Ashton and Dyer On Their Way

Full marks to those responsible for the Duxbury interview, it is throwing up some very interesting stuff. As I have said, I would no more trust the guy than I would Gary Glitter in an orphanage, but there is plenty of scope for reading between the lines, of extrapolating conclusions out of Duxbury's omissions. Take this quotation:

"Gianfranco understands the heartbeat of the club has to be English because we are in the Premier League and if you look at our players – Collison, Noble, Tomkins, the spine – Green, Upson, Parker, Cole it’s English. He’s happy with his squad and he would go into battle with it again but what he wants to do is get three players with a much higher standard than perhaps what we’ve got, which will raise everybody. We are in dialogue, and we have been to be fair, with English players, who fit that bill, but for a variety of reasons, mostly economic, we’ve not been able to secure them."

Now the thing that screams out to me here is the naming of Cole in "the spine", not Ashton. Ask most fans who express a preference, and they would nominate Beano as the main man up front, but Zola and Duxbury apparently think otherwise. How else can you explain the identification of Carlton and the failure to even mention poor old Primadeano? How will this play with Ashton when he reads it I wonder? If I was him, I would not be best pleased!

And the other omission? Well Dyer of course! Where is he? He has more England caps than all the others put together (albeit most were awarded for 10 minute appearances as a substitute) and yet he does not merit a mention as part of the English core of the team.

Now it may be that Duxbury has simply forgotten that the guys exist. Who could blame him based on the minutes either have spent on the pitch? But surely the £120,000 or so that disappears in wages each week should prick the guy's memory. My interpretation is that Beano's and Dyer's days may be numbered, despite what Duxbury says about not selling Ashton.