Did anyone else hear that tosser Savage on 606 on Saturday evening? A Norwich fan phoned up trying to push the case for Holt's call up (to be honest he didn't make a very good job of it and almost ended up talking himself out of it, but the sentiment was there at least) and Savage and his co-hort basically just laughed the suggestion off as completely ludicrous. He actually said two or three times "If England take Grant Holt to the Euro's then we should even bother getting on the plane" and also said he'd have Carroll and Crouch way ahead of him in the pecking order, and that's not including those already in the squad. His only argument for this was the usual "he wouldn't get a kick against international defenders" and how he would be "totally out of his depth and a laughing stock" bullshit that is based on nothing but pure ignorance. These dickheads both refused to mention the fact he has already scored goals against top defences such as ManUre, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle, Everton etc etc this season and they still have this ridiculous idea that he's nothing more than a big battering ram centre-forward who gives away fouls by so much as breathing on a defender. Absolutely clueless these muppets are, and they then went on to big up Danny Wellbeck proclaiming him as the man to lead the line this summer - despite the fact he had at that point scored one goal in fourteen games and only seven all season in a team providing far more chances every week than we do for Holty. Quick glance at Wikipedia tells me in his career thus far Wellbeck has scored 17/70 games, which is incredibly ordinary and hardly marks him out as a prolific, bang on form goalscorer ready to go battle against international defenders if you ask me! I caught a bit of the ManUre game on the radio the following day and these same two arseholes were commentating and the fawning they were doing over Wellbeck trying to justify their ridiculous praising of him every time he seemingly did a really simple pass was nothing short of comical. It was all "lovely touch by Wellbeck" "oh that's glorious from Wellbeck" when from the highlights it seemed like he'd done sod all. Savage is an absolute **** of the highest order and while none of us, and certainly not the guy who phoned in, are saying he's definitely the answer for England and that he will score goals, to blatantly ignore any claim he has of getting a call up based on his fabulous record this season is nothing short of mindless and makes me wonder why oh why oh why does our tax go towards funding floppy haired arseholes such as this who haven't a clue what they're talking about. And don't get me started on the nominations for 'Young Players of the Year'.......
must admit, from what i've seen of welbeck i really don't see him being anything more than a lower end premiership or top championship striker in the long term. every now and then you see something good from him but its so fleeting that its the kind of thing you'd see heskey do. as for savage, i almost always disagree with everything that comes out of his mouth but at least usually he has an opinion unlike many fence-sitters at the bbc. ok, he has shown ignorance in the holt case but he isn't the only one to have done so. lets face it, any number of so-called experts are proclaiming him to be either too old, too inexperienced or too old-fashioned to be taken on the plane. then they go and say andy carroll should go! bonkers if you ask me and yet another case of the 'clique' that is international football - if you don't play for the right club, you won't get picked. simple as that. interestingly, most of the sky pundits think he should go and so does stan collymore who knew a thing about playing up front
just to add to that, i think what has gotten on every norwich fans nerves is the fact he and ruddy in particular seem to be completely ignored, yet no reason is ever forthcoming for their exclusion which is all anyone is looking for. to say he is too old is daft - so is scott parker then, yet he made him captain based on five england caps at the age of 31. if we are looking for the future, don't do it unless there are actually better young players around. at this moment in time, there aren't! you cannot go to a tournament with sturridge and welbeck as the two main strikers - neither hardly ever play up front! defoe never plays but i can understand why he would go, crouch would go based on one special goal, carroll has done jack until the last two games... there are two friendlies coming up - pick him and if he looks out of place then at least no one will be left wondering what could have been. as for the keepers, don't even get me started!!!
Another example of ignorant **** that came out of his mouth was when he asked the aforementioned Norwich fan who phoned up who out of either Holt or Defoe he'd genuinely rather bring on for the last twenty minutes of a quarter-final game if England needed a goal - and he seriously thought in his tiny mind that Defoe is the only possible answer to that question Yeah, of course Holty has never scored any dramatic late goals for us has he, and of course he would be a defender's dream to come up against with England chucking the kitchen sink at them would't he I don't think are many Premiership defenders who would relish coming up against him every week, and I'd argue pretty much every CB who has faced him this season will tell you that he gave them a hell of a game
how many goals has holt scored when thrown on as an impact player? if anything, thats the main reason why i'd take him, because he can give you that option to play more direct if necessary when chasing a game but also because he has that knack of being in the right place at the right time! honestly, he's a better option to bring on than defoe
The worst thing about it is not that they feel Holt is not good enough, but they never give a reason for not including him. They are paid to analyse games and players yet give no reasoning for their opinions.
