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Writer: Mikey Delap 
Date:Sunday August 8 2010
Time: 6:52PM
UK time is: 09:36:36
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England's loss is Blackburn's gain
I must admit I was totally shocked when I heard the news that Paul Robinson was retiring from international football. Especially coming a few hours after he was picked in the England squad for the upcoming friendly.
There could be a number of reasons for this but I would suspect, personally and rather cynically, that this is Robbo's way of sticking two fingers up to Fabio for months of neglect and underrating of his performances.
It WAS a mistake by Capello not to take Paul Robinson to the World Cup in the summer. Manager's are supposed to take players who are able and on form, Robinson was both and alongside Manchester City's Joe Hart was the Premier League's best English goalkeeper of last season.
I would also, almost bitterly, declare that if Robinson had still been at a high profile club like Spurs last season, that he would have been a shoe in for the number one shirt. But because he was at an unfashionable club like ours, he was overlooked.
However, regardless of whatever speculation everyone may like to throw out there - Robinson's decision is only a bonus for Blackburn Rovers.
Robinson will now focus 100% on his club side and will not risk overexerting himself through travel to London every time we have a friendly against Georgia Under 18s. Since he has been at Ewood Park he has improved steadily from shaky at first to slimmer but erratic and now to where we stand at present... a reliable goalkeeper with confidence and agility.
This might seem slightly outlandish to say right now but in a few months to a year time, England will be missing Robinson a lot more than Robinson will miss England. Especially given the dearth of goalkeeping talent available to the national manager at this time.
Make no mistake, Robbo is better now than he has ever been, not just at Rovers but at White Hart Lane or Elland Road.
He will always be remembered in an England jersey for his bobble kick catastrophe in Croatia, but at Rovers he will always be England's number one.
Well done Paul Robinson.
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Your Comments
There are some that will have a go for this but I think his decision is spot on.
Mikey Delap
I'll second that fella. Capello snubbed him after a very good season for Rovers when England were crying out for a No.1 keeper. Should have taken Robbo to South Africa.
ITSALLROVER
Hello,
I am a Blackburn fan from Slovakia. I was reading this great site for several months, maybe it's time to share my thoughts (sorry for my grammar). Ironically not about Blackburn but Robbo - and England.
I am deeply upset with this decision. Robbo's attitude is the key if somebody wants to get an answer to the question: why England fails all the time on big tournaments. The players are not motivated to play for the country anymore. Being called up is the greatest honor what a player can achieve no matter who is the manager. Robbo is 30 now. Still has his best years before him. He could choose to refuse to play till Fabio is the manager. He refused to play for England instead. And that's a big difference.
The role of the 3rd choice keeper is a very special one. Instead of playing he has to take care of his teammates and create the good atmosphere. I can understand if he is full of frustration now. I cannot understand his decision to retire. However, I still wish him the best.
jclayton
Toys well and trully thrown out of the pram by the persecuted one. Go and wallow in your own self pity loser.
SkyBlueSuedeShoes
Robbo has every right to retire from england, id do the same. not being selected for the world cup squad was the worst mistake capello made, robbo has had a fantastic season, hes much better than both james and green, if capello can be stubborn then fine, why cant robbo? plus to be fair, who'd want to hang out with overpaid so called superstars like rooney, terry and cole?
LHrover
i think capello is getting swayed by the english media too much. robbo lets in a FLUKE goal - let's over look him, england will want my head if he plays. terry has problems outside of football? drop his captaincy. good players in form but aren't big players? no thanks. need a 3rd after dropping the green? let's just call up robbo to save face. fail.
robbo is basically saying, you've dropped me for so long, now you want me to travel all over on my own time to sit on the bench? screw off.
the shire
I agree with the majority of comments but personally feel he's making a mistake walking away from the England team.
mutts nutts
I don't agree with this retirement from international careers. I thought Scholes, Carragher, Shearer, Adams and Wes Brown are and were wrong to do it. However, i think that robbo have been disrespected by Capello - he's not going to play him, he only picked him to make up the numbers and it was an insult not to pick him for the previous world cup squad in favour of two relegation battle keepers in Green and James. I will back Robbo because he is a rover, but I just hope he doesn't regret it.
FreidelNo.1
He had every right to do it... Just like Brown did. They were left on the sidelines for too long and were then asked to be back-up. They knew they wouldn't get a chance so why bother going.
Vanilla Ice
Trouble is Vanilla Ice, if all back up players thought that, you'd only have an 11 man squad! Also, I think Robbo would have been more likely to play compared to Brown
FreidelNo.1
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