by Mike Martin @thefootietweet
For about eight minutes, there was a perfect symmetry. With the score at Manchester Utd 6 Arsenal 2, the memory was led back to a date in November 1990, when the then plain old unknighted Alex Ferguson took his raw side to Highbury for a League Cup fourth round tie. Arsenal were the country’s best side and would go on to win the league title but United ran them ragged, winning 6-2. It was a memorable night in League Cup history, as elsewhere Coventry City beating Nottingham Forest 5-4 in an extraordinary contest at Highfield Road.
For about eight minutes, there was a perfect symmetry. With the score at Manchester Utd 6 Arsenal 2, the memory was led back to a date in November 1990, when the then plain old unknighted Alex Ferguson took his raw side to Highbury for a League Cup fourth round tie. Arsenal were the country’s best side and would go on to win the league title but United ran them ragged, winning 6-2. It was a memorable night in League Cup history, as elsewhere Coventry City beating Nottingham Forest 5-4 in an extraordinary contest at Highfield Road.
That was the match which convinced the nation that Manchester Utd were the real deal. Young Lee Sharpe scored a hat-trick – we did not then know that Ryan Giggs would usurp his rôle as the wizard of the wing – and United displayed a confident verve that bordered on collective showmanship. It was still not a straightforward graduation; United reached the Final but lost 1-0 at Wembley to a second division side, Sheffield Wednesday.
Yet this was the embryonic phase of the first of at least three, and possibly now four, great Manchester Utd sides fostered by Ferguson. Renewal is the hardest thing for any sports team to achieve over time. The history of international football is littered with ‘one generation and out’ countries – Portugal in 1966, Denmark in 1986, Colombia in the early 1990s, Ecuador in the mid-2000s – where a successful side has been inadequately replaced by the following generation.
In a week in which Sir Alex had another dig at the FA, the most persuasive evidence yet was presented that he has done Fabio Capello and his employers at Wembley a huge favour. That all the great football in the 8-2 humiliation of Arsenal was played by young English players – Ashley Young, at 26, was the veteran performer – gives England fans not insensible cause for optimism on a scale not known since Germany were swatted aside in Munich, almost exactly a decade on. As a basis for fantasy and hope, it was sound.
If Fabio Capello is now not convinced that the time has come to politely usher several of the patently less than golden generation into the wings, we must consign ourselves to the notion that England need a new coach before progress can truly be made.
What precisely persuades Capello that the elder statesmen of England squads passim will suddenly become a force at Euro 2012 remains a mystery. Ferguson has brought in the new generation voluntarily; he still has Dimitar Berbatov, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs, Nemanja Vidic and Park Ji-Sung at his disposal from last season’s title-winning campaign. Capello, on the other hand, has nothing to lose. England’s older generation are tainted and unloved.
Perfectly respectable arguments can be made for retaining the services of captain John Terry, a rejuvenated Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole, yet the list of England’s senior internationals who merit the benefit of the doubt extends little farther. With young English players emerging at Old Trafford and elsewhere, those presenting cases for inclusion in Fabio Capello’s forthcoming squads are numerous and increasingly persuasive.
ENGLAND’S NEXT GENERATION
JOE HART (Age 24), GK, Manchester City – England’s sole outstanding goalkeeper borders on the world class. Has already nailed down the starting berth for a decade.
MICAH RICHARDS (23), RB, Manchester City – Right back who scored against Israel when he was nineteen, not greatly favoured by Capello, who inexplicably prefers the palputation-inducing Glen Johnson. Must not become a player with a bright future behind him.
PHIL JONES (19), CB/DM, Manchester Utd – Mature beyond his years, a versatile defensive player who already looks like he has been in the Old Trafford side for years.
CHRIS SMALLING (21), CB, Manchester Utd – A throwback to the days when Ian Wright, Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle could graduate from non-league to international football. A central defender currently busking at right-back yet looking entirely at home.
JACK WILSHERE (19), CM, Arsenal – Capello is already persuaded of the Arsenal midfielder’s extraordinary talents. Composed, precise, creative and already a key feature of the England first XI.
EMMANUEL FRIMPONG (19), DM, Arsenal – Has Arsène Wenger finally found the successor to Patrick Vieira? Capello must not dawdle, as Ghana are also courting the raw but able holding midfielder.
JOSH McEACHRAN (18), CM, Chelsea – Slight but preposterously talented left-footed attacking midfielder with flawless technique and metronomic passing. Could quite conceivably become better than Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, which is some potential indeed. Chelsea urgently need to make him a regular starter.
ROSS BARKLEY (17), CM, Everton – If Everton’s coaching staff are to be believed, his talent is comparable with Wayne Rooney. Like Rooney, David Moyes has brought the powerful yet elegant box-to-box midfielder straight into the Everton team, where he already appears to be the best player.
TOM CLEVERLEY (22), AM/RM, Manchester Utd – Has made astonishingly swift progress into the United first team, a fearless and intelligent midfielder at the heart of their impressive start to the season.
RAHEEM STERLING (16), W, Liverpool – Hopefully, he has a brighter international future than Liverpool’s last Jamaican-born England winger, John Barnes. Impressed at the recent U-17 World Cup. Has pace and flair aplenty.
ANDY CARROLL (22), CF, Liverpool – Many are unconvinced by the eighth most expensive player in football history, though he can strike a shot as well as any centre forward in recent memory.
THEO WALCOTT (22), F, Arsenal – The lightning quick forward was ludicrously taken the the 2006 World Cup but remains a superb prospect. Already capped seventeen times over more than five years yet remains one for the future.
DANNY WELBECK (20), F, Manchester Utd – Ideally suited to a 4-3-3 formation, the forward is keeping Javier Hernández out of the United side. Has benefited from a season on loan at Sunderland.
DANIEL STURRIDGE (21), F, Chelsea – Club coach André Villas-Boas is a fan of the England U-21 player who, like Welbeck, can play anywhere across a three-man forward line.
