As much as I'm not a fan. Welbeck has good goalscoring form lately, for England and a good start with United. Sterling? That's odd, as is Young. Townsend I can understand. Remember how we all called out for Lallana to be capped and he was called upon really early too...
Sterling is a bit odd I agree. Young has been pretty impressive for England over the last couple of years so not surprised he's in there at all despite his club form. Welbeck's an important player for United and England and people need to get used to that I'm afraid.
The only selection I really disagree with is Sterling. Young can be a very good player - maybe a bit soon to be called up though.
He deserves to be selected whether people like it or not. Scored in England's last game. Decent scoring record for England despite playing on the left and 2 goals against Swansea..
Score reguarly more than one goal a season for his club... As DTLW said though he has played well recently, but I wouldn't say I agree with his call up. Having said that its still a million times better than seeing Nolan/Carroll called up
I hear this is only a provisional squad. Does this mean all of these players will be available for the qualifiers, or will some have been sent home from boot camp by then?
MOTM against Scotland too. I'm not sure if I agreed with that, but he was good, and he did score. The occasional mistake in trying to dribble out of dangerous areas needs to be stamped out of his game, but he knows what he's doing up front.
BBC Sport's Matt Slater: Only 10 of Gareth Southgate's first 25-man squad for England U21s played 1st XI football this weekend, with just 4 starting in the Premier League. We know 2 of the 4 of course.
Noticed the URL for Saints' article about the call-ups? http://sfcne.ws/1dmMLT7 - someone will be in Nicola's office first thing tomorrow
Incidentally, since we've discussed who we don't think should be in the squad, is there anyone who you think should be in? Personally I think Agbonlahor can consider himself a little unfortunate.
The important thing we should remember is that Rickie has been given a second chance to be considered. It's over to him now.