West Ham United midfielder James Ward-Prowse will feel ‘aggrieved’ by England snub – Robbie Savage
Robbie Savage says West Ham United midfielder James Ward-Prowse has every right to feel “very aggrieved” after being left out of the England squad.
Ward-Prowse has made a fine start to life as a West Ham player, but he was not included in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man group for the Euro 2024 qualifier with Ukraine and friendly against Scotland.
Savage has questioned Southgate’s decision to instead select Kalvin Phillips, who has featured sparingly for Manchester City since joining at the start of last season.
“If I was a Ward-Prowse or a player of that ilk, who was consistently playing well in the Premier League and not included…” Savage told Planet Sport Bet [7 September].
“Don’t get me wrong, Kalvin Phillips is a wonderful player, but he just doesn’t play minutes for Man City.
“If I’m playing regular football and there’s a player picked ahead of me who’s hardly played for a year or so because the manager shows loyalty to him, I’d feel very aggrieved.
“If I’m playing regularly at the highest level, and others who aren’t are picked ahead of me, I’d think ‘what’s the point? I’m not getting in ahead of those players, I may as well concentrate on my Premier League career’.”
Up there with Haaland
Ward-Prowse would surely have fancied his chances of making the England squad for these late-summer fixtures, especially considering he scored one goal and assisted three more in his first three Premier League games for the Hammers.
Indeed, with 1.38 direct goal involvements per 90 minutes this campaign, only Taiwo Awoniyi (1.46), Evan Ferguson (1.74) and Erling Haaland (1.81) have fared better so far in the division [FBref].
Southgate has instead opted to go with Phillips, despite the City midfielder having played a grand total of six minutes this season.
In Southgate’s defence, England are coming off the back of some impressive wins in the most recent international window.
However, Ward-Prowse is surely a better option when looking ahead to next year’s Euros, so the sooner he is integrated back into the England squad the better.
Given there is another international break this time next month, it is more than likely that West Ham’s new assist king will be called up by Southgate if he can maintain his current form.
In other West Ham news, a Hammers player massively impressed during a run-out for his national side.