Has Capello Got The Bottle To Pick Carroll?

Last updated : 09 November 2010 By Footy Mad - Editor

Joey Barton: "I am a bit biased, but on form Andy is as good as anybody in the country.

"I am not telling Capello how to do his job, but England were not at their best in the last game, and he said he is going to pick players on form, so he has got to freshen it up.

"For me, it is a no-brainer really because he has got everything to be the archetypal English centre-forward.'

 "What do England want to do, do we want to win football matches or do they want to attract sponsors and earn a lot of money?

"Off the field, it gives them every opportunity not to pick him.

"But if you want to win football matches then sometimes players who don't always toe the line - every other national team picks because they are the best in their position, the frustrating thing for me is we pick the good guys, the guys who won't cause any problems.

"Hopefully England will stop worrying about what the sponsors are going to say and that 'goody two shoes' is the right image for Team England. They need to start picking players to win football matches.

"Hopefully people will judge Andy purely on his football ability. If he's talking about picking players then he's got to try him.

"The worst thing he can do is try him, he can't be any worse than what's gone before.

"Kevin Davies is a great player, but is he really the future?

"He is 33 and is he going to play at the next World Cup or European Championships? It is time to bring in the young kids.'

"Andy is a great kid, a little bit like myself - a magnet for the wrong headlines, and I have been through the mill more than anyone.

"What Andy has got to understand is it won't take people that long to over-emphasise everything he does, but if he can just keep his nose clean and play football, he has the world at his feet.

"I spoke with Andy before the Arsenal game and told him 'this is your refuge, go out and put a performance in - that is the best way to answer whatever people level at you'.

"What I have found in later life is that you become more mature and that was a way of getting the best out of myself.

"It is helping me now that I have not been in trouble for a long time."