‘New’ England wouldn’t miss Arsenal and Liverpool crocks at Euros
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Despite Jack Wilshere managing just six minutes of football in the last 12 months going into Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Manchester City, where he is only deemed good enough for the bench, rumours abound that England boss Roy Hodgson will take the injury-prone midfielder to Euro 2016.
With the Three Lions appearing to have an embarrassment of riches in midfield, for once, going into France’s summer tourney, attention has turned to the maybe men, such as Wilshere and Jordan Henderson, while underwhelming Gunner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain definitely misses out.
Thankfully there’s little press over-excitement ahead of the Euros, with England cautiously optimistic thanks to the emergence of many fresh faces over the past couple of seasons, but deservedly fourth-favourites at a top price 9/1 with Ladbrokes.
Furthermore, and lest we forget, Wilshere and Henderson both featured prominently in England’s winless World Cup 2016 campaign, clocking up three starts and a substitute appearance between them.
That didn’t go particularly well, and it could be argued that the presence of Wilshere and Henderson, particularly the former after his injury travails, would be disruptive to England’s young team.
Should Hodgson pick them, he would be expected to play them as, at 24 and 25, they are somewhat senior to the likes of Eric Dier and Dele Alli, even though the system Hodgson has stumbled upon, thanks to the Spurs pair, couldn’t accommodate both.
If Henderson can prove his fitness in time he should go, having slogged through six seasons prior to this with barely an interruption through injury, picking up 23 England caps along the way.
Should the Liverpool skipper miss out, then maybe there would be a room for classy-but-usually-broken operative Wilshere, although if Leicester’s Danny Drinkwater were to miss out after the season he has had there would be understandable ‘big club’ uproar from the King Power faithful.
That’s the point. England don’t have to worry about injured midfielders. There are plenty of fit ones around to plug the gap.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
