Presumably, though, you wouldn't have seen Shearer, Owen, Rooney or Kane as likely England starters two or three years before they were.
Owen and Rooney definitely.
Owen already had a reputation as a wonder kid and had set records at youth level for England.
Rooney was a PL regular at 16 and starter for England at 17. Had excelled at youth level too.
But they both appeared when we had a top striker in their prime.
Right now we have a 32 year old world class striker and nothing in the youth that we can expect to take over in the same way.
People realised they were going to be good. Nobody expected Owen and Rooney to be brilliant so quickly and starring for England years in advance. And if your criteria is "scored loads of goals at youth level", then Shim Mheuka is probably worth watching.
He might be, Mheuka's record is decent (not as good as Owen's was) but both Owen and Rooney were already established PL regulars at 18. Owen had already won the Golden Boot.
I definitely remember at Mheuka's age, Owen had exploded onto the World Cup and Rooney was being treated as the second coming of Pele.
I wasn't talking about at 18. I said "two or three years before they were likely England starters". In Owen's case, he would have been 15/16, in Rooney's case, 13/14. If you knew enough about youth football to know that they were likely to be England starters within two years of those ages, fair play to you, but I doubt many did.
Anyway, point is, England always have at least one top class striker. They're pretty much bound to have again whether it is some as yet unknown youngster or someone like Delap improving.
