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. 

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).

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