Just What We Needed!

It was great to see Steve McClaren finally hand David Bentley his England debut tonight… hang on, no he didn't he left him out the squad altogether!

For once England put in a pretty good showing during the 3-0 win over Estonia, but whilst it is hard to complain too much as we played pretty well (David Beckham again showing why McClaren was so foolish to toss him away as easily as he had in the first place) I am going to anyway!

When Beckham picked up what looked as though it could be a game ending injury midway through the first half I found myself thinking this is why David Bentley should have been on the bench, it was tailor-made for him to step in and take over from the master, as it was he wasn't even on the bench. Luckily (from an England point of view) Beckham was able to play on and created two of England second half goals but I find myself thinking, why did McClaren even bother selected Bentley for these squads?!?!

We had been calling for months for Bents to get his England chance, so I guess we can't really complain too much as he was finally called up, but my thinking from the very beginning was that maybe McClaren only did this because he felt the pressure to do so? Why he didn't give him some game time in at least one of the games (the friendly with Brazil was ideal) troubles me!

Why are the likes of Kieran Dyer (who seems to have spent more time on the treatment table the last few years than he has on the pitch!), Stuart Downing (show me what he has done to justify an England place!) and even Jermaine Jenas (NOT a winger, or wide midfielder period!) being viewed as more viable options than Bents, not forgetting the fact that not ONE of these players had a more impressive season than Bents did.

I am happy that we (England) won, but still left with a bitter taste in my mouth with the fact that over 180 minutes of football Bents hasn't got a single minute. Let's be honest the Brazil game was a friendly, and these are meant for different things to be tried and different people (ideal for Bents) and Estonia should never have posed us too many problems (as it proved) so why wasn't the best right-sided English footballer in this country this season not given a chance?


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