David Beckham and Wayne Rooney will be left to rest their goldenballs on the bench as England head towards Euro 2008 next summer.
London, Sept.14 : David Beckham and Wayne Rooney will be left to rest their "goldenballs" on the bench as England head towards Euro 2008 next summer.
New stars Micah Richards, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Gareth Barry all look likely to retain their places following Wednesday's drubbing of Russia - England's FOURTH successive 3-0 qualifying victory.
According to The Sun, on the bench, we will find Beckham (10 million pounds), Rooney (30 million pounds), Gary Neville (2.5 million pounds), Frank Lampard (25 million pounds), Owen Hargreaves (20 million pounds), David James (2.5 million pounds) and Peter Crouch (10 million pounds).
While Italy, France, Argentina and Brazil have 20 or so players of, or approaching, world class, England has struggled. Even against Russia, the subs included players such as Wes Brown, Phil Neville, Alan Smith, Stewart Downing and Andrew Johnson.
No disrespect to them - except, of course, it is - but how many players of that calibre would feature in a squad from the world's Big Four?
Rooney, amazingly, hasn't scored a competitive goal for England since his brace in the 4-2 defeat of Croatia at Euro 2004. This is in marked contrast to nine in his first 13 starts.
In the last 20 games, he has managed to find the net just three times - all in friendlies. In those, he partnered Michael Owen ten times with a goal return of six (Owen 5, Rooney 1).
Yet in just six starts with Peter Crouch, Owen and the Liverpool striker have shared ten goals. And in 15 starts with Heskey, there've been 15 goals (Owen 12, Heskey 3).
There are lies, damned lies and statistics but this would seem conclusive proof Owen is far more productive when he plays alongside a more orthodox target man.
ANI