Just over three years ago the thought that England would be able to put out a full team made up of either current or ex Saints players would have been laughed at.

Back in 2011 as they prepared for life back in the Championship, the only connection Saints had with the England squad was Peter Crouch and Theo Walcott, yet three years later and with the latest Saints to be capped Nathaniel Clyne, Roy Hodgson could actually put out a full England starting XI of either current Saints stars or ex players who are still playing in the Premier League.

Ok it would be slightly unbalanced but still a team that could compete, but it does show jut how far the club have progressed n that time.

It is also a testimony as to how well the youth policy has worked over the past 15 year in that of the 11 have come through the youth system, the only sad thing being that none of those players are still with the club.

It shows that concentrating on youth development is not a new concept at Southampton FC, whilst the likes of Luke Shaw have undoubtably been developed in the last four years, the fact is that they have been at the club a lot longer than that and thanks should be given to those who discovered them perhaps 8/9 years ago.

When a player breaks through a club get the plaudits for producing youth but the reality is that you only find out how good your youth system is 5-8 years later, unlike signing an experienced player its a far longer process in development, so with our current set up we won't find out how good a job they are doing for another 5 years yet.

It is also testimony to how well we have managed to pick up a bargain, not just in recent times but in the past, Clyne, Lambert & Crouch were all signed fairly cheaply and in fairness no one was predicting England glory for any of them at the time of signing.

Of the other three you could almost add Jay Rodriguez to that list of cheap signings, of course we paid a decent fee for him, but he was a player who had never played in the Premier and with his value now being perhaps 3-4 times the price we paid it was certainly an astute signing

That leaves just to player who we have signed who are already full Internationals in Fraser Forster and Ryan Bertrand and emphasises the fact that the way forward for us as a club is to in the main concentrate on players who have potential and who we can developed and less on those who we have to pay big big bucks for.

But perhaps the most extraordinary fact is that of the team below, 7 will travel to Glasgow on Tuesday, another 2 in Rodriguez and Walcott could make the squad in 2015 when they have returned from injury and Ryan Bertrand could well be forcing his way into the squad by then as well, leaving just Peter Crouch who turning 34 in a month or so will probably not win another cap.

The full Saints England side is below

Fraser Forster

Nathaniel Clyne, Calum Chambers, Ryan Bertrand, Luke Shaw.

Theo Walcott, Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Jay Rodriguez

Rickie Lambert Peter Crouch

Photo: Action Images

ThereIn76 added 12:00 - Nov 16 JWP will be picked for England in 2015.
1

ThereIn76 added 12:09 - Nov 16 And Jack Cork SHOULD be picked for England ASAP.
0

WestSussexSaint added 13:57 - Nov 16 It's great to see so many with current or recent past connections with Saints. Looking at the squad in the article though it does highlight that while Saints have produced a large number of attacking players through the ranks (and you can call the full backs as additional attacking options these days) there has been a lack of central defenders. Only Chambers could be categorised in that position and only because he has played there for Arsenal. For Saints he was a full back. The only centre back prospect I'm aware of in recent times is Jack Stephens and he has yet to make a mark.

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls