Sport
IS AUSTIN HAMPERING ENGLAND CHANCES BY JOINING WEST HAM?
Is Austin Hampering England Chances By Joining West Ham?
QPR’s Charlie Austin has already reached his career crossroads at just 25 years of age.
After coming of age in a footballing sense in west London, and receiving his first call up to the England squad, the move that the former Burnley marksman makes now will author the remainder of his career.
Should he not choose wisely then the Premier League might already have seen the best of the Hungerford native.
35 goals in 66 appearances is a fine return in an underachieving Rangers side and indeed, goals have never been hard to come by for a player that had been under the radar of all of the top clubs until Harry Redknapp played his usual transfer window blinder.
After Rangers’ relegation to the Championship was confirmed, it was inevitable that the futures of the most high-profile stars would be brought into sharp focus.
Austin has already attracted the interest of neighbours Chelsea, Newcastle and West Ham, with the Hammers said to be in pole position to sign the player for a figure in the region of £15 million.
As Redknapp himself would quantify, the Upton Park faithful love their strikers. Hero worship would be a more apt description for the very best exponents of the striking art in claret and blue.
Greaves, Hurst, Pop Robson, Cross, Cottee, McAvennie….all are still held in the highest esteem in east London. If Austin is able to recapture the sort of form that has propelled him to England honours in the first place, then there is little doubt that he will add to that list.
But is he actually hampering his chances at international level by joining one of the Premier League’s more unfashionable clubs.
There’s no point denying that West Ham fall into that bracket because we’ve seen in the past just how many players with genuine England credentials are overlooked.
In more recent times, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick are four players who only really made a mark once they moved to Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United respectively.
If we delved a little deeper there would be a steady stream of West Ham players that have played for, and been decisive for, England – but importantly only when they’ve departed the Boleyn Ground.
Trevor Brooking is probably the last West Ham player of note that enjoyed a career at the very highest levels of the game whilst still at the club.
Whether those within football circles choose to admit it or not, there is a clear bias towards those players that ply their trade in teams that are in the upper echelons of the EPL table.
The “players are picked on form” line from England managers past and present is nothing more than a paradox.
It might not be politically correct to admit to the same but it’s a blindingly obvious fact that anyone with a passing interest in the national game can see a mile off.
Slaven Bilic, a hero himself from his time at the club in the mid 1990’s, has already started shaping a the team he expects to take the club to the next level. With a move to the Olympic Stadium just a year away, the Croatian needs to buy well and finish high enough up the table to ensure that bums are on every seat come August 2016.
It’s completely understandable why that would be attractive to Austin.
But there must still be a nagging feeling that if he were to head across to Chelsea, he is far more likely to be pulling on the three lions in earnest, even if he remains an understudy to Diego Costa.
Even a main striker’s role at St. James’ Park where Steve McClaren has already promised him the coveted number nine shirt would probably pay more dividends than joining the Bilic revolution.
Decisions, decisions…
