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Is this what Roy Hodgson’s deplorable England squad tells us?

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Football Soccer - Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal - Barclays Premier League - White Hart Lane - 5/3/16England manager Roy Hodgson (C) and Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy in the stand
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Hodgson and Levy: a West Ham fans nightmare

West Ham fans are not happy with Roy Hodgson.

In fact, West Ham fans have never been happy with Roy Hodgson.

Player after player have been ignored in the past few years, but this season appears to be the final straw. It genuinely does seem to come down to players that Hodgson favours and likes. Didier Deschamps has just called up Dimitri Payet to the France squad, despite admitting he isn’t his biggest fan. He has stepped up and decided that millions of people can’t be wrong about Payet, so is willing to give him a chance. So why can’t Roy see past his old favourites?

There is one key fact in this debate. West Ham are performing at fantastic level consistently this season, with players like Mark Noble, Aaron Cresswell and Michail Antonio at the forefront of this consistency. If they are good enough to be challenging for top four and beating the big teams, why aren’t they good enough to be featuring (not necessarily starting) in a massively underwhelming England squad?

Danny Drinkwater has been called up. It’s hard to argue with the decision. Drinkwater has played well this season, but I think it’s fair to say that he, like all of the Leicester players at some point, has been subjected to massive hype. If Hodgson had ignored Drinkwater, fans in general would be outraged rather than just West Ham fans who are outraged about Noble. I’m not arguing that Noble should be ahead of Drinkwater, but the fact that Noble has had an outstanding season combined with longevity in the Premier League for 10 seasons must count for something ahead of some of his peers. Players that get hyped after a couple of appearances are now jumping the queue in front of players who have come through the ranks at youth level (Noble captained the U21’s) while currently enjoying their best footballing spell in their career (Noble this season).

Fundamentally, what Hodgson’s squad has told us, is that players who are currently in a purple patch in their careers and have performed consistently at Premier League standard for ten years, are not good enough to play in his squad.

Mark NobleĀ is captaining his side in a battle for fourth. He could barely do any more, but because he doesn’t play for tenth place Chelsea, or eighth place Liverpool, he hasn’t been called up.

The Drinkwater call up will keep some fans quiet, but the fact that Roy has still effectively picked his old favourites shouldn’t be ignored.

Michail Antonio has decided he wants to wait and play for England rather than play for Jamaica who he is also eligible for. The problem for Antonio is that he has been the standout English winger for the last 4 months in the Premier League. He is quickly becoming one of the signings of the season, and United are reportedly interested in him. So at what point will Hodgson call him up? Probably not unless he joins Manchester United. If Theo Walcott is deserving of an England call up over Michail Antonio then the whole picking on form system is completely invalid and incorrect.

There is still time for these players as well as Aaron Cresswell who will also feel hard done by. However, they won’t know what more they can do. Especially for Mark Noble, who really has stepped up his level of performance this season, coincidentally with the whole teams performance levels rising.

The best thing now for West Ham is to keep on winning. Noble will maintain his performance level until the end of the season, and if that means an FA Cup final or even top four, surely it will be impossible for Hodgson to ignore him and his teammates without mass outrage, and not just from West Ham fans.

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