Kobbie Mainoo fighting grim track record as an England tournament bolter
Kobbie Mainoo has emerged as an absolutely textbook England major tournament bolter with his call-up to Gareth Southgateâs latest England squad, his final one before it all gets serious again this summer.
So letâs have a look at how similar bolters have fared ahead of major tournaments in the past, yeah? Pretty simple rules here: uncapped players named in the last in-season squad before the tournament. So usually weâre talking squads named around about this time of year, apart from the Qatar ridiculousness. Cool? Cool.
April 2002 â Matt Jansen
The England squad selected for a 4-0 win over Paraguay is dominated by the birth of a legend. A week before the game, three days before Sven-Goran Eriksson names a 25-man squad and 51 days until the World Cup begins, David Beckham is given a booting by Deportivo La Corunaâs Pedro Duscher in a Champions League quarter-final. His foot is bruised and bleeding.
The following day, an X-ray confirms he has broken the second metatarsal in his left foot. âWhat the f**k is a metatarsal?â asks a confused and concerned nation that will never again have to ask that question and is about to embark on a period of widespread collective insanity.
Tabloid front pages encouraged readers to pray for the injury to recover. It was the biggest story in town from that moment until Beckham, whose narrative arc appeared to have been completed with that crucial goal against Greece, was confirmed fit and would complete the actual end of this particular redemption story with the winning penalty against Argentina after a genuinely hilarious dive from Michael Owen. Then he jumped out of the way of a tackle in the build-up to a Brazil goal in the quarter-final. Was he thinking about his half-healed foot? Weâll never know. What we do know is that the man who initially benefited from Beckhamâs injury was, to general surprise, Blackburnâs Matt Jansen.
A stomach bug forced him to withdraw from the squad and, despite being measured for his suit, he was omitted from the final 23 for Japan and Korea. Jansen suffered a devastating motorcycle accident in Rome that summer from which his career tragically never truly recovered.
READ: Ranking Englandâs major tournament home kits as the lovely Euro 2024 effort drops
March 2004 â Jermain Defoe, Anthony Gardner, Robert Green, JLloyd Samuel, Alan Thompson, Shaun Wright-Phillips
A genuinely maverick Sven-Goran Eriksson squad named for a friendly in Sweden contained not only six uncapped players among its 26 names but a further nine with 10 or fewer England appearances.
When Beckham withdrew through injury, the most experienced international left in the group wasâŠGareth Southgate with 56 caps. England Ladder fans will be delighted to note that Phil Neville was second with 45.
Letâs rattle through the newbies, anyway. Defoe, obviously, had a perfectly competent England career, but a frustrating one with regard to major tournaments. An overall record of 20 goals from 57 caps certainly isnât shabby, but when the big tournaments came around he was nearly always a standby, only occasionally a squad player, and rarely much involved.
He didnât make it to Euro 2004, stay tuned for some 2006 oddness, would definitely have gone to Euro 2008 had England bothered to qualify, did go to the 2010 World Cup and scored against Slovenia, and then in what would prove his tournament swansong got a grand total of 13 minutes at Euro 2012. He was a standby again in 2014, meaning heâd been a standby player in more tournaments than he was actually picked for. Given his numbers over an England career spanning 13 years, it all feels a bit unlucky.
Shaun Wright-Phillips comes next on the list in terms of overall caps but a similar story, with his 29 England caps across a six-year span taking him to just one major tournament in 2010.
Rob Green was an unused sub in Gothenburg, didnât make the Euros squad and had to wait until May 2005 to finally make his debut.
He was forced off the 2006 World Cup standby list through injury, did start Englandâs first game of the 2010 World Cup but probably wishes he hadnât, and sat on the bench throughout Euro 2012 having by that time already won his 12th and it would turn out final cap in a pre-tournament warm-up against Norway.
Alan Thompson and Anthony Gardner both made debuts in that Sweden game in March 2004 but were never seen or heard of again for England, while JLloyd Samuel didnât even get that honour.
February/March 2006 â Darren Bent
Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney are Sven-Goran Erikssonâs clear first-choice strikers ahead of his second and last World Cup in charge of England, with Peter Crouch earmarked as first reserve/point of difference from the bench. An injury to Owen offered a chance to in-form Charlton striker Darren Bent in the squad for a friendly against Uruguay, setting up what appears to be a shootout with Tottenhamâs Jermain Defoe for the fourth and final place in the squad.
