England’s manager has two friendlies to make his mind up for Euro 2016, and Theo Walcott looks like the man with most of the convincing to do
For the players on the windswept pitches of St George’s Park, preparing for their last two England assignments before Roy Hodgson announces his squad for Euro 2016, these are the moments when the tournament is suddenly looming.
Around half of those players will know by now they are virtually assured of a place in Hodgson’s plans, barring the kind of injury misfortune that invariably tends to stick a needle in England’s balloon. Wayne Rooney can be added to that number, as Hodgson’s captain. Joe Hart will be another automatic choice once his injury has healed and the same applies to Raheem Sterling, his Manchester City colleague.
Others, however, will not dare take anything for granted. Hodgson names his squad on 12 May and it will be the night before when the players who fail to make the cut receive the sympathetic call to let them know the bad news. “It won’t be a pleasant task,” Hodgson says. “There’s no easy way to let people down with regards to their hopes and dreams.”
It is also shaping up to be a particularly difficult selection process for the England manager when he has to weigh up whether Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridgecan manage three tournament games in a week and the emergence of newcomers such as Dele Alli and Eric Dier means even the likes of Jordan Henderson and James Milner, two Hodgson stalwarts, may feel vulnerable. Michael Carrick and Leighton Baines have not even made it into the current squad and of those players jogging around England’s training pitches, it is tempting to wonder how much insecurity is polluting Theo Walcott’s mind considering the disappointments he has encountered in the past, and the nagging sense the same may be happening all over again.
Walcott knows from experience what it can be like to be part of a successful qualifying campaign only to be abandoned at the last minute. He played in six of the qualifying matches before the World Cup in 2010 and started the warm-up matches at Wembley against Mexico and Japan. It was the day after the Japan game that Fabio Capello announced his squad – and Walcott found out what a hard-faced business football can be.
Six years have passed since then and Walcott, having turned 27 last week, has been around longer than any other player in Hodgson’s squad for the games against Germany and Holland. It is a decade since Sven-Goran Eriksson gave him his debut and the past four England managers have selected the player Pep Guardiola once described as so quick “you need a pistol to stop him.”
At the same time, it is not easy to judge Walcott’s international career as a success purely because of its longevity. Remarkably, only four of his 42 caps have been 90-minute appearances. Two of those were against Andorra in 2008 and 2009. The next was a friendly against Republic of Ireland in 2013 and the final occasion was against Moldova in the same year. Hodgson has made it clear he regards Walcott as a forward, rather than the winger of old, but has given him a full game only twice in four years as manager.
Otherwise, Walcott has been substituted 24 times in his England career, or come off the bench on 14 occasions. His selection for the 2006 World Cup went on to feature in a TV documentary called Top 50 World Cup Shocking Moments. The ordeal of 2010 was followed by his knee ligaments rupturing before the next World Cup in Brazil and now, two months before Euro 2016, there is the potential for another difficult summer of contemplation.
Walcott’s removal from the Arsenal team has certainly come at a bad time, England-wise, when Hodgson says he will take five forwards to France and as well as having Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Sturridge and Welbeck, still has Rooney to factor in, with the promise that the Manchester United striker will immediately be ushered back once he is fit. That’s six candidates for five places, and only one of those players is currently out of his club side
A more accurate description may be that it is actually three into two given that Kane and Vardy are now mandatory picks and Hodgson has made it absolutely clear he will not be deterred from selecting Rooney. That leaves a couple of places and the harsh reality for Walcott is that it is not easy, on current form, to make a case for him. Welbeck is one of Hodgson’s favourites and unlike his Arsenal team-mate, he is playing and scoring regularly. Sturridge’s return to fitness has also been timed well and it is worth noting Hodgson regards the Liverpool player – or at least “the player we had in the spring of 2014” – as the most gifted finisher of all his options.
The issue is whether those two might struggle to cope with a potential schedule of seven games in 29 days. But if Hodgson is satisfied they can, it makes it difficult to see where Walcott fits in when he has not started a league fixture for Arsenal since the 3-2 defeat at Manchester United at the end of February. Indeed, Walcott has not managed 90 minutes in any competition since 28 December. He was not the only poor performer at Old Trafford but his contribution was startling enough to be highlighted by Alan Shearer and Ian Wright on Match of the Day and it was exasperation in their voices. “What I think is unfortunate is we’re still asking the same questions now as we were six or seven years ago,” Shearer said. “Is he a centre forward? Is he a winger? He’s not even a regular in that Arsenal team. And we’re still asking the same questions.”
Since then, Walcott has been restricted to substitute appearances against Swansea, Watford and Barcelona. He played in a vastly changed Arsenal team for the FA Cup tie at Hull, weighing in with two goals, but was left on the bench when a more recognisable side played Spurs and, again, at Everton last weekend, when the 19-year-old Alex Iwobi took his place.
Others will argue that Rooney is fortunate to have Hodgson’s backing given his erratic form this season. Rooney has scored only seven league goals at a rate of one every 272 minutes compared with Kane’s 21 (one in 130) and Vardy’s 19 (143), but it is futile thinking Hodgson will change his mind. He is remarkably loyal to his captain and, in fairness, Rooney has scored 11 goals in 14 games for England since the last World Cup, albeit against largely moderate opposition.
Hodgson also makes the point that Rooney has something else the other forwards are lacking. “A lot of our players, when you take Wayne out of the occasion, are still very inexperienced at international level. Lots don’t have double figures in caps. Jamie Vardy has one or two starts and one or two as a sub. Daniel Sturridge has been on the scene a long time but hasn’t played too many games. Danny Welbeck is one of the more experienced ones, funnily enough.”
So is Walcott, and perhaps that will count in his favour when Hodgson comes to making the final cut. Yet Walcott has started three out of the past 13 games for Arsenal and now has only eight matches to re-establish himself in Arsène Wenger’s team and remind us of his best form. Time is running out and Walcott, running from the front in training, could probably be forgiven for wondering whether it is his phone that is going to ring.
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