Exiled England striker Peter Crouch has said how much he would like to be part of the England set up again.
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The Stoke number 25, who scored the Potters’s only goal in their 1-1 draw against current champions Manchester City at the weekend, has not appeared in an England football kit since 2010, when he played in a friendly against France.
Fabio Capello took him to South Africa, but instead of taking England to a position where they could win football trophies, the team put in a disappointing performance amid fissures between the team and the manager.
The whole country was crying out for Capello to play Crouch, but he was just a spectator for the whole tournament and since then he has not appeared since.
When Roy Hodgson was appointed England manager after Capello’s exit, it was thought Crouch might be able to be more than just another player in a football bib to help with the football training equipment, but it was clear the 6 “7 striker was not to feature in his plans.
Hodgson did want Crouch on standby for Euro 2012, which he refused to do saying that he thought Hodgson wanted him to play a friendly and then come home. Since this refusal to dance to Hodgson’s tune, Crouch has not even been mentioned in any England team, even for friendlies.
The only logical explanation for this is that Hodgson doesn’t want Crouch to play. The reason can’t be his record – he has a strike rate of more than 50%, with 22 goals in his 42 appearances over five years for England, which is a better rate than Wayne Rooney who has scored 29 goals in 76 matches for England since 2003.
Whatever Hodgson’s reasons for neglecting Crouch, given England’s performance against Ukraine last week, his return may become a necessity if England are to compete for football trophies in the future.
