Hmm, I think its debatable whether Hart is actually better than Casillas. Even then Spain have some awesome goalkeepers that don't make the team. But your right though, even compare it to Germany and there would be few players that would make that squad, we just don't have the strength in depth (we don't really have the strong first team either) that these other top nations do
Totally agree with this. Grant Holt has been moaning that he hasn't been picked along with Nathan Dyer and Danny Graham. He says that Roy picks "his" players and only recruits from the big teams. Damn right Roy should pick from the top and bigger teams - they play with and against better players which improves them. If he picked the likes of Graham and Holt that would represent a new low for England. Yes they were among the top English goalscorers last season but what does that say about the rest of them? We are getting to the stage where any in-form player is in with a chance of playing for England. Look at Spain, (as everyone always does when making comparisons in international football) at least 7 or 8 of their starting line-up come from Barcelona or Real Madrid, why? Because they are all awesome and the two biggest clubs in the world want awesome players. How does this impact Spain? They all know each other inside out and work tremendously well as a team. Compare this with England. We have a few from Man U, Man C, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and then there are some inclusions from the smaller teams. No wonder they don't look like they know each other on the pitch - they don't. Our so called international players aren't even regarded as good enough to play for the best teams in England, let alone Europe. Joe Hart is a world class goalkeeper, no question. But who's pushing him? We used to have at least two or three excellent goalkeepers at the same time. Now we have Hart plus a few others that get called up because they are English and have had a few good games: John Ruddy, Fraser Forster, Jack Butland. Two of those 3 play outside the Premier League - how can you tell how good they are against lesser challenges. It's like putting a Ford Focus next to a Fiat Cinquecento and saying "That Ford is so awesome, it ****s on the Fiat." Why do we have so many foreigners in the Premier League? Because they are technically better and they don't get over-hyped as much as other English players and therefore demand massive transfer fees and wages, wages that suggest they are world beaters. If Downing was Spanish, do you think he would ever have played for them? Exactly rant over
