Sorry, but that is the sad truth. They are patently good blokes. But let’s face it, the two ‘G-men’ are not exactly uplifting leaders, the type you’d follow into battle and give your absolute all for.
Imagine, just prior to Euro 2016, if a bookmaker offered 5,000-1 about Southgate and Cahill being England boss and skipper right now, how many of you would have snapped up those odds?
Funnily enough, that is just what the price was on Leicester winning the Premier League last season.
So how about – and I know I’m going to get plenty of stick about this – Southgate appointing Jamie Vardy as his skipper for Sunday’s clash against Lithuania at Wembley?
Cahill is suspended for the World Cup qualifier and Wayne Rooney’s Three Lions days look over.
Shock
Southgate refused to discuss if England’s all-time record goalscorer deserves a send-off like Lukas Podolski got in Dortmund.
“Is that the last question?” was all he said when asked whether he felt the Manchester United star merited such a tribute.
Vardy would be a shock choice but at 30 he is one of the few senior players in the set-up who has a chance of a regular spot in the England team.
Whatever your views on the 11-time capped Vardy, he does have something about him, an edge to his game and a rags-toriches tale to tell – one that is being turned into a movie.
Appointing Vardy could be the making of the man and certainly he sets an example on the pitch, with the intensity of his game and his tireless running.
His critics will point, though, to him dropping off this season prior to Claudio Ranieri getting sacked as well as perhaps his recent role in getting Samir Nasri sent off in the Champions League, which moved the Sevilla midfielder to call him a cheat.
Safe-hands Southgate will probably opt for another rather bland character in Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson, when he is fit, for his permanent skipper.
He will do an okay job, but is the midfielder the type to make team-mates roll up their sleeves when the going gets tough?
Vardy, for all his faults – and he needs to watch out as he’s earning a reputation as a diver in the box – could be that man.
It would be a gamble but, for goodness sake, it would be great to see Southgate shock us and take one.