Bent starts against Uruguay, with Crouch and Defoe coming off the bench as England come from 1-0 down to win 2-1. Crouch, wearing the number 21 on the front of his shirt and shorts but 12 on the back for some reason, scores a 75th-minute equaliser before Joe Cole gets the winner deep into injury time.
Then, come May, when Eriksson has to name his World Cup squad, he leaves Bent out altogether, pops Defoe on a standby list and decides to pick a 17-year-old Theo Walcott who has yet to make a Premier League appearance for Arsenal.
âI only decided finally this morning,â chortles a demob-happy Eriksson at the announcement of the squad, which also includes a very first call-up for Tottenham teenager Aaron Lennon which while still a gamble is at least one based on some available first-team evidence.
Asked how he made the decision to pick Walcott over Bent or Defoe, Eriksson said: âProbably not too logically. Sometimes you do it on feelings as well and I am excited about Theo Walcott.â
Walcott was taking his driving theory test when the announcement was made. He passed.
February/March 2010 â Ryan Shawcross, Stephen Warnock, Leighton Baines
With a laser-guided piece of timing, Shawcross is named in Fabio Capelloâs squad for a friendly against Egypt literally hours after being sent off for snapping Aaron Ramsey in half with one of the Premier Leagueâs most infamous challenges. Having left the pitch in tears at what heâd done, Shawcross at least ended the day with some good news.
He was joined in the group by fellow uncapped duo Stephen Warnock and Leighton Baines, who found themselves in direct competition for the all-important role of understudy to undisputed first-choice left-back Ashley Cole after Wayne Bridge announced his international retirement.
Warnock would ultimately win that battle and in the process become the scourge of Sporcle quizzers from that day until the end of days.
As for Shawcross, he was an unused substitute against Egypt and had to wait until November 2012 to finally make his long-awaited England debut. He came off the bench with 16 minutes remaining of a friendly against Sweden that Roy Hodgsonâs side were leading 2-1. Sixteen minutes and three Zlatan Ibrahimovic goals later â including a ludicrous 30-yard overhead kick â Sweden have won 4-2 and Shawcrossâ England career had, in his own words, âended before it startedâ.
READ FROM 2016: Five recent England players who will stay on one cap
February 2012 â Fraizer Campbell, Tom Cleverley
Bit of a red herring this one, given it was Stuart Pearceâs one and only England squad in the Capello-Hodgson interregnum. Still, though: not great. Neither Campbell nor Cleverley made it to the Euros anyway.
Campbellâs one and only England call-up did at least yield a cap for a 10-minute cameo off the bench in Englandâs 3-2 defeat to the Netherlands, while Cleverley â who had first been called up the year before â would be forced to withdraw from the squad and wouldnât win the first of his 13 caps until Englandâs ârevengeâ win over Italy in August.
Improbably, this began a run of nine starts in a row for Cleverley as Roy Hodgson decided, really quite wrongly, that he was a number 10. Further caps came in the autumn of 2013, but by the time of the 2014 World Cup, Cleverley was only on the standby list. Where he would remain. He sat unused on the bench a couple more times the following summer before the end of his England journey.
February/March 2014 â Luke Shaw
Arguably the most successful uncapped player to emerge from these squads. One of only three men to score for England in a major tournament final, Shaw got his first call-up as an 18-year-old Southampton prodigy for a March friendly against Denmark as Roy Hodgson finalised his plans for Englandâs ill-fated trip to Brazil.
It was a slight surprise, not because Shawâs form for Saints didnât merit international recognition. It was more the fact Cole and Baines were also there, meaning Shawâs presence made it three left-backs in a squad that also contained only three recognised centre-backs. And those three centre-backs were Gary Cahill, Steven Caulker and Chris Smalling.
Shaw was ultimately named in Hodgsonâs final 23 for Brazil along with Baines, prompting the end of Coleâs England career.
Nineteen-year-old Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling also earned a recall to Hodgsonâs squad to face Denmark having made his debut 17 months earlier in the Shawcross-Zlatan Game. Thereâs frankly a whole story to tell about the six players who debuted for England that night in Stockholm: Shawcross, Sterling, Leon Osman, Caulker, Carl Jenkinson and Wilfried Zaha.
March 2016 â Danny Drinkwater, Tom Heaton, Danny Rose
Danny Drinkwater! What a time March 2016 truly was. Back then, Drinkwater was not only getting an England call but was also an integral part of a Leicester side conkers deep in an unlikely quest for Premier League glory.