THIS is what i mean - if there is a genuinely real reason why he shouldn't be at least called up, then i'm yet to hear it.
That's exactly what gets my goat as well, I've yet to hear a justifiable reason why he shouldn't at least be given a chance, not a single one.
Most of it seems to be down to their preconceptions. A player plays for a 'big' club he must be good sort of view. If a player is not a superstar by the time he is early 20's he is never going to be good in their eyes. Similarly if a club spends lots of money on a player he must be good and when he plays s*** he is just out of form even if its for 2 years. Surely Holt has done as much as Carrol in the prem. Basically he played well for half a season and has been crap since
It is frustrating that Holt is so far down the pecking order. The current England captain is older and has very few caps and I cannot for the life of me understand how the likes of Wellbeck/Campbell/Carroll/Sturridge get anywhere near the squad. None of them are 20 goals a season and only Carroll os what you'd call a "proper" centre forward capable of leading the line (although the way he's playing at the minute he couldn't lead a line dance if you gave him a free pair of chaps). For England to have any chance they need to play the best team and have the best squad and not necessarily the best 11 players to give the manager some options. You only need to remember the last world cup where we tried to shoehorn in all our "best players" into the midfield and failed miserably. If you look at Wellbeck/Campbell/Defoe/Sturridge they are all of a similar vein. Holt is clearly not the best striker in the country BUT he offers a manager something different and can be a huge impact player plus you know he would run his blood to water playing for his country and he is no prima donna unlike many we could all name.
The one reason I have heard is that he has no international experience. Well how do you get it without being picked? Nowadays, the England team/squad is a closed shop. They would rather pick a reserve from a BIG club e.g. Cleverley rather than somebody on form from a SMALL club e.g. Holt. Please tell me how Oxade Chamberlain is in the running for young player of the year. I agree he has talent but he has made 5, yes FIVE, starts for Arsenal in the Prem. Closed shop.
I'd love to know how many Holt would have scored this season if he'd had the amount of service from the likes of Nani, Young, Giggs, Valencia etc that Wellbeck has Why Wellbeck is nominated in the Young Player of the Season award is possibly even more ridiculous. How on earth did that happen? Pilkington has scored more goals than he has from an authodox midfield position but I don't imagine his name was anywhere near the conversation when it came to the shortlist. And why is Bale on it????!!!!!!
If Holty scored a couple goals for England (he would too!) we would lose him, so maybe it's for the best if he gets snubbed. Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk 2
Why are all the Norwich fans so concerned about Holt playing for England? As long as he continues to do the job for us that is fine by me. If he is selected it likely that he will either sit on the bench twidling his thumbs or play and get his confidence crushed and blamed when England put on their usual disapointing displays in a major tournement. Not only that hes more likely to get a major injury that will see him out for the start of our next campaign or play well and be put in the shop window for other clubs to steal him off us at a silly price. So basically what im saying is shhhhhh, its a good thing that Holt is the best kept secret in football and lets let the ignorance continue!!! Personally i couldnt care less if Holt plays for England, even he has said hes not bothered, lets leave that to crouch and carroll to be splashed all over the back page in the summer when England play there usual crap!!!
I disagree with this strongly. Holt is NCFC through and through and given the clubs position even stupid offers would be given short shrift. Another non-excuse for him not to go (no offense)
id love holt to get a chance for england, but i would worry that his style would be heavily penalised by international refs, and would suffocate him out of games. After all, Holt has made 77 fouls this year and counting. I think that number rather than 31 is the main thing standing in his way right now.
Nicola Zigic - 20 goals in 57 international appearances Jan Kohler - 55 goals in 91 international appearances Peter Crouch - 22 goals in 42 international apeparances All far more awkward, cumbersome and more likely to give away fouls than Holty but all with exceptional goal ratios at international level so even that argument doesn't carry a huge amount of weight as far as I'm concerned
