Callum Wilson remains “very much” in Gareth Southgate’s thoughts despite missing out on the England squad for Euro 2020, according to The Chronicle.
The 29-year-old bagged 12 goals despite an injury hit season to help drag us to safety last time out but missed out on a place in the squad to Harry Kane, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Marcus Rashford.
He last featured for The Three Lions against Bulgaria in 2019, and made it public knowledge that he chose to join NUFC to try and reignite his England career.
Now, The Chronicle claim that Southgate is considering handing Wilson a call-up for a September friendly against Hungary if he’s fit and in form.
Our first-team coach Graeme Jones is currently within Southgate’s inner circle at Euro 2020 and knows exactly what attributes Wilson would bring to his side.
It may be a struggle for him to break back into the setup due to the plethora of young, attacking options England have on the conveyor belt coming through right now.
Southgate plays with one central striker, and as Kane is captain and arguably our best player, he is the first name on the team sheet – a key factor in Jamie Vardy’s decision to call it quits on his international career.
He is also a promoter of youth; Calvert-Lewin is hardly streets ahead of Wilson in terms of quality but, at 24 instead of 29, he has cemented himself as first-choice backup to the omnipresent Kane.
Wilson even faces a challenge on the fringes, with the likes of Danny Ings, Ollie Watkins and Patrick Bamford all finding themselves in a similar boat to our striker.
Although I would love for us to have a player in the England squad for the first time since Andros Townsend in 2016, our star striker is facing an uphill battle to force his way back into the side.
Even Wilson himself appears to have given up slightly on his England dream, as his comments back in May following an season-ending injury focused on a desire to get fit and ready for the start of the new season, with NUFC his main priority.
Utter rubbish he could bang in 30 goals a season and would still get overlooked just for playing for Newcastle Southgate’s useless and so anti Newcastle.
ToonRme(Quote)
Wilson has speed, strength and excellent finishing ability – probably as good as any in the Premier League. Fitness an issue but watching Kane in action so far in the Euros he’d be about ten times the player and should certainly be in the team/squad when fit.
Pilch(Quote)