Charlie Austin for England

Now, I want to state quite clearly from the outset that I am not related to Charlie Austin. He once played for Swindon Town and I am a Swindon Town fan; that's as far or close as our relationship goes. However, prior to signing for Swindon Town, he used to score goals seemingly at will with an incredible 1.12 goal per game ratio (64 goals in 57 appearances) for Poole Town in the Premier Division of the Wessex League. He signed for Swindon Town, went on to play for Burnley FC and then made it to the Premier League with Queens Park Rangers. At the time of writing, his current all time goal average (including all competitions for his non-league, Football League and Premier League clubs) stands at 0.63 from 204 goals in 324 appearances. Again, at the time of writing, he is the highest English scorer in the Premier League with 5 goals (see Addendum below for a correction to this statement)


Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote  blogposts on his exploits when he was playing for Burnley FC (Sporting Life & Zlatan Ibrahimovic) and was the leading goalscorer in Europe. He broke the Lancashire club's record for being the quickest player to score 20 goals in a season and finished his time with the Clarets on a goal average of 0.50. He is now playing for Queens Park Rangers and his goal per game ratio with the R's currently stands at an all time 0.54 with a score of 0.56 for the season so far.

The point of my quoting the statistics above is to highlight the goalscoring prowess of Charlie Austin. His most recent goal for QPR (see video), a cheeky backheel into the net against Chelsea, is indicative of a natural born striker and now that he is plying his trade in the English Premier League, he must surely be in the running for an England call up. To back up this statement, I've taken the liberty of analysing the goal per game ratio statistics of the current strikers in the England senior squad (and Daniel Sturridge) versus that of Charlie Austin. All figures are taken from www.soccerbase.com and only includes the players' statistics for teams for which they have played in the Football League and Premier League. The results are detailed in the table below:

Goal per Game Ratio for England Strikers

The table shows that, of all the current and potential England Senior Squad Strikers, his goal to game ratio is by far the best for all games played in the Football League and Premier League. If England are to have any chance of progressing to a major final in forthcoming tournaments, starting with Euro 2016, a natural goalscorer playing in a striker's role for England is a must. The statistics above speak for themselves - Roy Hodgson, when are you going to give Charlie Austin the England call up he deserves?

Addendum

I have an apology to make to the West Bromwich Albion player, Saido Berahino. He is currently the top scoring Englishman in the Premier League with 7 goals from 10 games, not Charlie Austin. I have to confess, following the fortunes of the teams in the lower reaches of the English football pyramid, I didn't realise that Saido Berahino had represented England at different levels (U16 to U21) having assumed that he would have represented his native Burundi. I now realise my folly and, with a strike rate of 0.62 (8 goals and 13 appearances) so far this season for WBA, perhaps he could be the perfect partner for Charlie Austin up front for England? His overall strike rate for WBA is 0.35 (17 goals and 49 appearances) with an all time career strike rate of 0.37 (29 goals and 79 appearances), at the age of 21, he can only develop...for better or worse, only time will tell. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic...he doesn't even have a Swedish name! What a goal, though. His fourth against England shows just how far Sweden have progressed in international football and the defeat shows just how far England have slipped. The Murdoch Empire, epitomised by BSkyB, has ruined English football to the extent that there are no longer enough English players in the top league of English football to give Roy Hodgson a sporting chance of winning any tournament. Forget Steven Gerrard and the rest of the old guard - sling them out and start again. Look into the lower reaches of the Football League, trawl through the Championship and unearth some diamonds who will do the job for England, starting with Charlie Austin. Like Gary Lineker, he knows where the goal is and is currently the top scorer in Europe (my post yesterday did not give him all the credit he is due).

Related articles

• Austin reaches 20-goal landmark

Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Reading the story about Frankie Dettori testing positive for a banned substance makes you think that the world of sport is a strange place. Surely the only
athlete involved in horse racing is the horse? If any mammal in the jockey/racehorse relationship needs to be tested for performing enhancing substances it's the horse! The jockey just sits on his mount, points it in the right direction and Dobbin does the rest; the only exertion Mr. Dettori shows is when he leaps off the horse in the winner's enclosure. Does it really matter if he's off his face with some "recreational" compound?

Cycling

Talking of  athletes taking performance enhancing substances, I'm torn between two extremes with Lance Armstrong. Even with the very real probability that he used EPO, blood transfusions and other nefarious means to boost his performance, he still won seven (7!) Tour de France races. Watching him and the other cyclists toiling their way up Alpe D' Hueze, it's not surprising he thought he needed a little pick-me-up in order to get to the summit. I'm sure if I did the same and was drugs tested afterwards, the performance enhancing substance I would have tested positive for would have been a helicopter!

Football

Whatever each Swindon Town fan thinks of Charlie Austin and the way he left the club, we would all probably accept that he was one of the most inspirational signings for the club (Wembley bobble not withstanding). Now he's plying his trade with Burnley FC, he's still scoring for fun and is currently the highest scoring player in all of the English leagues. Why, therefore, wasn't he chosen to represent his country against Sweden?