Fabio Capello today named James Milner, Stephen Warnock and Emile Heskey in his final 23 man squad that will travel to South Africa this week and try to win the 2010 World Cup.
This is the first time in history that Aston Villa will have three players representing England in the worlds biggest competition.
James Milner was always expected to be included in the squad because of his fantastic season, Capello’s remarks about him and of course how versatile he is.
Emile Heskey isn’t everybody’s cup of tea when it comes to Villa, let alone England but I firmly believe he brings the best out of Wayne Rooney and he will be the player that will win us the World Cup so I’m all for Emile going to South Africa.
The real surprise came when Stephen Warnock was picked instead of Everton’s Leighton Baines. Baines featured in 2 pre-world cup friendlies while Warnock didn’t feature at all and it looked certain that Warnock wouldn’t be going.
Weather we agree with Fabio or not – his squad is picked now and in ten days time we will all stand as one to support our nation.
Here is the squad in full:
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West Ham)
Defenders: Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Ledley King (Tottenham), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa).
Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), James Milner (Aston Villa), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City).
Forwards: Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United).