It can take a long time for a footballer to establish themselves in Gareth Southgate's England squad, but once they've got a spot they tend to stay in the mix.
So what happens to those who work their way up, get embedded, and then fall away?
Jadon Sancho was being earmarked for inclusion long before he made his first competitive start for his country in March 2019. He has now racked up 23 senior caps, though, and was included in the Euro 2020 squad - the first available tournament after his senior debut.
A move to Manchester United in 2021 was expected to provide a boost, while ensuring any perceived disadvantage from playing overseas would disappear. However, after a tough debut season in England, the opposite has been true.
Sancho's last England appearance came nearly a year ago, in a 5-0 win against minnows Andorra in a World Cup qualifier. He has been left out of Southgate's squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations League matches against Italy and Germany, and will now have to take stock of his situation with the World Cup just two months away and a spot on the plane to Qatar looking unlikely.
This is despite an upturn in form at club level. A goal against Sheriff in the Europa League on Thursday was his third in just eight appearances, and he needs just two more to match his tally from last season.
There has already been a noticeable uptick under Erik ten Hag, after claims last season that the former Borussia Dortmund star had made a mistake moving to Old Trafford. We're hearing fewer reports of questions being asked about the £73m star, with player and club alike showing more of what we expected.
Many expected the redemption arc to continue with a call-up from Southgate, with the manager continuing to call upon Sancho last autumn after his Euro 2020 penalty heartbreak but looking elsewhere when the 22-year-old's club form dipped. That hasn't happened, though, and there have been suggestions that a positional change could now be the answer.
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Despite Sancho's goal in Moldova, Ten Hag called from even more from Sancho in the months to come. However, in doing so, the Dutchman snuck in a hint about where the wide man's future might lie at international level.
I’m really pleased [for Sancho]," the manager said. "Another goal… he’s doing well, but I think there’s much more room for improvement for him, because he has so many skills.
“In preparing the goal with Bruno, he was in the centre-forward position. We did some experiments, bringing Tyrell [Malacia] on the right and Luke [Shaw] on the left, we can be very able, we need that in the season.”
Ten Hag was reluctant to comment on Southgate's decision, saying "It's not up to me, it's the manager of England, I cannot be in his seat, I don't want to do it." Still, with Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish, Jarrod Bowen and Phil Foden all options out wide in the latest squad, an ability to operate in the centre could be what's needed.
England look far less deep when it comes to central strikers, as evidenced by Southgate's decision to hand Ivan Toney a first ever call-up for the upcoming games. While Sancho is a very different player to the Brentford man, he may have a chance to use versatility to his advantage between now and the first game in Qatar.
Ten Hag isn't the only one to speak about Sancho's qualities in the centre, either. Former Man Utd star Paul Scholes, a man well versed in being moved into an unfamiliar role in order to hold down a starting spot for England, has suggested a move towards the centre could well boost the World Cup chances of a man who he doesn't see as an out-and-out winger.
"He’s better when he’s coming inside the pitch, when he’s linking with players," Scholes said on BT Sport (via Metro ). "He doesn’t have that electrifying pace to go past someone down the outside or on the inside.
"When he was good at Dortmund, he had [Erling] Haaland to link with, [Achraf] Hakimi, he always had someone to link with. If he can do that with Manchester United, if he can find Fernandes and Eriksen, really clever players to link with, he could be a good player for United."
The view was shared by another former Man Utd midfielder, Owen Hargreaves. Like Scholes, the 41-year-old occasionally found himself forced to fill in on the left of midfield in an England shirt, but their encouragement for Sancho to move inside - whether from a starting berth on the left or even as a second striker - appears to be based on the player's own tendencies.
Having been left out of Southgate's latest squad, Sancho's only opportunities to impress the manager of the national team will come in a Manchester United shirt. However, since signing for the club and playing under three managers (four if you include Michael Carrick's brief caretaker stint, which produced Sancho's first goal in United red), he has hardly been invisible to the man who picked him for the Euros.
With Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Patrick Bamford and Callum Wilson all suffering injury-related absences over the last year, and Sancho's club teammate Marcus Rashford only now looking back to anything near his best after a long scoreless run, Southgate's options in attack are limited. The solution could well come down to which of the wide forwards are (a) in form and (b) able to offer something centrally rather than hugging the touchline or operating from deeper.
Sancho is beginning to tick the first of those boxes, even if Ten Hag feels there's more to come, and the questions over his latest exclusion are questions which weren't being asked in the same way back in the spring. If he can deliver part two, and move closer to the goalscoring numbers from his Dortmund days, we could yet see a late twist in his pursuit of a spot on the plane.
