Gabby Agbonlahor has claimed that West Ham forward Michail Antonio not earning an England call is ‘crazy’, as he told talkSPORT (29/09/21 at 10:05 am).
The former Aston Villa hitman questioned ‘what are England waiting for?’ because he thinks Antonio deserves that cap – albeit, it’s not possible now.
That is now out of the picture because the 31-year-old chose to represent Jamaica and earned his first cap for them against Panama earlier this month.
Antonio is currently the top marksman in the Premier League and he proved his worth over the weekend by scoring a late winner for West Ham at Elland Road.
But Agbonlahor thinks, at this moment in time, if the rules allowed it, then Antonio would get ahead of those available to Gareth Southgate.
“You know what’s crazy, what are England waiting for?” said Agbonlahor. “Has he played (a game for Jamaica)?
“You look at England strikers available now. Calvert-Lewin injured. Bamford injured. Watkins is back. Ivan Toney and Tammy Abraham scoring at Roma, by the way.
“For me, on current form, on strikers, Antonio and Abraham are in there.
“I think sometimes Gareth Southgate looks at age – ‘Oh, Antonio is nearing 30, let’s go for the younger guys’. But he definitely should have been given a cap. We would love him now, wouldn’t we?!”
The key thing here is that Antonio was doing the business last season and the £7 million man (Sky Sports) was deserving of that call any time back then.
Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins, in his first season in the Premier League, made his Three Lions debut before Euro 2020.
There’s no doubt he deserved that call because he has been outstanding for Villa since they paid big bucks for his talents last summer.
But, Antonio would have looked at that and thought what on earth he needs to do because, he did fire the Hammers to Europe and is still going now, so it’s no surprise he chose to represent Jamaica.
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