England Under 21 Squad for May 15th vs Wales

While other, better teams are busy preparing for Euro 2008 (I’m looking at you jealously Russia and Croatia) England are having to think about the future. And what better way to do that than with an Under 21 game?

Here’s the squad for the England vs Wales Under 21 friendly at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground on May 15th:

Joe Hart (Manchester City)
Tom Heaton (Manchester United)
Joe Lewis (Peterborough)

Matt Connolly (QPR)
Martin Cranie (Portsmouth)
Scott Dann (Coventry)
Danny Fox (Coventry)
Michael Mancienne (Chelsea)
Ryan Shawcross (Stoke)
Andrew Taylor (Middlesbrough)
David Wheater (Middlesbrough)

Lee Cattermole (Middlesbrough)
Adam Johnson (Middlesbrough)
Michael Johnson (Manchester City)
Michael Kightly (Wolves)
Grant Leadbitter (Sunderland)
Fabrice Muamba (Birmingham)
Mark Noble (West Ham)
Jamie O’Hara (Tottenham)

Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)
Dexter Blackstock (QPR)
Fraizer Campbell (Manchester United)
Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

A few decent players in there. Joe Hart looks like a future England keeper, David Wheater has already been involved with the full England squad, and I’ve always been a fan of Mark Noble.

But the two eye-catching names are obviously Gabi Agbonlahor and Theo Walcott, who possess the pace that the England senior team has been so desperately missing lately. And by lately I mean: for as long as I can remember.

You could argue that Walcott and especially Agbonlahor are wasting their time playing U-21 football. But hopefully Fabio Capello sees this as a chance to have a closer look at them, and good performances in this game will be enough to earn them promotion back to the full England team for the May 28th Wembley friendly vs USA.