Beckham misses out in Capello's inaugural England squad
-
Fabio Capello today left David Beckham out of his first England squad to play Switzerland on February 6. Instead there were call-ups to the provisional senior squad for the Aston Villa winger Gabriel Agbonlahor, his team-mate Curtis Davies and the Wigan striker Emile Heskey.
New manager Capello harboured reservations about Beckham's match fitness, with the former captain's last competitive game having been for his country against Croatia in November. The midfielder had been training with Arsenal recently to maintain his fitness, but this failed to win over Capello, who is understood to have informed Beckham of his decision in a telephone call yesterday evening.
The exclusion of Beckham leaves him still searching for his 100th cap, although Capello told Beckham that he has not ruled out a future recall for the 32-year-old.
Paul Robinson is also left out of the 30-man provisional squad, with Wigan's Chris Kirkland joining Scott Carson and David James in the goalkeeping department. Tottenham's Aaron Lennon and Tom Huddlestone were also omitted from Capello's senior line-up, joining their team-mate Jamie O'Hara in Stuart Pearce's Under-21 squad to face the Republic of Ireland.
England provisional squad for the friendly against Switzerland: S Carson (Aston Villa), D James (Portsmouth), C Kirkland (Wigan); W Bridge (Chelsea), W Brown (Manchester United), A Cole (Chelsea), C Davies (Aston Villa), R Ferdinand (Manchester United) G Johnson (Portsmouth), L King (Tottenham), J Lescott (Everton), M Richards (Manchester City), N Shorey (Reading), M Upson (West Ham), J Woodgate (Tottenham); G Barry (Aston Villa), D Bentley (Blackburn), M Carrick (Manchester United), J Cole (Chelsea), S Downing (Middlesbrough), S Gerrard (Liverpool), O Hargreaves (Manchester United), J Jenas (Tottenham), S Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), A Young (Aston Villa); G Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), P Crouch (Liverpool), E Heskey (Wigan), M Owen (Newcastle), W Rooney (Manchester United).
England Under-21 squad to play the Republic of Ireland: J Hart (Manchester City), T Heaton (Manchester United), J Lewis (Peterborough), C Gardner (Aston Villa), M Mancienne (Chelsea), J Mattock (Leicester City), N Onuoha (Manchester City), R Shawcross (Stoke), S Taylor (Newcastle), D Wheater (Middlesbrough), L Cattermole (Middlesbrough), T Huddlestone (Tottenham), A Johnson (Middlesbrough), A Lennon (Tottenham), J Milner (Newcastle), F Muamba (Birmingham), M Noble (West Ham), Jamie O'Hara (Tottenham), A Surman (Southampton), C Jerome (Birmingham), L Moore (Aston Villa), J Vaughan (Everton), T Walcott (Arsenal).
-
crouch makes it for capello but not benitez. wtf.
-
none of them can take decent set pieces..
be it free-kicks or corners..
counting on those 4 strikers?
gees
-
7 players will still get the cut to make it 23 men total...