Saints striker Rickie Lambert has been called up to the England squad for the upcoming friendly against Scotland.
Its ironic that Lambert should get a call up to the England squad now, in truth its probably come 12 -18 months too late, back then Lambert truly deserved a chance, but this call up comes at a time when Lambert is not in the best form of his Saints career, with only 4 goals since the arrival of new boss Pochettino he didn't finish last season with a flourish, wasn't considered good enough for the post season matches etc, so why is he considered good enough suddenly now.
Let me say how delighted I am for Rickie himself that he gets this recognition and I truly hope he gets on the pitch and wins an England cap it would be the final piece of his fairytale rise at Saints which has seen him go from lower league journeyman to potential England International, as a Saints fan Im delighted but as an England fan Im not.
That's not to take anything away from Rickie as a player, I have cheered his goals as much as the next Saints fan and recognise just what he has done for this club and continues to do for this club, but from an England perspective its a step backward, giving a first cap to a player who will be 32 in a little over 5 months is not looking to the future and lets be blunt Saints wouldn't sign a 31 year old forward would they !!
But I don't want to labour on the negative points for England, I want to go on a few plus points, if ever a player deserves the call up in the Premier League its Ricky, what a great swansong it would be for him to score for England, score regularly in the Premier and then go to Brazil next summer if England qualify, sadly I fear that although Ricky could well do the firs t parts of this dream, the last part wont happen, we all know that once all the prima donnas suddenly declare themselves fit again for the games that matter after their mysterious iinjuries that keep them out of this game, Roy Hodgson will discard Rickie and put in the superstars.
Good luck to Rickie Lambert every Saints fan is behind you.