The six-player shortlist for the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player of the Year Award has been published today and there is one England international on the list. Manchester United’s Michael Carrick has hardly been short of praise this season but it has been a surprise for many that he is included. Perhaps the fact that the players vote for the award should clear that up.
At Wembley yesterday I had on a different hat, more specifically my In Bed With Maradona hat. It’s not so much a hat as smart shoes and a collared shirt, items required to watch England v Belgium as part of The FA Club experience, where prawn sandwiches are considered uncouth and former England internationals rub shoulders with television presenters, England sponsors and dirty, working class scrotes like me who are lucky enough to be friendly with the good people at Umbro.
England’s final preparations for UEFA Euro 2012 will take place at Wembley this coming Saturday afternoon in the shape of a friendly match against Belgium. The game presents plenty of talking points, one of which is the testing of goal-line technology by the makers of Hawk-Eye.
The 16 teams competing in next summer’s UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine are now settled, and it’s time to take stock of qualifying. For England, the route was straight-forward if not necessarily easy. We go into Pot 2 for the draw in Kiev on December 2nd and will play one of Spain, the Netherlands or a host nation in June. Pot 4, meanwhile, will feature the Republic of Ireland, who demolished Estonia in the playoffs and could be in England’s group in the finals.
Supporting the England national football team from a fresh perspective.
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