Alex Iwobi decision to opt for Nigeria having been overlooked for England's age teams for almost two years raises hard questions about the setup of the FA
Wes Morgan was brought into the estate lasts, the city centre of Nottingham that misleadingly known as The Meadows and has a pub called the angle of poets who, with all due respect for the regulars, it's not exactly the kind of place you would find anyone recite Keats.
The Jamaica international duly speaks with the accent of a city where nobody flinches that "duck" is the term de facto of tenderness. He spent the first nine years of his career playing for Nottingham Forest, six in the League and three in League One, and when she did it at last in the Premier League with Leicester City had 30, at a stage in his career when no one could imagine him the monster of a defender that we see today in development.
"You can never beat Wes Morgan," the song used to go, to the tune of the old tribute Des Walker, and this season has led to the highest level in English football. Attackers don't go around Morgan in the way that, say, Sergio Agüero beat Chris Smalling in the Manchester derby last weekend. Morgan is no longer subject to accidents in the old way. He is Captain of the team who are ready to win the Premier League and people who maintain these records tell me has blocked more shots and made more clearances, wiretapping and headers than any of Centre-half – Gary Cahill, Smalling, John stone and Phil Jagielka – in England squad by Hodgson. This past weekend when Leicester consolidated their position at the top of the table with a third successive 1-0 victory, Morgan dropped the ball several times that the entire defense of Crystal Palace.
If things had been different is not completely ridiculous, therefore, think that Morgan in theory could become only the third player from Leicester, alongside Jamie Vardy and Danny Drinkwater, were equipped for a shirt of England. Except, of course, is hypothetical now. Morgan was so far out of reckoning that in September 2013 has accepted an invitation from Jamaica instead. The player had a way through his grandparents and, although he is clearly English, he imagined a shot at international football. So he said yes to Jamaica and on Friday won his cap 25 1-1 against Costa Rica England was out of the question.
That goes so sometimes and no one can blame the Football Association. Some players are just late bloomers and nobody realistically could have imagined that it would also be a possibility when Morgan was part of the forest protection who underwent five goals at home to Yeovil in League One. His first season in the top division was difficult and no one was asking the FA to intervene when Jamaica started watching his family tree.
Unfortunately for the FA, it's not so easy to understand the logic when it comes to Alex Iwobi arsenal, another story about problems of dual nationality and a chain of events that raises some uncomfortable questions about how one of exceptional young talents in English football has now lost in the system.
Johanna is on the other end of his career at Morgan and his performances for Arsenal in the Champions League to Barcelona a few weeks ago provided hard evidence because Arsène Wenger preferred to have the 19‑year‑old in his team at the expense of more established players. The teenager kept his place and first goal for the club in a display of man‑of‑the‑match at Everton last weekend. Yes, these are early days, but Johanna has already demonstrated a level of sophistication to make football observers are predicting a rich career.
"He should play for England," Wenger said in January, and it did for a while. Johanna made seven appearances for England's under-16, three for the under-17s and under-18 level one and, by all accounts, happily was embedded in the setup. But then he stopped the calls.
"He's played for England youth teams for a while, but when it came to under-19, not to take him," Wenger said last weekend, wearing an expression that made it absolutely clear what he thought. And now it's too late. Johanna moved to London when he was four years old, but was born in Lagos on Friday came as a substitute in Nigeria's African Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt. That, for England, is the end of it. FIFA rules dictate that once a player has been involved in a competitive match is not allowed to switch countries.
Explanation of the FA is that England's under-19 Manager Aidy Boothroyd, simply preferred other players as any manager has the right to, in an age group that is considered to be particularly strong, and that favorite Nigeria because he felt more than one Johanna's emotional attachment to the country of his birth.
You will have to decide for yourself if this is an explanation entirely satisfactory, but it is certainly a different version of events to the one emanating from the arsenal, where they believe it is an oversight on the part of the FA and seems puzzled by the apparent lack of effort to make sure that Johanna knew was wanted so, for example, what happened with Jack Grealish.
