The halcyon days of the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s were apparently a boom time in England’s glorious history of great goalkeepers. From the benchmark that was the great Gordon Banks and his understudy, Peter Springett, to the rotation of Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton in the 70′s and early 1980′s, England always had a top class goalkeeper.

As Chris Woods and then David Seaman continued the tradition, despite every other pundit claiming the English goalkeeper was a dying breed,  but until Seaman’s retirement from England duty in 2002, that looked an empty prediction. Since then England’s number one has rotated between David James, Paul Robinson, Scott Carson, with sporadic appearances from Robert Green, Ben Foster, Chris Kirkland and Joe Hart. An unusual situation after decades of stability between the sticks, which clarifies a pressing issue for Capello. Just who can he trust with the number one shirt?

The obvious choice is David James, but the situation at Portsmouth has had far reaching consequences. James found himself in a situation were Portsmouth wouldn’t play him as it would trigger a clause in his contract rewarding him with an extension. Of course, being the goalkeeper of a side marooned at the foot of the Premiership table and with a worrying tendency to implode under pressure, is James really the best English goalkeeper?

Euro 2004 saw James’ performances came under criticism after admitting he hadn’t studied French set pieces, when England were undone by 5 minutes of madness in the opening game of the tournament. A penalty from Henry and a free kick from Zidane saw England collapse and ultimately end up with the harder run of the tournament.

Yet since those rickets, consistency has returned to his game and as one of English footballs more eloquent footballers, James would be one of the three goalkeepers for me and probably keep the No.1 shirt unless his form completely collapses before the end of the season.The other two places are realistically up for grabs.

To all intents and purposes, the stand out English goalkeeper of the Premiership season has been Joe Hart and what a season. He’s certainly been one of the key reasons that Birmingham City have had such a successful season so far. In fact,I was stunned that Hart didn’t make his second appearance for England in Wednesday nights friendly against Egypt. I’ve been very impressed with his form throughout the season and felt for him when Manchester City splashed out big bucks to bring Shay Given to Eastlands in January 2009.

One criticism that seemingly comes Hart’s way from some quarters is his age. It seems a perennial English trait that players are perpetually too young to play for their country. Hart has plenty of international experience, with his time with the Under-21 squad even scoring a penalty for his country. Yes, it may not be the same level of intensity, but competition experience is invaluable, what ever level it is achieved at. The future England custodian of the gloves for me and a shoe in for the second goalkeeping place.

The final place is the one that several people have a real chance of grabbing, but I’ll rule out the three who I wouldn’t consider. Poor Scott Carson, another one who was touted as the future of English goalkeeper until a wet night at Wembley in 2007 that saw the end of the dreadful Steve Mclaren reign. Critics blamed the pitch, oblivious to the wonderful football that Croatia played. Tactically inept and with his powers of spin unable to cover his failings, Mclaren went down taking Carson’s England career with it.

He’s never recovered and several high profile mistakes last season saw his hopes of an England recall all but disappear. Carson simply hasn’t had any luck with certain mistakes perhaps over analysed in the media but I think this World Cup has come too soon for him. Add to that with him not playing Premiership football as well  coupled with not being the best English goalkeeper in the Championship and it’s doubtful he’ll get a sniff unless bubonic plague strikes the England goalkeeper set up.

Chris Kirkland is another that time has not been kind to. Touted as the next great England keeper,  injuries stalled his career development and it is only in the last couple of seasons that he has managed to get a consistent level of appearances together. The irony of goalkeeping was shown in no clearer light than on November 22nd when Kirkland conceded 9 goals in Wigan’s mauling at the hands of  Tottenham.

Remarkably, without Kirkland, Spurs would have probably scored more, he saved a further 7 shots on target. Classed as injury prone, despite playing over 80 league games in his last 3 seasons, Kirkland has fallen behind Hart and would currently be 5th in my opinion. At 28, time is certainly not against him, but it’ll be a major surprise if he gets back to England duty.

Ben Foster currently can’t get on Manchester United’s bench which says it all and he is a real pickle at Old Trafford. Bags of potential but I don’t care how good you are, playing for Manchester United reserves occasionally isn’t anywhere near the level of getting in to the England set up. I’ve a real fear that he could disappear like Richard Wright did after joining Arsenal and then a disjointed spell at Everton. Now back at Ipswich Town, his is a career of real missed chances.

Which brings me to my final two choices. Paul Robinson and Robert Green.  Last night Capello seemed to give Green the chance to prove he could be part of the squad by playing the whole 90 minutes of the friendly. This seemingly would draw a curtain on Paul Robinson’s chances of making the squad unless James, Hart or Green falls injured.  Green didn’t really have much to do and he has certainly been fairly consistent over the last 3 seasons at West Ham United.

