Andy Carroll has pulled out of the England squad due to injury, could this be Rickie Lamberts chance ?

The short and not so sweet answer is no ! Roy Hodgson has decided he wont bring anyone in as a late replacement, if he had decided to do so then Rickie Lambert would surely have been that man.

Sadly though he wont be and the ngland boss has given a clear indication that he is not going to consider Lambert for an England cap, the main reason is probably age, to be fair he probably has a point there, he still has a few strikers in the squad and they are going to be the players that take England through the next few years, Lambert will be 32 next February and perhapsd a bit old to get international experience now, although some would point at Jermaine Defoe and the fact that he is only eight months younger than the Saints number 7, but Defoe is an experienced international.

But what wont have helped Lambert is his barren spell in front of goal, prior to Sunday he hadn't scored in his previous six outings and in total of the 16 games since Mauricio Pochettino took over at SMs he has only managed 5 goals, most of those have not been from open play, this could have played a big part in Hodgson's thinking.

Photo: Action Images

LostBoys added 10:39 - May 22 Even if he had scored a goal a game Hodgson would not select him as we are not a 'fashionable' club. Hodgson is a poor choice of England manager.
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SaintNick added 11:48 - May 22 Hodgson is not my choice that's for sure
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bstokesaint added 13:08 - May 22 LostBoys has nailed it. I think it's great news for us though. As far as I'm concerned I'd rather keep a low profile on Rickie, Jay Rod, Clyne, Cork and Shaw. The latter four will almost definitely feature for England some day and if it's only going to be with a big club I'd selfishly rather have them with us as long as possible. It is a shame how many England managers and pundits suffer 'big club syndrome'. It's very disrespectful to all of the players from clubs outside of the top 6, who's careers are considered incomplete unless they join a big club.

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ExiledSupporter added 18:29 - May 22 Remind me...how many league goals has Welbeck scored this season. I can think of several England qualified forwards who would have more of a claim to selection than the Man Utd player, but then he does play for a big club Cleverley doesn't impress me all that much either, Wilshere is much better and so is Cork!
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