Even if I had any doubts about Ivan Toney’s international qualifications - and I don’t - I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t welcome his selection for England.
I’ve banged on for most of my career about picking players in form, or rather encouraging them with games for doing the right things. Yeah, he may be with an unfashionable club, and there may be questions about his quality - though there are always questions about goalscorers - but he has the right to be in Gareth Southgate’s squad because he’s earned it the hard way.
I know from bitter experience that England very definitely do not always operate on the principle of selecting those who are currently doing their job the best. Forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but I scored almost 100 goals before I got my first senior cap.
I got those goals in a couple of years too. Nowadays, at the age of 21 as I was then, that would get me a £100million move to the biggest clubs in the world. Back then, it got me 13 minutes at the end of a crap friendly against Bulgaria.
I don’t know how much better my form could have been. Am I bitter? Not in that sense, but I don’t look back on my England career with any warmth, because I felt - and feel - I should have played more when I was at the absolute peak of the game.
Look at the 1996 European Championships semi-final with Germany. I was on the bench, and we were drawing 1-1. I’d scored 90 goals in two-and-a-bit seasons and I’d scored 36 goals that season alone! We didn’t bring one sub on, not even to take a penalty.
I’d just turned 21, pretty much the same age as Erling Haaland. Do you think he’d get a game now in a similar situation?! I’m not moaning about it, but making the point - go on form. I should have been on for extra time, no question.
Ivan Toney has scored five goals already this season and he’s got to where he is for one reason - he keeps scoring. 52 for Brentford in two seasons and a few games. That’s the only true qualification you can judge a striker on.
I really hope Gareth gives him a proper chance, not just in this international break, but actually in taking him on what he does in the England shirt. If he performs, he should stay in, no matter which other players are coming back.
There is a thing I’ve noticed about the England centre-forward position these days, though - there are not too many to choose from. Yeah, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ollie Watkins have injury problems, but there’s no depth.
In 1996, strikers like Ian Wright, Andy Cole, Stan Collymore, David Hirst, Kevin Phillips, Tony Cottee and Matt Le Tissier didn’t get near the England squad.
What’s changed? Well, academy football for a start. I’m not knocking it, but there is a standard way of playing now and that usually requires only one out-and-out striker, if that.
And there’s the other obvious fact that clubs spend massive, massive money on the currency of football - goals. So chances are, as a kid, you’re not getting past the multi-million pound signing from abroad who plays up front.
Here’s a story for you, from a time I was mentoring at Liverpool. Alex Inglethorpe, the Academy Director there, spoke with Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was playing in midfield and further up, about his pathway to the first team.
They realised there was far more chance of him getting through as a kid at right-back, rather than his preferred position - and they were spot on. A top-class talent progressed right through to the first team.
Should Ivan Toney be on the plane to Qatar? Have your say in the comments!
And I think that’s what is happening now. Kids with real talent at centre-forward are looking at it and thinking, ‘I’m not getting past Haaland or Darwin Nunez or whoever, so maybe I should look at playing wide, or behind the forward’.
Combine the two and you have a problem of talent emerging. These things go in cycles, though. I’ve been looking at the Championship, where more and more teams are playing with three or five at the back.
That allows two forwards to be played up top, and if more Premier League sides do it, then there will be more opportunities. Also, you know all that hero thing - well, Haaland is a pretty good advert for playing centre-forward right now!
In the meantime, Toney has a great opportunity to force his way into the England squad before the World Cup. Not only does he deserve it, but I really hope he takes it.
