In the 70s’ Wolves had a very talented left winger called Dave ‘Waggy’ Wagstaffe. Wolves were in the First Division (Premier League to the ‘yoof’ of today) and Wagstaffe was recognised by fellow players and opposing managers as the best winger in the business. Teams would double up on Waggy in an attempt to nullify his rampaging runs and pin-point crosses but to no avail. But all this hype meant nothing to then England manager Alf Ramsey as he continually overlooked Wolves’ wide-man, sadly Wagstaffe never played for England.
Sound familiar?
Last Friday Wolves fans celebrated current left winger Matt Jarvis finally receiving his deserved England call-up. The provisional squad was to be trimmed on Saturday evening if players were injured or facing a kiss ‘n tell related libel case against the News of the World in the morning, meaning clean-as-a-whistle Jarvis could confidently start packing his lucky St George jock-strap.
At eight o’clock on Saturday evening I began refreshing the BBC and Sky Sports sites for confirmation my bragging on Facebook and Twitter could begin. For the first time since Steve Bull we’d have an officially England-class player. But then something, or rather nothing happened. I refreshed the screen again, and again, and again. Dismayed, I looked on praying there was a mistake or a technical hitch. Noooo! Matt Jarvis was NOT in the squad to face France.
I was dumbfounded and angry. How could Capello be so stupid? A few hours earlier he’d witnessed firsthand Jarvis terrorising the Bolton defence, assisting two goals and setting up a handful of other chances. It didn’t make sense. Arsenal’s reserve left back was in but no Jarvis? Man Utd’s reserve centre back was in but no Jarvis? A Championship striker was in but no Jarvis? Erratic Walcott was in but no Jarvis? HOW COULD HE NOT PICK MATT JARVIS?
So what went wrong? Does Capello simply favour the stars from the top four? Evidenced by Gibbs and Smalling possibly, but this argument is redundant given the call up of Sunderland’s Henderson and Cardiff’s Bothroyd. Does the Italian believe wingers aren’t suitable for the international stage? Maybe, but then why call up Walcott, Johnson et al? Does he just not like Wolves? I’m sure Karl Henry will have to take the blame for that (joke).
I think Capello just doesn’t know English footballers. He has a history of selection issues and needlessly upsetting players - not naming the team until just before kick off, being too strict, never committing to one goalkeeper, deciding Beckham’s glittering England career was over via a post-match interview, relying on that lump Heskey, continually playing Gerrard on the left despite the pressure to drop Fat Frank to push Gerrard inside, the Capello Index, debuting 72 year old Kevin Davies only to forget about him in the next squad… the list goes on and on! It’s also now evident that Capello will enforce his own bemused and arrogant selection policy; if the media or coaches push for a call-up, more often than not that selection will be ignored.
So forty years on we’re still seeing a Wolves player lacking international recognition. Ok, it’s not quite as severe as Wagstaffe’s injustice just yet, but Waggy and Jarvo have so much in common, left sided and both hailed by their peers yet their most worrying similarity is their lack of international caps. With Jarvis being only 24 he has age on his side but let’s hope in years to come he’s not battling it out with Waggy for the left wing slot in in those ‘Should have played for England XI’s’…