In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including why England are now a squad to be proud of, why Crystal Palace and West Ham are moving forward, and why Man United have let down Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood.
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I really enjoyed England’s performance against the Netherlands. It was a lot more assured, a lot more assertive, a lot more aggressive.
When the Dutch scored, there was always an element of ‘here we go again,’ but England got that slice of luck with the penalty. I’d be very disappointed if that was given against me as a player and I was very surprised that the referee’s original decision wasn’t upheld. Incredibly fortuitous.
After that I thought for pretty much the entirety of the match, 70 plus minutes, England were the better team.
It shows how far we’ve come that the expectation in this tournament to date hadn’t been met, and for an England team to dominate possession of the ball against the Dutch is quite remarkable – and that may not get commented on as much as it should.
It’s a massive vindication of the St George’s Park project, of English coaches and English coaching, and of the talent that we’re now producing.
England used to play the Dutch and you’d think to yourself ‘how are we going to get the ball back?’ and on Wednesday I watched an English team play a Dutch team where the Netherlands players were running around wondering when they were going to get the ball back. That could be a real watershed moment for English football in many ways.
I still think that Harry Kane is labouring a little bit, but the main positive is that we now know that another glass ceiling can be broken.
The captain of the national team can be taken off and there won’t be any sort of division amongst England fans because there are now players coming through – like Ollie Watkins – that can provide those golden moments. That’s massive. That’s absolutely massive.
Credit has to be given to Gareth Southgate because he said all the way through, judge him on results.
He’s obviously been wounded by some of the personal stuff, which I think is out of order. You can criticise somebody, and we have, rightly so, because of performances, without it being personal.
If Crystal Palace can bring in up to £100m in sales over the next two or three years, with a progressive coach and an academy that continues to produce good players, they’ll be very happy.
They’ll look at the situation and say that ideally they’d have liked to build like Brighton or other progressive clubs have, get some success and into Europe before having to start to shed our players.
But the reality is it doesn’t matter.
When you are seen as a mid-table ‘smaller’ club you are going to have other people look at your players, and to lose Marc Guehi, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze in the same window would be concerning.
However, they’ve got a state of the art training facility and still have plenty of very good players. I mean, we haven’t even mentioned Adam Wharton and I don’t think they’d let him go.
If Crystal Palace get some decent money in, Steve Parish can ask himself the question as to whether he has somebody that he would trust to spend it wisely, and in Oliver Glasner, yes, the manager has done very well so far. He looks like somebody that’s going to be there for the longer term.
So this isn’t Roy Hodgson that’s being given a war chest of £70m, they’ve got a young, vibrant manager with a very, very good style of play who, if you gave him the resources, will ensure Crystal Palace go from strength to strength.
I think that we got it absolutely spot on in this column previously about West Ham having to make sure that Lopetegui’s ego, which is big, is assuaged and pandered to.
The fact that he wanted a player that he worked with at Wolves in Max Kilman, and West Ham got him straightaway, tells you that the club have effectively said ‘we’ll back you.’
So that’s a really positive sign and it’s one step forward and not two steps back, but another one forward for a change.
Like other clubs, they will get mentioned and linked with several players over the next few weeks, but I think that Lopetegui has his wish list, and they’ve got target number one.
The manager will already feel like he can walk into the office and start to put his plans for pre-season together, knowing that the West Ham board are going to put their money where their mouth is.
They did put in a lower bid for Kilman which was turned down, but the West Ham of old would’ve walked away. Not anymore.
They’ve got a very good, top 10 squad already, and on the back of the Euros if they want to tap into the whole ‘West Ham won the World Cup’ thing, they all of a sudden become a more attractive proposition for players.
I think that both Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood were unfortunate to be at the madhouse over the past few years that is Manchester United.
Sancho being dug out by the manager in particular isn’t helpful at all, and his form back at Dortmund proved that.
In terms of Greenwood, it was and is a very serious situation. We all saw the videos, we all saw the pictures, and I’m a massive believer – I have to be because of my own mistakes in life – that you get an opportunity to learn and move forward, and Getafe allowed him to do that.
There was very toxic way in which his situation was talked about amongst Manchester United fans, men and women. I doubt that there’s a way back for him there, and I think that makes it very difficult for him to come back to an English club too.
For both of them to play abroad now is a is a good thing and I think they’ll get plenty of offers because of England being on the world stage at the moment after their win over the Netherlands. There’s a lot of positive connotations after that performance and result.
They should go and enjoy a career outside of the English top flight, because yes, to a degree, Man United and English football has failed them.
I wish them both very well because they’re both extremely talented players, and in a year’s time, if Sancho is doing what we know he can do, there’s nothing to say that by that point, the next England manager doesn’t look to bring him back into the fold.
For Greenwood I think it’s more difficult because if he plays for England again, everybody – media, women’s groups and the general public – will say that he shouldn’t be.
Despite me thinking that anybody should have the ability to redeem themselves, I don’t think there is a way back to international duty for Mason Greenwood.
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