The press are trying to whip up this thing about the rivalry between Fabio Capello and Harry Redknapp, which is probably on the back of when Harry did a stint in the studio and was not very complimentary about a very poor England performance.
I have to agree in a certain sense with Harry over Ledley King’s selection as no-one has talked to him about selecting his players. The managers always used to know before about their players being selected and obviously Harry has found out at the same time as everyone else that Ledley has been picked.
Ledley as everyone knows can only maybe play one game a week, so it is hard for him to play for his country. If he was picked to play against Slovakia in the friendly, he would not be able to play against Ukraine in the qualifier and the qualifier is what it is all about.
But if he was picked to play in the qualifier, he would not be fit to play for Spurs. So it does not make any sense at all to pick him.
It’s a shame for Ledley but Ledley may have to say that his England career is over as he needs Tottenham. Yes Tottenham need him, but he needs them, he is a Tottenham player and fan and he may have to call time on his international career to prolong his club career.
Club football is so strong now, the have medical staff the top clubs have is like a hospital and they want the final say on their players. England want a say as well, but England are losing that say now.
Ledley is at an age where he wants to prolong his career and the medical staff at Tottenham will know his knee inside out, whereas the England medical team don’t and don’t know how he prepares.
I think Fabio is wrong to say things like ‘I will pick him again in the future’. Maybe he should put it a little more diplomatically and say ‘I’d love to pick him in the future’. All that Fabio is doing at the moment is causing more defiance from Harry Redknapp.