OK, maybe there is some self-interest here from Wenger when playing for England would mean Johanna disappearing mid-season every couple of years for the Africa Cup of Nations. Yet Johanna himself said in January that he would have "loved" to play for England and it would be intriguing to know why the FA not tried harder to make it happen before Friday's cutoff point.
Hodgson made a personal intervention by an ambush plans of the Republic of Ireland for Grealish. Johanna, in contrast, seems to have slipped away without anything like the same kind of fight.
It certainly wasn't a snap judgment on the teenager to look elsewhere since his last appearance for England's under-18 level in October 2013 and was almost two years after he grew tired of waiting, recorded with Nigeria and made his first few appearances in friendlies. Johanna apparently spoke of feeling unwanted by England, though, in fairness to the FA, allegedly played a part that player's uncle Jay-Jay Okocha, Nigerian football royalty.
The fact remains, however, that Johanna was in England and people relevant system – through inattention, poor judgment or not being proactive enough, call it what you will – might come to regret what happened when there is clearly the possibility for him to be an international player for many years. Is already taking Theo Walcott, regular teams of Hodgson, out side Arsenal and it is remarkable the number of players in England under 19, under 21 and under Last 20 teams who are contracted to the Premier League Club but, unlike Johanna, nowhere near the first team, or out on loan at places including Cambridge , Carlisle and Coventry.
One is Ainsley Maitland-Niles, another product of Arsenal's conveyor belt of young talents, who are on loan at Ipswich and was selected by Boothroyd for under-19 on Friday. Isaac Hayden, on loan from Arsenal to the hull was in under-21 before having to pull out. Both are considered by Wenger as having potential rich but they are still some way behind Johanna when considering the evaluation of the player Thierry Henry, England have now lost forever. "Alex wasn't scared against the best team in the world at Camp Nou," said Henry. "He was brave on the ball, the calm in and around the penalty area and justified all the work invested in him by the Academy. He works hard, listen. He is the perfect example of how a child should behave to make it to the top. "
At the same time, the FA has worked behind the scenes to win over Rolando Aarons, a Jamaica-born Player on the fringes of the first team of Newcastle who has dual nationality similar problems to Johanna and has just received his first cap for England Under-21. You win some, you lose some. It's just a shame, perhaps, for England that may have passed one of the most naturally talented young players into the system, and that so many people involved in the process seem to have looked the other way.
The outpouring of emotion since the death of Johan Cruyff and some well written tributes in recent days have captured his place in the sport and it is right that the Football Association to mark what happened before England's game against the Dutch on Tuesday.
Anyway, I hope I don't seem disrespectful in any way to make a wish decision than the Netherlands stop their game to silence a minute against France on Friday, instead of holding the tribute before the match not to take elsewhere in the future.
Something special needed to be done to recognize the unique place of Cruyff in Dutch football, but what I'm talking about here – and I realize is a touchy subject – is the practice of silence by the General. It seems unfair on players to expect them to turn on and off in the middle of a game and it is reassuring to hear that the football authorities in England are not keen on the idea either.
An affront under 21 odd
That was a curious reason Gareth Southgate offered for Marcus Rashford does not make in England Under-21 team. Rashford was limited to a place in the under-20, because, according to Southgate, it was important to "take away a bit of warmth" by a player who has scored five goals in his first eight games for Manchester United. "He is a player who we are very aware from the younger age groups, but it was a bit early for him, exposure-wise, to be under-21.0," explained the manager.
Just walk through the new one. In the last five weeks, Rashford played against Arsenal, Liverpool (twice) and scored the winner in the Manchester derby, subjecting Martín Demichelis for such a hunt it would be surprising if a player who has appeared in the World Cup and Champions League finals ever features in the Premier League again. Rashford's standing in Wayne Rooney and only a few weeks younger than Michael Owen at France 98. But it would have been too much for him to face Switzerland's Under-21 at 10000-capacity Stockhorn Arena, home of the mighty FC Thun?
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