Barry's Beef

Sven bets big

'Devilfish' Sven Goran Eriksson has, at last, found his balls, taken a risk and gone all in - last time he did this it involved Faria Alam. Sven has included not only Aaron Lennon, Spurs improbably excellent winger but also Theo Walcott, the former Southampton, and current Arsenal, wunderkind, in his initial squad of 23. Two brave and forward-thinking decisions. Leaving out Shaun Wright-Phillips is a brave and, on the whole, acceptable decision - given SWP's limited playing time and inconsistency this season.
Never one to get something wholly right, Svennis blotted his copybook by selecting David James (seriously having played a few games on-loan at the Owls Scott Carson has been awesome and should be in the squad); Jermaine Jenas, Sol 'where's my head at?' Campbell and Owen Hargreaves. 'Ol Mr Brocolli Head himself. His selection will raise more eyebrows than a troupe of tribute acts at a Roger Moore convention.
Rooney and Owen both make the squad, unsurprisingly, despite both being injured; whilst Jermaine Defoe has been left out despite being the single closest type-for-type replacement we have for Michael Owen.
For anyone interested, probably not but wtf it's my blog, out of my predicted 23 (see links here, here, here and here) only 14 got selected with my chosen players: Richard Wright, Ben Foster, Jonathan Woodgate, Ledley King (injured or would have made squad for sure), Kevin Nolan, SWP, Kieron Dyer, Jermaine Defoe and Dean Ashton all missing out.