Is Villa now becoming the backbone for England?

[Concrete John]

Those are very claret and blue specs you are wearing Gazton.  Gabby has hardly featured for England despite the lack of quality strikers, Ash seems to be about 5th or 6th choice for the wide berths, one has retired, and two don't play for us.   As for O'Neill well he didn't sign Barry or Gabby and Heskey was already well established in the England set up under Capello.  As others have mentioned, Citeh and West Ham  have better claims to being an influence on the current England squad. Also arguably, by your criteria,  Spurs (Defoe, Crouch, Lennon, Bent, Huddlestone) and perhaps even Everton (Lescott, Jagielka, Rooney, Baines) although we could take some credit for Crouch I suppose if we want to be all Doug Ellis about it.

So what criteris are we using?  If it's where their youth football was played then West Ham stand out and Spurs hardly have anyone, same as us.  If it's a case of where they won their first cap, then we can view ourselves more favourably.

But with the current state of the England side, is it not more a claim to shame than fame?   

[ventnor villain]

I never like to see any of our players in an England shirt. Once they get established, they all start to think the grass is greener elsewhere. This may make me sound like a bit of a traitor, but i couldn't give a toss about England.

[Dante Lavelli]

If I was a young english player I would see a move to villa as a particularly good move from an international perspective.  You're likely to play a large number of games and the club is sufficiently on the England Management's radar to guarantee you'll be watched.

I do agree though that the number of new english signings is likely to wain with GH in charge.  Hopefully he'll keep things pretty balanced...

[adrenachrome]

Those are very claret and blue specs you are wearing Gazton.  Gabby has hardly featured for England despite the lack of quality strikers, Ash seems to be about 5th or 6th choice for the wide berths, one has retired, and two don't play for us.   As for O'Neill well he didn't sign Barry or Gabby and Heskey was already well established in the England set up under Capello.  As others have mentioned, Citeh and West Ham  have better claims to being an influence on the current England squad. Also arguably, by your criteria,  Spurs (Defoe, Crouch, Lennon, Bent, Huddlestone) and perhaps even Everton (Lescott, Jagielka, Rooney, Baines) although we could take some credit for Crouch I suppose if we want to be all Doug Ellis about it.

So what criteris are we using?  If it's where their youth football was played then West Ham stand out and Spurs hardly have anyone, same as us.  If it's a case of where they won their first cap, then we can view ourselves more favourably.

But with the current state of the England side, is it not more a claim to shame than fame?

What the devil is a criteris?

An Oriental female body part?

[Gaztonniller]

Those are very claret and blue specs you are wearing Gazton.  Gabby has hardly featured for England despite the lack of quality strikers, Ash seems to be about 5th or 6th choice for the wide berths, one has retired, and two don't play for us.   As for O'Neill well he didn't sign Barry or Gabby and Heskey was already well established in the England set up under Capello.  As others have mentioned, Citeh and West Ham  have better claims to being an influence on the current England squad. Also arguably, by your criteria,  Spurs (Defoe, Crouch, Lennon, Bent, Huddlestone) and perhaps even Everton (Lescott, Jagielka, Rooney, Baines) although we could take some credit for Crouch I suppose if we want to be all Doug Ellis about it.

You probably could add Downing to that list too?   Point is how long were fans saying Barry never got an england cap because he played for Villa where as if he played for the a top london club or MU/Merseyside he would have been called up much much earlier. With the recent track of villa players now being called up for the seniors, If another Barry was to now come along, does anyone still think it would take him as long to get a call up because  villa, and other teams (outside of london, manchester, Merseyside) are considered footballing Pariahs to england and the international set-up?

[pauliewalnuts]

Those are very claret and blue specs you are wearing Gazton.  Gabby has hardly featured for England despite the lack of quality strikers, Ash seems to be about 5th or 6th choice for the wide berths, one has retired, and two don't play for us.   As for O'Neill well he didn't sign Barry or Gabby and Heskey was already well established in the England set up under Capello.  As others have mentioned, Citeh and West Ham  have better claims to being an influence on the current England squad. Also arguably, by your criteria,  Spurs (Defoe, Crouch, Lennon, Bent, Huddlestone) and perhaps even Everton (Lescott, Jagielka, Rooney, Baines) although we could take some credit for Crouch I suppose if we want to be all Doug Ellis about it.

You probably could add Downing to that list too?   Point is how long were fans saying Barry never got an england cap because he played for Villa where as if he played for the a top london club or MU/Merseyside he would have been called up much much earlier. With the recent track of villa players now being called up for the seniors, If another Barry was to now come along, does anyone still think it would take him as long to get a call up because  villa, and other teams (outside of london, manchester, Merseyside) are considered footballing Pariahs to england and the international set-up?

All that may be true, but I don't see how that suggests we're becoming the backbone of the England team.

We're actually considerably less that than we were a couple of years ago if you look at number of players called up.

[not3bad]

We might be forming the backbone of the Under 21's mightn't we?  Delph, The Fonz, Albrighton, Gary Gardner...

[avmark]

so are villa now becoming the back bone for man city?

[ktvillan]

What the devil is a criteris?

An Oriental female body part?

Applause emoticon thing.

[Dave]

We might be forming the backbone of the Under 21's mightn't we?  Delph, The Fonz, Albrighton, Gary Gardner...

Again, others probably have more of a claim.

Sturridge, Mancienne, Bertrand, Cork, MacEachrane all from Chelsea.

Even Blackburn have as many players in the most recent squad as we do.