I was listening to the radio this morning on the way in to work and I heard it mentioned that James Milner has 34 caps for England. I was left wondering how a player with such limited ability has managed that many caps. Then I started thinking about the quality players that had never played for England, or who only managed a few caps, in contrast to the average players that have played many times.
David James 55 caps - Nigel Spink 1 cap
Phil Jagielka 16 caps - Steve Bruce 0 caps
David Batty 42 caps - Michael Carrick 28 caps (hopefully he'll add a few more)
Emile Heskey 62 caps - Les Ferdinand 17 caps
Phil Neville 59 caps - Paul Merson 21 caps
Jamie Carragher 38 caps - Garry Pallister 22 caps
Wayne Bridge 36 caps - Lee Dixon 22 caps
Darius Vassel 22 caps - Andy Cole 15 caps
I realise that much of it comes down to luck in terms of how strong the England team is at the time these players are in their peaks and the competition for places. When you take a look down the list through, there are some pretty average players that have represented their country on many occasions, whilst those with more ability have had fewer chances.
Anyone think of any other comparisons?
Cap crazy
posted on 20/3/13
Fowler and McManaman have 27 and 37 caps respectively...should they have more or is that about right?
Highly rated Fowler in his younger years but I suppose the competition was too fierce for him to get more starts.
posted on 20/3/13
And McManaman was very good at Euro 96, making the team of the tournament (I think). But that was about as good as it got internationally for him, I guess Beckham took his place in the side.
posted on 20/3/13
comment by Patriarch (U11015)
posted 31 seconds ago
Fowler and McManaman have 27 and 37 caps respectively...should they have more or is that about right?
Highly rated Fowler in his younger years but I suppose the competition was too fierce for him to get more starts.
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Jesus I forgot about Fowler when I was discussing the top England forwards from that period. He was amazing at his peak, but his peak didn't last for long enough. I reckon he deserved more than 27 on talent though. Just unlucky that we had such depth in that area of the team back then.
posted on 20/3/13
Completely missed Owen out of that list too, another one who had an extremely 'short' peak at a very young age. How many caps did Owen get?
posted on 20/3/13
Owen got 89 caps though, probably about right for him I suppose.
posted on 20/3/13
I think that by the time Owen got hist first cap, some of the others had stopped playing for England. Pretty sure that both Ian Wright and Les Ferdinand were done at international level.
posted on 20/3/13
Owen would probably have broken the international caps record if not for injuries.
posted on 20/3/13
89 is about right yeah. Prior to around 5 years ago, we had some outstanding forwards. What happened to us
posted on 20/3/13
Yes he was a decent keeper. However, I'd say Nigel Spink was better
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if only because if you changed the i to a u he would have a funny name
What's funny about Nugel Spink?
posted on 20/3/13