Charlie Austin has doubled-down on his claims that Patrick Bamford should have been in the latest England squad, singling out Bukayo Saka while making his point.
Austin claimed on talkSPORT that players are largely chosen based on which club they’re playing for, stating that Bamford’s chances of playing for England have been hampered by the fact that he plays for Leeds United.
Understandably, this was met with a bit of criticism, with many rightly pointing out that Kalvin Phillips is in the England squad despite being a Leeds player.
Austin then questioned why Bukayo Saka is listed as a forward in the squad list, hinting that Bamford is more deserving of that spot.
Saka is listed as a forward in the England squad, but that’s just an administrative point rather than an indicator of where he may be playing.
Saka could just as easily play in the midfield or the defence, and even if he was playing in the attack, he’d be playing a very different role to Bamford, so it’s hard to really see where Austin is coming from here.
Is there a big club bias? Perhaps, but that hasn’t stopped players from smaller clubs being called up, the man who has been called up in place of Bamford is Ollie Watkins, and he’s coming from Aston Villa, a club of a similar stature to Leeds.
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