England squad announced - Beckham will watch the game from the stands

Euro 2012 / Andrew French / 31 January 2008 / Leave a Comment

Andrew French talks us through the surprise inclusions in Capello's squad and the not-so-surprising exclusion of a certain David Beckham

Sadly my Italian doesn't extend beyond different types of pasta so I won't even attempt to write the following in Fabio Capello's mother tongue - but I wonder if he told his coaching staff something along the lines of:

"I'll announce the squad on Friday afternoon, deal with a few media questions and then we'll all head off to watch the key players in action for their club sides on Saturday. Nice and simple."

Lovely idea. Except that squad didn't include David Beckham. Cue hysteria.

The same media that painted Beckham as a washed-up Hollywood 'soccer' star were suddenly throwing their toys out of the pram at his exclusion from Capello's first squad, to face Switzerland at Wembley on Wednesday, February 6th.

Of course, Capello named his squad at 3.30pm - but a few hours earlier he had learned another salutary lesson about working for the FA. Your closest-guarded secrets will be leaked out.

TV and websites were carrying the breaking news that old Goldenballs wasn't in the squad well before Fabio had even thought about his lunch.

So, that elusive 100th cap stays in the box, and all the romanticism about him reaching the century and captaining the side on the same occasion is on hold. Not good news for those who backed Beckham at [1.6] to be the next England captain. As soon as the story appeared on the Sky Sports News ticker that price drifted to [15.5] - it's not easy to captain the side if you don't even get a place on the bus I suppose. Steven Gerrard is the new favourite at [1.34] to wear the armband on Wednesday night.

All the other England squad news has been peripheral to the Beckham decision, but among the more surprising names in this initial 30-strong list are Curtis Davies, Jonathan Woodgate, Matthew Upson and Gabriel Agbonlahor. The most notable casualty (Becks aside) is keeper Paul Robinson.

What of Wednesday's opponents, the Swiss? Well they've not beaten England, home or away, since 1981: England have won three of the five meetings in those 27 years with the other two ending drawn.

However, they will be involved in Euro 2008 - although that is by dint of being co-hosts. Having said that, they are in Group A with Portugal, Czech Republic and Turkey, and have avoided some of the real European heavyweights. The Swiss are available to back at [5.2] to win group A, and [27] to win the whole tournament. Germany [5.7], Spain [7.4] and world champions Italy [8.6] head the market.

Any team that has Philippe Senderos at its heart is bound to offer some scoring opportunities, and the Swiss will generally be expected not to rain on Capello's parade.

Indeed, the last four permanent England managers have won their first match in charge of the national side. And with England having lost their last game (3-2 against Croatia - remember that great night?), Capello will be keen to avoid ending a record that has stood since 1993 - the last time the Three Lions lost consecutive internationals (Norway and then the USA).