Not playing for England but playing for

themselves.

This place has been a touch barren over the last week or so. A combination of the Tour de France stages all being live on ITV4 this year amongst other things just taking up too much time.

So I never got round to posting some of the interesting little snippets that Paul Scholes came out with regarding some of his former England team-mates.

While all the media types kept banging on that we missed out on the greatest midfielder of his generation – their quote, not mine – because he didn’t want to play out on the left, we found out in reality a little over a week ago that it wasn’t the position that pissed him off rather the personnel.

The fact that certain players chosen were playing for themselves and not for the international team. Now while he doesn’t mention any names, though names one club, Aston Villa, but I can’t remember a specific Villa player circa ’04 that quite fits one quote that particularly stood out…

When you are going to a team, and you want to be part of a team and playing well, and there are individuals who are after personal glory… when there is a simple pass of 10 yards, they might try and smack it 80 yards. They will do things to try and get themselves noticed. Paul Scholes

Now who could that be aimed at?

Who has less than impressed in an England shirt, back in ’04, before then and certainly since? Which England player can’t go without trying the glory ball the Hollywood ball, pinging it 80 yards cross field? Who has to have a shot at every chance but rarely finds anything other than row Z? Who when he does score runs away pushing off all other team-mates in a celebration of self glory, even if those team-mates had done all the work and he just tapped the ball in from an inch?

Which, nearly 90 cap, England international can’t actually pass a ball 10 yards because he has to batter every pass due to a lack of guile and subtlety in his game? Which England player has proven he can’t work with others for the good of the team when it means he has to take a back seat from the limelight?

Well in all truth those fact can encompass quite a number of players who’ve failed repeatedly in an England shirt but one player really does tick every box.

Step forward and take a bow – Steven Gerrard.

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