Premier League / Tareq Quiroz / 31 October 2008 / Leave a comment

Gabriel Agbonlahor's recent form has been impressive but the Villa man shouldn't build his England hopes up because, as Tareq Quiroz explains, plenty of prolific Premier League marksmen have benn denied their chance at international level.

After another week of blockbusting football, the game has thrown up more drama than any TV programme and thankfully you can't read about what is going to happen next a week before it does!

The Harry Redknapp show is seemingly endless and Diego Maradona is back in the limelight. These may be the occasional headline grabbers but the football itself is the real story. It has been a great start to the season and a full midweek Premier League program was a rare treat.

Midweek league action maybe rare but it was certainly worth the wait last week. It was raining goals at The Emirates and there was plenty of scoring elsewhere too. One man on the scoresheet again was Gabriel Agbonlahor. The Villa hitman netted his sixth league goal of the season in his team's 3-2 victory over Blackburn. Villa are now as short as [2.12] in the Winner W/O Big 4 market. That goal also gave Agbonlahor the honour of being the current top English goalscorer in the Premier League. A feat that he was only one goal off achieving in all of last season too. You would think that for a young man desperate to play at international level, scoring goals is the best way to go about achieving his dream. Think again. Recent history suggests that English players scoring goals in the top flight do not always get a decent run the for the national side.

Kevin Phillips was the last English player to top the Premier League goalscoring charts and despite netting 30 times in the 1999/2000 season he only ever amassed eight caps. Phillips is still scoring plenty of goals almost ten years on with Birmingham City and with his prowess in front of goal Birmingham are deserved favourites for The Championship at current odds of [3.8].

Phillips is by no means the only player to miss out on a decent England run after scoring a hatful of goals. In 2001/02 Ipswich's Marcus Stewart was the top English goalscorer but never managed to catch the England manager's eye enough to earn even a solitary cap.

The list of English players who bagged plenty of league goals but never really got a chance at the top level goes on. James Beattie only got five caps, Andrew Johnson has eight and Darren Bent just three. The thing these guys have in common is that they finished a season as the top English goalscorer. In the last ten years, only the great Alan Shearer has topped this list and played consistently for England.

Does this mean that a whole host of great English talent has been overlooked or have the managers got it spot on? We will never know for sure but England's lack of success doesn't bode well for the various managers' defence.

A further common denominator is that all these England rejects played for traditionally small clubs. Surely, common sense says that scoring goals for less successful clubs is harder than banging them in for the top clubs? I am not saying that Marcus Stewart would have been a world beater but for me goals mean prizes and he should have got the call-up.

All players want to play for their country and if you are doing it for your club then you should get a good chance. And that shouldn't consist of a few token substitute appearances. Give these guys a chance. England have not won a major championship for over 40 years so it couldn't hurt to give them a shot. They are currently trading at [10.0] to lift the World Cup 2010 but you can't help but think that price is a little skinny.

Agbonlahor has yet to get a full England cap but Fabio Capello has at least registered an interest in the young striker. Emile Heskey may be a nice partner to have but I don't believe any team can afford a non-scoring striker. Five goals in fifty appearances is pathetic and he needs to go. Jermain Defoe, Bent and Agbonlahor should all be starting ahead of him. They are proven goalscorers and goals win games. It is time to stop ignoring these goalscorers and stop pandering to what the media portray as the top players. My message to Capello? Pick them now and watch these hotshots fire England to success.