Should Lampard and Terry retire from England duty?
The inquest into England’s dismal failure at the World Cup will no doubt go on for months, perhaps even years.
The truth probably overlaps the myriad of reasons given so far, ranging from player fatigue, lack of talent and even the effects of altitude. England’s World Cup 2010 odds suggested they would go far, but they flopped in the most horrible manner.
The players’ international futures will also come into question. The so-called golden generation will be too old for the next World Cup and many are saying they should be dropped in order to develop a group of new players in time for Brazil 2014.
John Terry and Frank Lampard are among those players. Terry had a poor tournament by his standards. He was strangely caught out of position several times against Germany and appeared not a sharp as he could be in all four of England’s matches.
Lampard was one of few players to emerge from the Germany game with any credit. We all know how unlucky he was with the phantom goal, while he also hit the bar in the second half and gave the sort of all-action performance we are used to seeing him do in a blue shirt.
Yet, over the course of his international career he has failed to hit the heights he consistently does when playing for Chelsea.
Is it now time for both of them to call time on their international careers and concentrate on the Blues?
After all Paul Scholes has extended his club playing career by several years after quitting England and the same went for Alan Shearer, who played for six more years after quitting England in 2000.
For Chelsea, the prospect of having two of their talismans play for longer must be an inviting one and I wouldn’t be surprised if Carlo Ancelotti has brought up the subject with the duo.
The best they can really hope for in an England shirt is a run in the qualifiers and maybe one last shot at the European Championships. The football odds suggest England will be in with a shot of glory, but is it really worth it for the older players to hang on.
After this latest exit you certainly get the impression people are looking to the future and the moment a younger replacement comes along, pretty much regardless of how good they actually are, there will be calls for Lampard and Terry to be dropped.
Why don’t they just do the easy thing and walk before they are pushed?
Filed under: Current Players, International, Rants
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I think they should soley because the press slaughter them so much. I love the way when Rooney makes a mistake its Lampards fault or someone else. He can walk on water according to the press. Truth is, he was a disgrace at the WC. Lampard should retire because the press blame everything on him and it would be good for them to realise their driving top English players away.
I don’t agree with this to be honest, you can tell that the boys love playing for their nation no matter how much their nation dumps on them, continually. It’s the same with Ash, they’ve all been public enemy number 1 at one point in their England careers and I daren’t say they will all come out of it in the end. I doubt that them retiring will prolong their club careers either, Scholes was smart because he retired when Lampard was getting better and better and incidentally Scholes was shifted out to the left and had his nose bent out of shape. The popular misconception is that Paul Scholes was this continental midfield marvel when he played for England when infact he has no more or less failed as much as Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have in their international careers but there you go.
At the end of the day they know that they are always supported properly whenever they go back to their respective clubs, that any mistake will be forgiven as long as they continue to perform on the pitch and that’s also one of the reasons that wearing your international shirt is a poisoned chalice but then again everyone would still give their arm and their leg to represent their country.
I doubt Terry will have the luxury of an option, the Bindipper mafia will see to that. Lampard should quit – the club is more important than the overhyped, mostly underskilled, national team.
I’ve said it before on this site that nothing would please me more than JT, Lamps and Ashley Cole retiring from international football to concentrate upon playing for Chelsea. At least they know their efforts are appreciated by our fans compared to the tabloid-reading, Talksport-listening sheep that follow England. They don’t need the hassle and it’ll benefit us in the long run.
Let’s see how good England are with the likes of James Milner, Ledley King and Kieran Gibbs (or dare I say Wayne Bridge?) in the side instead. And when they cock up European Championships qualification let’s see how long it takes before people are calling for the return of the old guard .
no they should retire after Euro 2012