He should start.” Pearce, though, feels up-and-coming players are often talked up too quickly “The game’s funny nowadays,” he says. “All it takes is for a young star to play three decent games and he’s straight into the international reckoning.”People love to push youngsters before they’re ready, but these lads need time to grow, mature and learn the game We should take our time to blood them. The best left-back out there at the moment is one of the oldest: Nigel Winterburn.”The idea that Winterburn and Pearce could be competing for an England place is fanciful, yet its mere mention proves that Keegan’s possibilities are not endless. But at least there is hope.The French test has come too early, but Keegan will be lifted by the prospect of being able to select two or threeleft-footers for the World Cup qualifiers.
Like his left-backs, the England manager could soon find himself in a unique position.. Kevin Keegan will be fully occupied during England’s friendly in France on Saturday, but as soon as the final whistle blows he will seek news of his Group Nine rivals who open their World Cup campaigns on the same day. Kevin Keegan will be fully occupied during England’s friendly in France on Saturday, but as soon as the final whistle blows he will seek news of his Group Nine rivals who open their World Cup campaigns on the same day.
Uppermost in his thoughts will be Germany, perceived as chief rivals for the single auto-matic qualifying place from the group. However Greece, Germany’s opponents in Hamburg, have displayed the talent to upset more vaunted teams in recent qualifying tournaments, and have called the prodigious 20-year-old Olympiakos striker Lambros Houtos into their squad. Houtos could make his debut, because the Ajax forward Nikos Machlas is injured while Demis Nikolaidis of AEK Athens has boycotted the squad in protest against domestic league standards.Croatia, in Scotland’s Group Six, have a distinct Premier-ship flavour to their forward line as they travel to Brussels for their opening match against Belgium.
Davor Suker (West Ham), Alen Boksic (Middlesbrough) and Mario Stanic (Chelsea) are three of the four front-men chosen by the coach, Miroslav Blazevic. Dinamo Zagreb’s Bosko Balaban is the odd man out in the strike force.In Wales’ Group Five, Norway’s coach, Nils Johan Semb, has dropped Valencia’s forward John Carew and Monaco’s midfielder John Arne Riise for their opener against Armenia.More surprising is the fact that no fewer than seven of the 18-man squad actually play in the Norwegian league, though defender Christer Basma of Rosenborg was a surprise inclusion. Semb recalls Tottenham’s Oyvind Leonhardsen but has left out Manchester United’s Ronny Johnsen.Portugal have made only one change to the squad which reached the semi-finals of Euro 2000, calling up the Benfica midfielder Fernando Meira for the first time as they face Estonia in Tallinn. Antonio Oliveira takes charge for the first official match since Humberto Coelho’s resignation. The Euro 2000 goalkeeper, Vitor Baia, has been dropped.It seems that Spartak Moscow’s Cameroon-born defender Jan-Christian Tchuise will not now make his debut for Russia against Switzerland in Group One. “Tchuise has applied for Russian citizenship but has not been granted it, not yet anyway,” Russia’s general manager, Alexander Polinsky, said.
“We had only applied for him a few weeks ago, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take. He may never get it now, because people are beginning to question our choices.” Tchuise would have become Russia’s first black player.. So, the good men of the FA’s Video Review Panel have issued their verdict on Monday night’s events at Highbury. Such is the Football Association’s apparent desire to appease players and managers that it’s surprising the British Board of Film Classification haven’t been asked to adjudicate, too. Just about everyone else has had their say on that Arsenal-Liverpool encounter.