Andros Townsend and Ross Barkley have been picked for England too soon in their young careers.
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There is a tendency now if you catch the eye in the Premier league one weekend all of a sudden you are being touted for the national squad.
Obviously you want to see young talent given a chance but you also want to make sure they have done enough to justify that chance.
Neither player featured in England’s two World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine.
It’s encouraging to see England remain top of their group with a win and draw and we should qualify for Brazil next year with two Wembley games to play.
But there are obvious concerns about the depth of Roy Hodgson’s squad especially upfront.
There has been so much talk in recent days about the lack of English players playing regularly in the top clubs.
Just look at the panic in the England camp when Danny Welbeck, scorer of two goals in the 4-0 win over Moldova, was suspended for the 0-0 draw in Ukraine after picking up a second booking.
With Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge out injured people were obviously getting very worried about our lack of quality strikers.
Obviously, I’m delighted to see Southampton’s Rickie Lambert get his big chance at 31 years of age and he’s certainly proved his worth in the three internationals he’s played in so far.
But there are far too few good young England players coming through the ranks which has not been helped by the high number of foreign players in our Premier League teams.
However, in my opinion I still think Barkley and Townsend have been called up into the national squad well before their time.
Teenager Barkley started both League games for Everton and scored that memorable goal against Norwich.
And Townsend has certainly caught the eye on the wing at Spurs in the absence of Real Madrid’s world record signing Gareth Bale.
But I think it’s a little bit too early to be picking these players to be honest.
It’s such a changing world from where I was 20 years ago.
I was 21 when I was voted “Young Player of the Year” after I had scored 24 goals for Southampton and I didn’t get a sniff of getting into the England squad.
If a player netted 21 Premier League goals today from midfield they would be building the national team around him.
I followed that up with 23 goals the next season, then 15 and 18 and I still didn’t get a sniff.
It was only when I scored 25 the season after that I got my call-up.
I don’t want to be one of those guys who keeps harping back to “In my day” because you come across as a little bit bitter – and that’s exactly what I’m not.
It’s just a different world now with the number of England players now available to choose from and for me that’s quite a sad indictment of our Premier League.
Matt Le Tissier was writing for Goalden Goals. Matt’s blogs can be found on his new online football game website www.goaldengoals.co.uk.
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