Defoe’s England exile continues Sunderland snub

The England national side is not piquing the interest of Sunderland fans at the moment – but it should be. Why, when there are more pressing local concerns with injuries and urgent transfer business?

The Defoe snub by the newly appointed England manager is symbolic of just why it is so difficult to attract quality international players to Wearside. And the Black Cats certainly have many holes still left to plug in the squad.

Wearside is consistently given the cold shoulder by the FA. Sunderland players who have arguably staked a claim for a place in the national side have historically always been overlooked.

With his best form at Sunderland Jack Colback required a move away before he got the nod for the Three Lions. Jordan Henderson deserved more national caps prior to his big money move to Liverpool, and even Micky Gray and Kevin Phillips did not get the number of call ups they deserved.

Jermain Defoe is no exception. Allardyce rightly talked up the chances of Defoe making the Euro 2016 squad earlier in May whilst still in the Black Cats hotseat, saying,

“He has scored 18 goals in all competitions, which leaves him around the third or the fourth highest scorer in all competitions this year, which is pretty miraculous for a team that has been sat in the bottom three or four all season.”

“What he has just said to England is that ‘I can still do it if you want me to’. This season, he has said, ‘Roy, if you want me to, here I am, look at what I’ve done, I can still do it if you think you need me’.

With Defoe’s goal scoring record – he now has 10 goals in his last 10 appearances away from home including 6 successive away games – he is currently up there with the Premier League’s best. You might have assumed another England call up seemed academic.

Age would not appear a barrier to Defoe’s chances either, with Allardyce seemingly happy to once again consider 35 year old John Terry until the Chelsea defender ruled himself out. The England manager recently said,

“Potential is something that’s going to be great in the future. I want it right now”

Yet despite all of this, at the first opportunity the new England manager’s decision to exclude Defoe is entirely at odds with his own previous comments.

England managers have consistently ignored the North East for years with Roy Hodgson last making an appearance at the Stadium of Light to scout players in 2014.

Any player keen to make the step up to the international scene must surely realise they sacrifice their chances of this when signing up to wear the red and white.

This is yet another obstacle that current manager Moyes must work around if he is to make a success of it at Sunderland.