England manager Fabio Capello is clearly not a man to be crossed. He’s already shown that reputations count for nothing in his new regime, picking players entirely on merit and leaving out David Beckham from his first squad that faced Switzerland. However, The Sun reports that it hasn’t stopped Manchester City keeper Joe Hart from disagreeing with Capello over the Italian’s comments that:
“The drawing pool is constricted. I’ve had to recall a 37-year-old.”
Never mind that it’s a 37-year-old who is playing out of skin in the Premier League at the moment! Hart thinks the England gaffer has an elegance of riches as far as the number one shirt is concerned.
“I keep reading and hearing we do not have that many top keepers in this country.
“But I could reel off five or six names.
“There’s David James, Paul Robinson, Scott Carson, Chris Kirkland and Robert Green, plus Ben Foster to come back and some fine keepers in the Championship, who do not get the credit they deserve.
“I feel English goalkeeping is in decent shape.”
However, with regard to the last four names that Hart lists, they (along with himself) are far from the finished article and have very little European experience between them, especially in the Champions League. Look at the keepers for the ‘Big Four’ and where are the Englishmen?