Tarkowski’s change in style delivers another England hit for Dyche
Defender and Pope the latest to roll off Burnley’s production line of stars available to Southgate
James Tarkowski was back at Boundary Park on Saturday, watching Oldham Athletic in a familiar battle in the bottom half of League One, and reflecting on how far he had come from those days when he was a Blackburn Rovers academy reject making his way in the professional game.
It was seven years ago that the Burnley defender was given his senior Latics debut by his old youth team manager Tony Philliskirk, then in temporary charge of the seniors, and began the long road to where he finds himself, now.
That being in an England tracksuit at St George’s
Park, getting his suit measured up and being photographed in the World Cup shirt just in case Gareth Southgate decides, come May, that the 25-year-old from Manchester is worthy of a place in his squad for Russia.
Tarkowski bumped into Philliskirk at the weekend and was reminded that he broke a leg at 15, had a double operation on a foot at 17 and was only a regular in Oldham’s reserves until he got his chance in January 2011.
Tarkowski went on from Oldham to Brentford and then to Burnley, whom he joined in their Championship promotion season.
Even then, he had to wait for his chance behind Michael Keane who, since the latter’s move to Everton, he has now supplanted in the England squad.
He is in contention to win his first cap in Friday’s friendly against Holland in Amsterdam or against Italy on Tuesday at Wembley.
It has been a long line of Sean Dyche’s Burnley boys in the England squad – Danny Ings, Jack Cork, Kieran Trippier, Keane, Tom Heaton, and now Tarkowski and Nick Pope, the goalkeeper who has also pushed himself into World Cup contention.
Tarkowski acknowledged the debt to Dyche, who has changed the defender’s style to suit Burnley.
“Maybe some of you have written yourself that I’m an old-fashioned English defender but before I joined Burnley no one ever said those words about me,” Tarkowski said. “I was more a ball-playing centre-half, as you’d say these days – playing out from the back in a Brentford team that was expansive, open, and took a lot of chances.
“When I went to Burnley, it sort of flipped it on its head. We take a lot less chances, but do the basics right. I’ve found that has really brought my game on, keeping it simple at times, but doing the defending right. That’s what I’m there to do.”
For Pope, the rise has been even steeper. While Tarkowski won a scholarship at Oldham at 16, at the same age the Burnley goalkeeper was rejected by Ipswich Town and combined college with playing for Bury Town of Bury St Edmunds.
He is probably the only current England international whose working life began with a milk round in Cambridgeshire. “I did two years of business marketing and one year of sports science,” Pope said. “I had a couple of jobs alongside. I worked on a milk round and in Next as well. I was on an electric float. It was a 4am-er in Soham.”
“Now that I am here, I would like to think my ambitions are greater than just being in a squad. You have to be hungry and this is the first time I have been called up to a squad, but I want to prove myself. To play for England is the end goal for me.”
As for Tarkowski, he had the option to play for Poland, the country of his late grandfather Boleslaw, who left before the German invasion in 1939 and then returned to serve in a tank brigade of the Polish Free Army. “I’ve always seen myself as English,” Tarkoswki said. “It’s only really the name that’s followed me around.
“I speak to my cousin Pawel quite a lot and, for him, we share the same name, so he’d like me to play for Poland, but once I got the call-up he sent me a message saying congratulations.
“There were a couple of conversations with people associated with the Polish FA, mentioning would I think about it and whether I would look at it. At times, throughout my career, I’ve thought about it. But I always saw myself as English, so that was the most important thing.”
Dyche kept him waiting once he joined Burnley in January 2016 and, during that time, he felt his game change. The Burnley manager expects his players to train as they mean to play and that means full commitment.
That includes not turning your back on the ball when it comes point blank which, Tarkowski says, “95 per cent of people do”.
Pope says that he learned an important lesson taking over from the injured Heaton in September.
“This Premier League season has taught me to enjoy it and forget about all the noise,” he said. “It is just 90 minutes on some grass. Go and show what you are about. That is something I have learned, don’t be scared of the challenge, embrace it and show what you are about.”