According to The Guardian, Roy Hodgson has said that his successor will reap the benefit of the youngsters currently making their mark in the England national team as the English FA looks beyond the 2016 European Championships.
The squad will be heading to Estonia on Saturday before their next qualifying tie after securing top position in their qualifying group and with a number of fledgling players seizing the opportunity to establish their credentials at the highest level. The team will be tested with a host of friendlies in the next two years, with Italy confirmed as opponents in March next year, likely to be played in Turin and negotiations are ongoing with France for a game at the Stade de France, either in November 2015 or in March 2016.
Those games with their game against Scotland next month and the Republic of Ireland in the summer, will definitely give a fair indication of where the team is at and what more adjustments need to be made before their next major tournament. The average age of the 14 who featured against San Marino on Thursday was 24 years 234 days, a figure inflated by the inclusion of Phil Jaielka at 32. Only Gary Cahill and Wayne Rooney of the rest are over 28.
Asked if his successor will benefit from working with the current crop of players at their peak, Hodgson said: “I suppose looking forward, [the majority in] this team are mostly 21 or 22. People will tell me players don’t reach their best until they are 27 or 28 so realistically, perhaps I won’t see their best. I am enjoying enormously working with them even though there is experience to gain. I am enjoying the moment where they gain that experience and they are providing a lot of things which give us a lot of satisfaction.”
The manager has retained a sense of pragmatism over his current approach to building his squad, acutely aware that results must not dip while he maintains the squad’s evolution.
“I don’t want to get caught up feeling embarrassed if I pick someone who is 28, 29, 30, because you are telling me I should only be picking under-30s,” said Hodgson, who used Chelsea’s Lewis Baker, who is in the Under-21 squad, in training with the senior players at St George’s Park this week.
“I am picking people I think can do the job. A good example of that is Chambers. Here is a guy who played a few times for the Under-19s, jumped straight over the Under-21s and went into the first team. That is a great pat on the back for our development system.
“The reason it is there is to get [players] into the first-team. You are an Under-21 player because you want to be a senior. No one has a goal to play for the Under-21s. The goal is the senior team. And if you get in the Under-20s and Under-21s and that gets you into the senior team, then you give the development a pat on the back. But I don’t want to say if any vacancies appear in the squad then I ‘have’ to go into the Under-21 squad. I will, if there is a Calum Chambers there. I will if there is a John Stones. But we will see.
“It is something we talk about, particularly with the attacking talent. It is strange how it has manifested itself. A year ago we didn’t know Sterling would turn out the player he is today. We did not know, in the early days of Jordan Henderson at Liverpool, that he would become the player he is. We didn’t know [Ross] Barkley would kick on. We didn’t know how well Welbeck would do when he got his chance, or Sturridge, so I have been lucky enough to be here when that has all happened and, I suppose, bright enough to realise I don’t have to hang my hat on 30-year-olds. If these guys are that good, I can put them in the team.”
Negotiations are ongoing with the French Football Federation over the date of the fixture at the Stade de France, with Les Bleus’ coach, Didier Deschamps, seeking to play the likes of England, Germany, Italy and Holland in Paris before the finals in 2016. The French hope to announce the final scheduling of the fixture next week.