Ten weeks after England's embarrassing exit from the European Championship at the hands of Romania in Charleroi, Kevin Keegan yesterday gave the same group of players the chance to redeem their battered national reputation when he selected 19 of the 22 at Euro 2000 for next Saturday's friendly in Paris with France. It is England's only warm-up match before their World Cup qualifiers begin in October.
Of the Euro 2000 squad, only the retired Alan Shearer, the injured Robbie Fowler, and the Ipswich Town goalkeeper Richard Wright, dropped in favour of Aston Villa's David James, have been omitted from the 24 names Keegan announced yesterday.
Those who were on the fringes of the championship squad, West Ham's Rio Ferdinand, Newcastle's Kieron Dyer and Tottenham's Darren Anderton, have been included, as has Andy Cole, now being pushed as Shearer's natural successor, despite the presence of Emile Heskey, Michael Owen and Kevin Phillips.
One man who definitely succeeds Shearer is Tony Adams, Keegan's new captain. Adams has his 34th birthday in October and has question marks over his fitness, but Keegan said:
"I think he is a natural one to take over from Alan Shearer. I read that people say it might only be for the short term but we must not pre-judge that. I still think he has a lot to offer England, providing he stays fit."
Keegan was pressed as to why he had not opted for a more daring selection, but he pointed to a lack of obvious alternatives and added, correctly, that Joe Cole does not yet play regularly enough and consistently well enough for West Ham. Cole's club colleague, Frank Lampard, had been in Keegan's thoughts but missed out narrowly.
"I can find good enough reasons not to experiment for this game," Keegan said. "This one game against France is the only one I have to prepare for the qualifiers against Germany and Finland and I need to get this right."
Andy Cole, Keegan hinted, may feature prominently in his plans. Cole is now 28, but has just two England starts behind him, and Keegan said: "We have to make a plus out of Alan retiring. The exciting thing is how do we replace Alan and what will that bring to the table? "Andy Cole is a good finisher, I don't think that is in doubt. He was also a very, very good player at Newcastle when I had him, but he has improved and his claims are strong. "He was 23 when I had him. He's 28 now, he is at his peak. He deserves maybe the right to have a chance. People will make something out of me not picking Andy for Euro 2000, but he was not fit and I am sure he will say so next week."
Meanwhile, France have named a squad featuring 11 players with English Premiership experience and it includes striker Sylvain Wiltord who signed for Arsenal last night from Bordeaux.
After weeks of wrangling over the price of the 26-year-old who snatched the vital equaliser for France in the final of Euro 2000 against Italy, Arsene Wenger has done a deal just in time to beat the deadline for the first phase of the Champions League with a week to spare. Arsenal are not revealing the price they have paid but it is expected to be around £12.5 million sterling.
ENGLAND SQUAD: Seaman (Arsenal), Martyn (Leeds), James (Aston Villa), P Neville (Man Utd), G Neville (Man Utd), Barry (Aston Villa), Adams (Arsenal), Keown (Arsenal), Campbell (Tottenham), Southgate (Aston Villa), Ferdinand (West Ham), Gerrard (Liverpool), Dyer (Newcastle), Wise (Chelsea), Barmby (Liverpool), Ince (Middlesbrough), Anderton (Tottenham), McManaman (Real Madrid), Heskey (Liverpool), Owen (Liverpool), Phillips (Sunderland), Cole (Man Utd), Beckham (Man Utd), Scholes (Man Utd).
FRANCE SQUAD: Barthez (Man Utd), Lama (Stade Rennes), Rame (Bordeaux); Blanc (Inter Milan), Candela (AS Roma), Desailly, Leboeuf (both Chelsea), Lizarazu (Bayern Munich), Thuram (Parma); Deschamps (Valencia), Djorkaeff (Kaiserslautern), Karembeu (Middlesbrough), Micoud (Parma), Petit (Barcelona), Pires, Vieira (both Arsenal), Zidane (Juventus); Anelka (Paris St Germain), Dugarry (Bordeaux), Henry (Arsenal), Trezeguet (Juventus), Wiltord (Arsenal).
