CARRAGHER'S INCLUSION COULD BE A STEP BACKWARDS FOR ENGLAND

WHEN Fabio Capello names his provisional 30-man squad for this summer's World Cup finals on Tuesday, there will be one name on everybody's lips - Jamie Carragher.

The Liverpool defender has endured a torrid time this season with the Merseysiders early exit from the Champions League and failure to qualify for re-entry next season. Despite a terrible start for the 32-year old, who retired from international football at the age of 29, Carragher's form picked up in the second half of the season and this appears to have earned himself a phone call from the England boss.

With injuries to Wes Brown, and doubts over the form of both Glen Johnson and Gary Neville, speculation mounts that his inclusion might be to fill in the right-back slot. There are also injury concerns over the centre-back position with England captain Rio Ferdinand an injury worry and former skipper John Terry is currently suffering from a bad run of form ever since his personal life was pulled into the spotlight. Other potential inclusions Joleon Lescott and Ledley King are both struggling with injury - the latter having been unable to train for two years due to his debilitating knee condition. All this means that the inclusion of Carragher might seem to be a completely reasonable solution.

However, since he retired in 2007, the Liverpool vice-captain has rejected all emergency calls from England managers to try to bring him back into the team. The reasons he gave for retirement were that he was not being played in his favoured position of centre back and therefore decided that retirement was a better option than a tantrum which may have seen him excluded anyway.

In my opinion, if you receive a call up to play for your country, you play wherever you are told and you give 100% without question. Someone who doesn't want to do this and has whinged about selection issues before is likely to do it again and most definitely doesn't deserve another chance. Talksport host Adrian Durham said that the time of his retirement that he had "bottled it" and I have to say - I agree.

Aside from this, Jamie Carragher has endured one of the worst seasons of his career, and even if he was going to give 100% for the cause, I am still not sure this is enough.

England are in danger of going backwards with his selection. I would even go so far as to say that Steven Gerrard does not deserve a starting place at the World Cup. After such a terrible season with Liverpool, who's to say he is going to turn it on for England?

I say, forget about Carragher, bring in Michael Dawson, a player who has made an outstanding contribution to Tottenham's push for a Champions League place, and drop Gerrard in Favour of a proper left winger like Stewart Downing or even Joe Cole. Then again, I'm not the manager.

BAFFLED BRUCE DEFENDS BECKHAM DECISION

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has today defended his decision to name former England captain David Beckham as his man of the match in his country's 3-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Belarus.


Viewers and pundits alike were astonished by his decision to hand the accolade to the LA Galaxy star, who had only played 35 minutes of the match. It seems even Fabio Capello was a little taken aback by the award, likening it to Barack Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace price just months after he was sworn in as US President.

However, former Manchester United captian Bruce, who was working for ITV as a pundit for the game, has claimed he chose the right man and is shocked by the "carry-on" that has followed the game.

He said: "It's incredible. When I was in the stadium, he came on to the pitch and let's be fair, for 50 minutes, it was dull, boring, uninteresting. That's the way I looked at it.

"David Beckham comes on to the scene, the whole stadium in unison rises to him and I thought, 'Blooming heck! Wow! Fantastic! Now Dave, what have you got?'.

"For me, for the 35, 40 minutes, he lit up Wembley, the way his attitude was, and I suppose that's why Mr Capello keeps picking him to go into the squad, to do something like that for him.

"Maybe he can't do it for 90 minutes. However, for me, he had an impact. That's the way I saw it, that's the way I called it."

Nothing to do with the United connection then Steve? It would seem that two goals is no longer enough to get you the man of the match award. Peter Crouch will have to buy his own bubbly this weekend.

EXPERIMENTATION TIME FOR PROFESSOR CAPELLO

The luxury of qualifying early for South Africa next summer gives Fabio Capello a chance to experiment and sift out some of the squad's aging deadwood. The next qualifier against Belarus will give younger players the opportunity to experience the competitive edge which a friendly can't provide.

