Andy Cole and Darren Bent must feel aggrieved and Ivan Toney will hope not to follow in the non-existent England footsteps of Grant Holt.
Euro ’96
Alan Shearer (Blackburn, 31 goals) ✓
Robbie Fowler (Liverpool, 28) ✓
Les Ferdinand (Newcastle, 25) ✓
Teddy Sheringham (Tottenham, 16) ✓
Ian Wright (Arsenal, 15) ×
Chris Armstrong (Tottenham, 15) ×
“I have always said who to leave out would be the most difficult decision of my footballing life,” said England manager Terry Venables in May 1996, announcing his squad for the upcoming European Championships. It featured a mix of exuberant youth – Phil Neville was the youngest member at 19 – with vast experience provided by Stuart Pearce (34), David Seaman (32) and Teddy Sheringham (30). Thirteen of the 22-man squad had ten caps or less.
Venables’ most difficult decisions were to drop Rob Lee and Dennis Wise from his squad, but also to choose which of his in-form strikers to rely on for a first major international tournament on home turf for 30 years. The top four English scorers in the 1995/96 Premier League season made the cut, but Ian Wright and Chris Armstrong, who both struck 15 goals in north London that season, missed out. And not just on that Cathay Pacific flight.
World Cup ’98
Michael Owen (Liverpool, 18) ✓
Chris Sutton (Blackburn, 18) ×
Dion Dublin (Coventry, 18) ×
Andy Cole (Manchester United, 16) ×
Darren Huckerby (Coventry, 14) ×
If you ever doubted the maverick managerial qualities of Glenn Hoddle, consider his England squad selection for the 1998 World Cup. Of the top five English goalscorers in the 1997/98 Premier League season, only Michael Owen made his final 22.
His other three strikers were an injury-ravaged Alan Shearer, who had scored just two goals in 17 games for Newcastle, as well as Les Ferdinand (5 goals in 22 games) and Teddy Sheringham (9 in 31). They had scored fewer Premier League goals combined than Owen that season; it was quite the goalscoring burden to place atop the 18-year-old’s shoulders.
Chris Sutton ended his own chances by turning down the opportunity to play for England B, while Dion Dublin got the nod over Andy Cole for Hoddle’s 30-man provisional squad. “Ian Wright and Michael Owen are in a similar mould to Andy Cole, but Dion Dublin can give us other options,” was the manager’s explanation for Cole’s omission, but Dublin joined him on the scrapheap when eight more players were cut. Including Paul Gascoigne, who took…
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