So overall I think Capello will pick James, Green and Hart with Robinson as 4th choice on stand by. The wild card would be Chris Kirkland but overall, I think Fabio will stick with the devil he knows but what do you think??

England legends from yesteryear star in a new World Cup TV commercial. Players such as Peter Shilton, Martin Peters, Stuart Pearce and Viv Anderson are featured and describe what it feels like to represent your national team on the world stage. The legends also describe putting the jersey on, the sound of the fans and what it felt like to have their country cheering them on.

The new commercial is for the Mars chocolate bar and is entitled “Proud to wear the badge.”

In the annals of English Football, goalkeepers have always held a certain mystique throughout its history. When you think of great English goalkeepers, the names of Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence come to mind. Generally, the modern opinion is that you need to be a little mad to be keeper. That opinion was born by the performances of one man, William “Fatty” Foulkes.

For a goalkeeper who played over a century ago to be still remembered is some achievement. I find it quite remarkable that a player who has hardly any living person alive to remember his performances can still invoke images of his giant frame and eccentric behavior.

Foulkes’ career started in local non-league football, playing for Blackwell Town in 1893 and was snapped up shortly afterwards by Sheffield United. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship as Sheffield United became one of the stronger sides in the fledgling Football League. United hit a purple period during the period Foulkes spent at Bramall Lane and Foulkes became something of a celebrity.

Standing 6’4″, Foulkes was staggeringly tall for the time, when the average male height was 5’7″, his towering frame became something of an impassable obstacle. With his presence in the sticks, Sheffield United finished runners-up twice, won the league and reached 3 F.A. Cup Finals, winning two of them.Yet Foulkes’ behavior began to become more erratic as his celebrity star rose. He became known for walking off the pitch if he felt the defenders weren’t playing well enough and dealt with troublesome strikers by picking them up and throwing them in the net.

The F.A.Cup Final of 1902 saw the game finish 2-2, but Foulkes was so incensed by Southampton’s equaliser, as he felt it was offside. Despite being in the nude, Foulkes chased the referee who had to hide in a broom cupboard to save himself.

In the replay, Foulkes put in a man of the match performance to keep Southampton at bay in a 2-1 win for the Blades. Yet behind the glory, Foulkes had become increasingly reliant on alcohol to simply get him through the day and his performances for United started to slide.

As his drinking increased, so did his legendary bouts of bad temper and during the 1904-05 season, his personality clashes with team mates, club officials and even fans saw the club run out of patience with him. Making only 10 appearances after 289 in the previous 10 seasons, United realised they could cope without him.

Chelsea came calling in the summer of 1905 and a transfer fee of £50 saw him travel south to become club captain of the Blues. Chelsea were making their football league debut and the signing of Foulkes was designed as both a footballing and business decision. By signing Foulkes, Chelsea knew they would get more bodies in the ground and Foulkes’ reputation certainly preceded him.

Chelsea also introduced ball boys to stand behind Foulkes to try and emphasis the goalkeepers size and a debut season saw Chelsea 3rd, just missing out on promotion behind the Champions, Bristol City and in their fourth season under the name, Manchester United.

Yet Foulkes, regardless of his status and celebrity at Stamford Bridge, he pined for a return to north of England. For one last hurrah, Bradford City offered him a return leaving Chelsea before the end of the 1905-06 season for one match.

The following year saw his final season at Valley Parade as the League added 4 new clubs in its expansion to two league of 20 teams.As with Chelsea, Bradford had banked on Foulkes to draw the crowds and the side often played in front of crowds in excess of 25,000. As final season’s go, Bradford made a good fist of it, but Foulkes must have been galled to see Chelsea gain promotion without him.

As time went by, Foulkes earned a living as a carnival show in Blackpool and on tour around the UK but his drinking eventually caught up with him and he passed away through cirrhosis of the liver in 1914, aged only 42. His grave can be found in Burngreave cemetery, Sheffield. 95 years on, his name still conjures images of a giant of man keeping goal for Sheffield United, terrorising strikers everywhere.

• 411 League and Cup Appearances for Sheffield United, Chelsea and Bradford City
• First ever captain of Chelsea in their debut season in the Football League
• 1 cap for England in 1897 v Wales
• 1 League Championship medal (1897-98)
  
• 2 F.A. Cup winners medals (1898-1899 & 1901-02)
  
• 1 F.A. Cup losers medal (1900-01)

South Africa 2010

Almost twenty years ago England went to Poland knowing that a draw would qualify them for Italia 90. A backs-to-the wall performance and the magnificence of Peter Shilton ensured they had their point and the team then went onto reach the semi-finals of the tournament that arguably saved English football from itself and ultimately elevated it to today’s dizzy heights.

