Selection process starts now
Wednesday, 12 August, 2009
Head Coach hoping for strong World Cup squad.
Nicholas Veevers
England U20s Head Coach Brian Eastick saw his side put in their final preparations for the World Cup on Tuesday with a convincing display against Montenegro, and now he is looking to secure the services of the players involved for September’s tournament in Egypt.
With the competition taking place in September and October, it obviously lands just after the start of the English season, meaning clubs may be reluctant to release their players for action.
Eastick is still unsure which of the players will be available to him for selection but is hoping the issue can be resolved over the coming weeks.
“The players involved all did very well, but the trick now is getting them to Egypt,” he said.
“That will be down to their clubs, but I do think that the players themselves are keen to come.
“We will just have to wait and see what reaction we get from the clubs and it’s difficult to say at this moment which of these players we will get.”
With the timing of the World Cup likely to affect other European nations involved such as Italy, Germany and Czech Republic too, Eastick just wants to be able to take as strong a squad as possible but with many of the players involved in their various first team squads or out on loan, it could see his selection hopes hampered.
It is something that The FA’s Director of Football Development Sir Trevor Brooking is now looking to help resolve.
“I know that Sir Trevor Brooking is looking into it with the PGB (Professional Game Board) and it will be a case of wait and see and hopefully in the next two weeks we will be able to solve it,” he added.
“We have to put an initial squad of 30 players into FIFA and we can’t change that once it’s done, so we’ve got to make sure that those 30 players have a very realistic chance of going with us.
“We then narrow that down to a squad of 21 players and we want to take as strong a squad as possible for what will be a terrific competition for any young player to experience.”