Talking Tayls with Ian Taylor

Villa favourite Ian Taylor is another who hopes defender Luke Young doesn’t live to regret his decision to snub the chance to come out of international retirement.

I really hope Luke Young doesn’t come to regret his decision not to play for England this weekend. To me, he looked like he was in with a genuine shout of going to the World Cup.

For Fabio Capello to have offered him a chance despite last Saturday’s start against Bolton being his first for six months for Villa tells me two things. Firstly, the England coach likes Young. Secondly, he doesn’t have too many options.

It’s no secret there aren’t many decent English right-back’s out there at the moment.

Gary Neville is definitely past his best and I think his international days are gone, which just leaves just Glen Johnson and Wes Brown – and I don’t think either of them have pulled up any trees this season.

So for Luke to decline the invitation is a strange one for me. I know he made this decision nine months ago and just decided not to make it public – but must surely have been tempted to reconsider.

You’re a long time retired and, at 30, this is almost certainly his last chance of playing in a World Cup, which is the pinnacle of any footballer’s career. A lot of people would give their right arm to even have the chance.

You have to respect his decision but I sure know I’d have loved to have got on the plane to Qatar – never mind South Africa.

There isn’t a huge amount of competition down the left flank either, which is why I think Stephen Warnock now has a great chance of making the cut. Ashley Cole is the best left-back in Europe, if not the world, right now and would be one of the first names on Capello’s teamsheet.

But, after that, all Stephen has to beat is Wayne Bridge and from what I saw of him on Match of the Day last weekend he’s in shocking form. Alan Hansen never holds back when it comes to defending and I hope for Wayne’s sake he wasn’t watching!

As for Warnock, he couldn’t have done much more to impress in his first few months at Villa. He’s not the biggest but he has a heart the size of a lion.

It was also good to see Ashley Young back in the England squad – he seems to have raised his game in the last couple of matches. Gabby Agbonlahor will have been disappointed, but he’s bounced back before. He seems to be neck and neck with Darren Bent at the moment and whichever of them is in the best form at the time is getting the nod.

Elsewhere on the international scene, I have got immense sympathy for Richard Dunne and the Irish lads at Wolves over their World Cup play-off pairing – more for the way it was drawn than their opponents. Anyone would think FIFA would rather have big countries like France and Russia, with the vast television audiences they’d bring, in South Africa next year.

What I can’t get my head around is how FIFA have just suddenly decided to seed the play-offs. It’s almost as if they make up the rules as they go along.

As the world governing body of football, unfortunately there is no one there to regulate what they do. They’re the top dogs.

Can you imagine the FA Cup being seeded? Or say the knockout phases of the Champions League being worked out by the highest ranked-team playing the lowest.

FIFA are doing everything they can to undermine the underdog, to kill the giantkiller. It is not healthy for the game. Ireland, just like France, Portugal, Russia and Greece, finished second in their group.

The other teams already had an advantage once by being given high seedings for their respective groups. They blew that chance by failing to finish first. End of story.

Well, that’s how it should be, but instead they find themselves being given a leg-up by FIFA.

But I still think Ireland have a decent chance. France are in the play-offs for a reason, they’ve not been playing well, and there is no pressure on the Irish. They’ve proven in the past they can upset the big teams – Italy at World Cup ’94, Holland in the 2002 qualifiers.

Dunne’s comments about their coach Raymond Domenech brought a smile to my face. I’m not so sure they were the wisest thing to say ahead of a big game, although what he said wasn’t far wrong.

How Domenech has kept his job for so long is beyond me. It’s absurd that the FFF continue to employ a man who uses Astrology to make selection decisions! Can you imagine Capello leaving out Frank Lampard because he is a Leo?

Well, that’s what Domenech did with Robert Pires, one of the world’s best players at the time, a few years back. The French are vulnerable and I think the Irish could pull off another one of their trademark upsets.

I also see Martin O’Neill has again spoken out in favour of the Old Firm joining the Premier League – but I disagree with him on this one. For me, it should never happen.

First of all, I don’t think they would bring much to what we already have here in the Premier League. With their current playing squads they’d both be battling against the drop in the current English top flight.

And what would happen to the Scottish League? The rest of the clubs up there would surely struggle to survive without the revenue streams the Old Firm bring in.

At least now they get their big games in the Champions League and more often than not they do their country proud. I’m not too sure Scotland would be so well represented if they had Falkirk or the like playing in it.

The fact is Celtic and Rangers need the Premier League, and the riches it brings, far more than the Premier League needs them.

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This article was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 2:00 pm.
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