Charlie Austin England Call Up

The announcement today of the England Squad to play against Slovenia and the Republic of Ireland in the Euro 2016 qualifier, and friendly international, in June has given vindication to my call for Charlie Austin to represent his country. I first called for his inclusion into the senior team in November 2012 when, at that time, he was the highest scoring striker in Europe (Sporting Life & Zlatan Ibrahimovic). Since then, when he was playing for Burnley FC having been first given the chance to ply his trade as a professional footballer by Swindon Town, he has proved his worth in the Premier League playing for Queens Park Rangers. Perhaps the almost three years that has passed since my call for him to receive his first cap has allowed him to mature both physically and mentally and he will be better equipped to seize the chance that he has been given? However, I believe that the debacle that was the England performance in the World Cup 2014 may have been avoided if a natural goalscorer like Austin had been included in the squad.

It is heartening to see that a player nurtured by Swindon Town has now been given the opportunity to achieve the honour of representing his country. Nonetheless, it is a shame that those responsible for choosing who is included in the squad rarely, if ever, look further than the Premier League for those they deem good enough to play for England. As a Swindon Town fan, I believe the club should take pride in being involved in the development of someone who may prove to be the prolific goalscorer the England team has been sorely missing. 

Two other new inclusions to the England squad have been selected from teams towards the bottom end of the Premier League. One is Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) and the other is Tom Heaton (Burnley FC). Their inclusion, along with that of Charlie Austin, is due to the fact that Roy Hodgson's first choices are unavailable as they are due to play in the England U21 team in the Euro U21 2015 Finals in the Czech Republic this summer. I hope that they also seize the opportunity to shine and, therefore, pave the way for other decent players from less fashionable clubs to represent their country.

Tom Heaton

As an end note, Swindon Town could tenuously claim to have helped in Tom Heaton's development as he played on loan for the club in the 2005/2006 season. His parent club was Manchester United and he played in a total of 19 games for the Robins. The other member of the full England squad who has links to Swindon Town is James Milner who played for the club 6 times in the 2003/2004 season, scoring 2 goals in his time at the County Ground.