Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor admits he ‘doesn’t understand’ his relegation to England under-21s duty tonight – but fears he has it all to do to impress.
Agbonlahor has been included in Fabio Capello’s first two big squads, only to ‘miss the cut’ when the Italian has whittled the numbers down.
The 21-year-old hasn’t even been given the chance to stake a claim at full level for the friendlies against the United States and Trinidad and Tobago later this month.
But the 11-goal striker, who went AWOL for the European under-21 championships this time last year, insists he will be professional for the clash against Wales under-21s at Wrexham.
“I don’t really understand it, but as I’ve been picked for that squad, I’ll just go there and do a job and see what happens after that,” said Agbonlahor.
“You never know what’s going to happen or how people think. You only have to look at Jermaine Defoe – he scored six goals in six games and and he didn’t even get into the 23-man squad.
“To Fabio Capello, maybe it’s not all about goals. He has his views on players and I think you have to accept it.
“And if I’m put into the under-21s for a game, I have just got to accept it, do a job and wait for my chance.”
Agbonlahor, who failed to score at Wrexham in Villa’s 5-0 Carling Cup win last August, is relishing the prospect of coming up against new faces.
“Hopefully I will get a few chances to score, but they will want to beat us because we’re rivals, so it should be a decent game,” he said.
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