With up and coming players like Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor of Aston Villa and Jack Wilshere and Kieron Gibbs of Arsenal, Capello can now experiment with different strike partnerships, which up until now have failed to shine.

Against Ukraine, players like Rio Ferdinand and Emile Heskey once again showed that they have perhaps been handed one too many opportunities to prove their worth. Now it is time to try something new. Heskey looked hopeless on the ball, hardly winning anything in the air, and running into trouble on the ground. Even against Croatia, he made a strong case against himself, missing two clear cut openings. The huge problem with Emile Heskey that many people have is his lack of goals. The last two games have only moved to strengthen that view.

Rio Ferdinand, this season, has almost looked like fish out of water. Early signs were there to be seen - agaisnt Manchester City - giving the ball away, and failing to prevent Craig Bellamy from scoring from a tight angle. In Dnipropetrovsk, Ferdinand once again showed that he was not at his best, he almost looked clueless as the ball came over the top. He looked like a Sunday league player caught short because he had stitch from the beer he drank the night before.

If Capello thinks we can win the World Cup with Rio in defence and Heskey up top, he is very much mistaken. Time for a change, only two small changes, but he needs to start the experimentation now...before it's too late.

The Weekends football

So it'll be a United Chelsea FA cup final. Im not sure this is good news or bad. I was kind of hoping that it would be Watford Blackburn so that everyone would say it was an insignificant final, being the first at the new Wembley and next years would be the proper one, like a dress rehearsal. Not to be though, and i suppose it is a good thing, the first final at Wembley being a showcase event, although of course i'd rather it was Arsenal or Charlton.
The Premiership was exiting as usual this weekend, and i think now that the relegation battle has been cut down again - to four teams - only one going down. In my opinion West Ham and Watford are already down and its between Charlton, Sheffield Utd, Wigan and Fulham for the last spot, and i think, although they have the most points from their games out of all those teams, that Fulham will be the team that goes down. Their remaining fixtures are about the hardest they could have at this time of the season, they don't have any 6 pointers and they have tough away games with Arsenal and Blackburn, while they polay host to Liverpool and Middlesborough. I can see them maybe picking up one or three points form the Boro game, and none anywhere else. Its going to be tight but i think the other teams will pick up points elsewhere, Charlton are in form and i think will beat Sheffield United on saturday, and Wigan are looking good, form wise, and i can't see Sheffield going down after their excellent display against West Ham.
As far as Europe is concerned, i think Arsenal have now bagged fourth and could go on to take third although it really makes no difference. And i think Tottenham are looking good for the UEFA Cup spot created by two teams already in Europe being in the FA Cup final. They will join Bolton and Everton, who diserve their places, after two seasons of nearly there or failure as far as Everton are concerned.
To end i'd just like to mention the C-word. Cricket. As i am writing this, England are being destroyed by South Africa in the World Cup and Sajid Mahmood is officially the WORST bowler in the world, EVER!! Two overs at a cost of 28 runs!!! It really is abismal and i'd like to make a protest, kick him out please, why is he in the England squad when we have people like Matthew Hoggard who could do ten times better. The build up to this game had been quite promising, with the whole squad standing up to be counted for once in their careers, but i was a fool to believe it would ever happen. We have all been let down by some very average England cricketers. Although, i did expect better from Kevin Pietersen, out for 3?? Whats going on? He has the England bug thats what. Its like in football. Put Cristiano Ronaldo and Drogba in England shirts and they'd be like two kids having a kick-about at the park. I don't know what it is about England but everyone who plays for them, no matter how good they are, they never seem to be able to gel or get the consistancy they do for club or county. Its the same in all sports. The rugby was an exeption for a year or two, they must have thought they were Australian or something, then they all realised that they aren't meant to play well for England and turned into the shite we all know and see from England teams week in, week out.

*Picture: Mahmood trying to do the YMCA, i'm sure he'd be better at it that Cricket.