Go for Gold

Stars should play in U21 finals

TELL you what, isn’t it great that Arsene Wenger is finally bringing through a bit of English talent? And what about Roberto Martinez up at Everton, helping Ross Barkley and John Stones onto the international stage?

Brilliant eh? Well, not so fast. Because it’s all very well developing English players, but if you don’t let them play for their country, what’s the point?

Asked whether Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere and Callum Chambers should play for England at the U21 European Championships this summer, Wenger offered this nugget of nonsense.

“My thinking about that is once a guy has moved up to the full national team and you put him down he is never good,” said the 65-yearold.

Martinez followed a similar tack when pushed on his feelings about Barkley’s possible participation in the Czech Republic.

“If you’ve played in the senior side and had an important role, coming back to the U21s is not healthy, not for them and not for the rest of the team,” he said.

“The development pathway is about getting players prepared for the first team so if you have a player who’s accelerated that process what’s the point of going backwards? It defeats the object of the whole thing.”

Does it though? Could it not just mean that the player has ‘accelerated’ because the sen- iors are so crap? Twenty years ago, when England had Gazza and Paul Ince in midfield, backed up by seasoned pros like Jamie Redknapp, David Platt and David Batty, guys like Wilshere and Barkley wouldn’t have got near the first team.

They are playing for England not because

they are ‘ready’ but because they are all we’ve got. That was painfully evident in Brazil when a lack of big-game nous was brutally exposed by older, cannier opponents.

Technically and physically, they are good to go. Mentally and tactically, they are barely out of short trousers.

A more pressure-free tournament experience with the U21s would do them no harm at all, not least because they will face opponents a) less demoralisingly superior and b) whom they are likely to encounter on the international stage for the next decade or so.

Remember, too, that a return to the junior ranks never did Spaniards Juan Mata and Javi Martinez any harm, less still Germany duo Manuel Neuer and Mesut Ozil.

In a sense, it’s a moot point anyway. U21 gaffer Gareth Southgate has already announced that taking established seniors “isn’t even in my thinking”.

With nine wins from ten qualifying games without them, you can understand his confidence. It would also be extremely harsh on the players who’ve done all the oar work to be chucked overboard.

But I’m with Paul Scholes on this one. “People talk about short-changing the existing players,” said the former Manchester United man. “Well my answer would be: does the Football Association want to win something? If the answer is ‘Yes’, then it is time to be ruthless about getting the best team on the pitch.”

Can anybody really argue that victory in the Czech Republic would be anything but positive?

Just look at the way Germany – 40 victors over England in 2009 – carried that winning swagger into the senior ranks. It was born of the knowledge that they were better than anybody else their age and it eventually won them a World Cup.

In fairness, Oxlade-Chamberlain said he would “never turn his nose up” at playing for the U21s.

“When that time comes around I’ll have to think about it,” he said. “But it’s a discussion that will be had closer to the time with the England manager, someone at Arsenal and Gareth Southgate.”

And this hints at the biggest problem when it comes to the U21s. Too many players are willing to be pushed around by the authorities.

People often talk about players being ‘caught in the middle’ of a club versus country power struggle, as if they are a six-year-old in a divorce case.

But nobody has a contract that obliges them to put club before country. FIFA simply would not allow it.

A player can cede responsibility and allow their masters to slug it out but, ultimately, that is a choice. Just as it as a choice to show some balls and say “Sod you mate, I’m playing for my country come hell or high water”.

Would any club, even Real Madrid, have been able to stop David Beckham pulling on an England shirt? Not without tying him down. Nor, for all his faults, did John Terry ever let injury or fatigue get in the way of an international cap.

We must, of course, remember that young people are impressionable. As a kid, you’re taught to respect what adults say and trust it implicitly. It takes years of experience to realise that everyone is capable of being self-serving and manipulative. And football clubs, with their team ethics and military-style deference to authority, are essentially an extension of this infantile subservience.

So if a Premier League manager spends all week telling a youngster that he’s burning out, that he needs rest, that England might not be such a good idea, he’s likely to fall for it.

Neither is it beyond a manager’s cunning to warn that a summer in central Europe may jeopardize prospects of a first-team berth in August.

But if England are to develop the strong characters they so badly need, these lads need to realise that they hold all the cards.

If Raheem Sterling, for instance, went away with the U21s, what’s the worst that could happen? Liverpool need Sterling more than he needs them.

If he was given the cold shoulder, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or any other European giant would be more than happy to take him in. The same goes for Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wilshere. If they stood up for themselves and said, “Sorry, I’m going”, Martinez and Wenger would no doubt grumble. But when they returned in August, they’d be back in the team alright. Their managers’ job would depend on it.

I’d love to see a player demand to play for the U21s. Just as I’d like to see Southgate demand to play them.

Sadly, it seems the likes of Sterling, Barkley and Wilshere will pointlessly miss out on an experience that has won other countries a World Cup.