He was on the bench for the friendly against Germany but started three days later against the Netherlands and was then named in Roy Hodgsonâs provisional 26-man Euros squad. He featured in the first two warm-up games, but was then one of the unfortunates cut from the final squad.
Drinkwater did sit on the bench for the entirety of the Sam Allardyce era, and was retained in Gareth Southgateâs first England squad that November. Drinkwater withdrew and that was the end of his England career.
Danny Rose, meanwhile, briefly became a pretty key member of the squad. Heâd actually first been called up in September 2014 and again in March 2015 without earning a cap, but he was soon involved this time around, starting both friendlies, two of the three pre-tournament friendlies and three of Englandâs four games at the tournament. Rose would remain in and around the squad for the next three years, and featured in five of Englandâs seven games at the 2018 World Cup. His total of 29 England caps puts him comfortably among the top bracket for uncapped pre-tournament call-ups.
Joe Hartâs withdrawal from the squad through injury earned Burnley keeper Tom Heaton another call-up after sitting on the bench for England the previous summer and throughout the September, October and November international breaks in 2015.
He would make his debut in the closing stages of a 2-1 win over Australia in a Euro 2016 warm-up game, and sat on the bench throughout Englandâs assorted shamblings around France that summer. He would win further caps against Spain later that year and France the following summer.
March 2018 â Alfie Mawson, Lewis Cook, Nick Pope, James Tarkowski
It would be easy reading all this to think that England were something of a shambles until Gareth Southgate came along with his calm and logical thinking that, no matter what your views on his often pedestrian and staid brand of sufferball, has at least provided England with some consistency and brought an end to this sort of late pre-tournament chaos.
And then you look at a squad three months before the 2018 World Cup and see James Tarkowski, Lewis Cook and â what, wait, Alfie Mawson?
Yes. Alfie Mawson was among four uncapped players named for March friendlies against the Netherlands and Italy, neatly mirroring Englandâs current squad with its uncapped quartet of Jarrad Branthwaite, Anthony Gordon, Ezri Konsa and Mainoo. With all due respect, we donât anticipate any of them retiring in five yearsâ time after a couple of seasons at Wycombe.
Cook, meanwhile, had in fact been called up the previous year for a friendly against Brazil and earned his one and (so far?) only cap against Italy before being named on the five-man standby list when Southgateâs World Cup squad was confirmed. Tarkowski played in both games before joining Cook on the standby list, only for a hernia operation to rule him out altogether.
Pope would of course still be very much in the picture were it not for injury, despite never having managed to unseat Jordan Pickford as Southgateâs first choice. Easy to forget now, though, just how murky the England goalkeeper situation was before that World Cup.
There were four goalkeepers in the March squad, with the experience and leadership qualities of Joe Hart seeing him retain his place despite the collapse of his club form.
Hart wouldnât make it to Russia in the end, Southgate instead preferring to select three keepers in his final squad who mustered only 12 caps between them. And eight of those were Jack Butlandâs. Englandâs opening game of the World Cup against Tunisia was Jordan Pickfordâs fourth cap, which seems really quite mad now.
March 2021 â Sam Johnstone
An injury to Jordan Pickford opened the door for West Bromâs Johnstone to earn his first call-up. Was unused in those three games at the end of March but made his debut just before the Euros against Romania and sat on the bench throughout Englandâs run to the final.
West Bromâs relegation between his first call-up and first cap obviously didnât help, but he remained a squad staple during the following season, before regaining his squad place last summer after a move to Crystal Palace, which of course comes with a lifetime guarantee of being in lower mid-table for ever and ever and thus Johnstoneâs England squad place is secure for ever and ever.
September 2022 â Ivan Toney
A different timeline, sure, but Toneyâs early-season exploits with Brentford earned him a place in Southgateâs squad for Nations League games against Italy and Germany that fulfilled the pre-tournament role historically taken by March friendlies.
He made it as far as the bench for the second of those games, a chaotic 3-3 draw with Germany, but lost out to Callum Wilson in the end for the coveted Harry Kane Understudy squad place.
Belatedly made his debut the following March as an 81st-minute substitute in a Euro qualifying win against Ukraine at Wembley, and is now back in the squad for the first time since serving an eight-month ban for betting offences.
That this all adds up to one of the better outcomes for an England squad bolter is really quite something.