Were it not for the crossbar however that Poland hit in the last minute with the superlative Shilton well beaten, England would have lost that night and not have qualified for Italia 90.   There would have been no glorious semi-final defeat, no tears from Gazza and the EPL might never have been born. Yet lady luck was smiling on England that night and here we are some 20 years on with England once again on the brink of the finals of the World Cup.  Like Bobby Robson’s team, England remain unbeaten throughout their qualifying campaign but there is unlikely to be a repeat of that night in Chorzow where England had to get a result as their campaign for South Africa draws to a close.

Should England fail on Wednesday they have a second and a third stab at qualification against the Ukraine and Belarus respectively in October although in all likelihood their passage to South Africa next summer will be sealed with those two games to spare.

There’s something about a do-or-die game however that somehow makes it all seem worthwhile. All those weekends where the EPL comes to a grinding halt and all eyes are fixed firmly on the England camp seem to frustrate fans and managers alike but when it all comes down to one night, it serves up a starter that wets our appetite for the main course of the Finals themselves next summer.

In years’ gone by, as well as the nail-biter in Poland, England supporters have endured the catastrophe in Rotterdam in 1993, the miracle of Rome in 1997, David Beckhams finest hour in 2001 although last time around in 2005 it was something of a damp squib as Sven’s men actually qualified for Germany on the back of a Dutch victory over the Czech Republic.

Of course the misery of failing to qualify for Euro 2008 is still relatively fresh in people’s minds and whilst you could argue that England have come on in leaps and bounds since that horror show in 2007 – ironically also against Wednesday’s opponents Croatia – it could be argued that international football is steadily falling down the interest radar. Of course everyone loves the World Up but the whole qualification process? It just seems inconvenient particularly to fans of the Bloated Four although it must be said but when it is their teams that are pretty much decimated by international call ups you can maybe see their point.
There was a time when England games seemed to really matter and they would capture the imagination of the English public in as much as they seemed to unite the football world but now they seem nothing more than a little sideshow than needs to be gotten out of the way before everyone can back to the real deal of the EPL.

With two huge games coming up on September 12th (Man City v Arsenal; Spurs v Man Utd) when the league resumes it is sometimes hard to get too excited about the international scene but come next summer no doubt even England’s biggest critics will be on the bandwagon although it is fair to say that the EPL has become the be all and end all of football in England and sadly that seems to include international football as well.

As far as Capello is concerned, well all he has done really is take the same group of players and taught them how to win again in a not too dissimilar way that one of his predecessors Sven Goran Erickson had England playing. It’s not pretty but it is effective – albeit against mediocre opposition it must be said.  Indeed, perhaps one of the biggest reasons for England’s recent winning streak is not necessarily the new manager but the standard of opposition in their group. You can only beat what’s in front of you and England has obviously done that but without really making anyone sit up and take notice. There’s still questions about the left side of midfield, there’s still doubts about Gerrard and Lampard in the same team and whilst those issues have been part and parcel of the England set up for years it seems there’s now doubts about just who is the first choice goalkeeper and just who should partner Rooney up front if there is to be a partner for him at all.

The warm up game against Slovania on Saturday will merely be a taster for the big event on Wednesday with Capello hoping above all to avoid any injuries to his squad so he may play his first team.  Looking at the team that faced Poland in 1989 what Capello wouldn’t give for the likes of Shilton, Bryan Robson and Gary Lineker to be lining up for him.  Indeed it makes the mouth water doesn’t it?  Gerrard and Robson together in the middle of the park?  Rooney and Lineker up front?  Maybe England would even progress beyond the Quarter Final stage and maybe even…nah, it wouldn’t be the same without a heartbreaking penalty shootout loss would it?

Poland 0-0 England
11 October,1989
Stadion Slaski, Chorzow

Peter Shilton [Derby County]
Gary Stevens [Glasgow Rangers]
Stuart Pearce [Nottingham Forest]
Desmond Walker [Nottingham Forest]
Terence Butcher [Glasgow Rangers]
David Rocastle [Arsenal]
Bryan Robson [Manchester United]
Stephen McMahon [Liverpool]
Christopher Waddle [Marseille]
Peter Beardsley [Liverpool]
Gary Lineker [Tottenham Hotspur]