TAMMY ABRAHAM: THIS TIME I’M HERE TO STAY
CHELSEA STRIKER DETERMINED TO MAKE THE MOST OF HIS ENGLAND CHANCE
TAMMY ABRAHAM today vowed the time has come to establish himself as an England regular.
The 22- year-old joined up with Gareth South gate’ s squad at St George’s Park yesterday after scoring his ninth goal in 11 games for Chelsea, as the Blues eased to a 4-1 win over Southampton on Sunday.
Abraham’s call-up for the forthcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria comes almost two years after his only previous senior appearances, in friendlies against Germany and Spain in November 2017.
Abraham lasted an hour of the first game and just 15 minutes of the second, as two experimental Southgate sides earned successive goalless draws.
He was on loan at Swansea at the time but after a subsequent spell at Aston Villa last term — where he scored 25 goals in a promotion-winning season — Abraham believes he is ready to seize any opportunity given to him over the next seven days.
“In 2017, it was all about me being young,” Abraham told Standard Sport. “It was a good experience for me, so to be going back now — I had my experiences out on loan — I’m back and now it’s time to stay here.
“For me, it’s a massive achievement [to be in the squad]. I’m clearly doing something right for my club to get attention from Gareth Southgate. It’s about going out there, helping the team as much as possible, and then coming back [to Chelsea] and doing the same job.”
Abraham remains eligible to play for Nigeria — the country of his father’s birth — having not played a competitive senior game for England. Abraham Sr is close friends with Amaju Pinnick, the president of the Nigerian Football Federation, and national team manager Gernot Rohr had made little secret of his desire to convince the striker to switch allegiances.
Abraham insisted the subject had not come up during his initial discussions with Southgate, although in his mind that debate now appears to be settled once and for all.
“I haven’t spoken to him about that,” he said. “I’m a player growing up in England, playing in the Premier League. My ambitions were always to play for England. Obviously, it’s nice to be wanted by two nations, two nations that I love, but my main focus is England.”
With Southgate principally adopting a 4-3-3 system, Abraham’s obvious obstacle to getting an opportunity comes in the form of Harry Kane (right).
Tottenham’s poor run of results have led to claims the England captain is some way below his best, but Kane has scored five goals in eight Premier League games this season and netted four times against Bulgaria and Kosovo during the previous international break last month.
“For me, he’ s the greatest striker in the world,” said Abraham. “I would put him up there.
“I was talking to [Chelsea and England midfielder] Ross Barkley the other day and said
I’ve never seen a finisher like him. Ross was saying him, Jermain Defoe, and all sorts.
“But when you look at Harry Kane, if he gets a chance in the box, nine times out of 10, it’s a goal. So, I’ll go there, learn off
him and hopefully be like him.” Kane withdrew from the squad through injury when Abraham was last included and the Chelsea forward insisted he was not in a fight for one central striker’s position — with Marcus Rashford and Callum Wilson also in the mix — and would rather simply absorb any advice from last summer’s World Cup Golden Boot winner.
“It would be amazing to play with him, but even to train with him, getting to see him in training, [gives me a chance to] nick a few bits of his game and add them to mine. It isn’t really a battle. The one thing I love about the England team is that we are all a big family. They all play for each other, the team, the nation.”
Abraham said the prospect of
Euro 2020 being decided on home soil — the semi-finals and final are due to be played at Wembley — is a huge motivating factor. “It’s massive,” he said. “Now it’s about me staying in the team and, hopefully, I’ll be there in 2020.”