Earlier this year I predicted that the next player to be capped for England whilst at St Mary's would be Jay Rodriguez, Rickie Lambert made sure that I was wrong, but I wasn't out on my view that Jay Rodriguez is a talent.
It was no surprise to see Rickie Lambert in the England squad for the friendlies against Chile & Germany, the big shock though was that he was joined by his Saints teammates Adam Lallana & Jay Rodriguez, Lallana of course was picked for the squad last season, but never got off the bench against Ukraine, this time he is likely to get game time in at least one of the games.
But the biggest shock was that Jay Rodriguez was picked alongside him, as I mentioned back at the start of 2013 I stated I thought J Rod would be the next England cap for Saints and I have been vindicated in that bold prediction, indeed earlier this week whilst predicting big things for Jay, some on the message board told me I was wrong and that Rodriguez was not good enough to play up front for Saints.
I said that I thought all that was holding Rodriguez back now was his confidence and although that was growing he needed the confidence of knowing that someone is showing faith in you, he didn't get that earlier in the season at Saints when he found himself dropped so that Osvaldo & Lambert could be accommodated in the same side, I said back then that this was not helping the Saints system and that it was getting results in spite of and not because of an unbalanced formation, when Rodriguez was restored to the side we looked better balanced and indeed Rodriguez himself looked the best of our attacking players in the way in which he seemed to have it all in his locker, again some would not have this only days ago, however it seems now that Roy Hodgson agrees with me about Jay's talents and in terms of England we have a player who can not only play wide, but could play up the middle as well, in International football its about more than just one talent, its about having multiple attributes.
I cant remember the last time Saints had three players in an England squad, we probably have to go back to the mid 80's when Peter Shilton & Mark Wright were mainstays & the likes of Danny Wallace and Dave Armstrong got called up.
Whatever the details though its an honour for the club to have to do so and perhaps teels us all something as several big name signings falter in the Saints squad, that our best players are those we have brought up through the ranks or we have bought at a good price and have a hunger to succeed at the Club.