You can get hit with lack of form or injuries and it’s nice to know you can call upon people you know are ready. It’s difficult that jump, mixing with fresh faces, trying to form a rapport with people you don’t play with week-in week-out. The wingers, Ruel Fox and Jason Wilcox, too, barely put a foot wrong.”They all played well,” Venables said “It was very encouraging. Sol Campbell moved forward from his normal position in the back four to look Savile Row measured for the role of midfield anchor, while Tim Sherwood had a commanding match in the centre of the pitch. It’s a problem I’m happy to have.”Indeed, Venables had reason to be content across a broad spectrum.
If there is a big difference between the form of players it makes my selection easier, but if they are all fighting at it the decision becomes harder. Not that Venables looked like the man next in line as the Camelot computer called time.”Everybody wants to play,” he said. “They want to be involved and it is my job to select the right people. You can have seven players on a par but you can only pick three or four in any squad and it’s going to come down to my preference. Only Chris Sutton failed to show his club form, and even then the Blackburn player had a integral part in Cole’s goal.
Given that Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley, Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Stan Collymore, Teddy Sheringham and Matt Le Tissier are also around, the queue to make the front two places in the senior team is beginning to resemble the Saturday evening scramble for lottery tickets.
Tuesday’s 2-0 victory in the B international against the Republic of Ireland at Anfield hardly helped clear the picture. Andy Cole scored in his first match under Venables and had an air of menace every time he touched the ball, while Nick Barmby and Robbie Fowler also looked sharp – albeit against a tiring Republic of Ireland defence. Terry Venables is like a cat faced with several bowls of cream. He knows he wants one of them, maybe two, but which? The England coach has a team’s worth of strikers, all of whom have supporters, and short of playing them all someone is going to b e disappointed.
