Newcastle United have produced and signed some top-quality English players down the years but, only eight of them, believe it or not, have gone on to represent their nation at a World Cup.
These are Jackie Milburn in 1950, Ivor Broadis in 1954, Peter Beardsley in 1986, David Batty, Rob Lee and Alan Shearer in 1998, Keiron Dyer in 2002, and Michael Owen in 2006.
With the 2022 World Cup in Qatar fast approaching, there is a chance that there could be as many as three Newcastle players in Gareth Southgate’s squad, and this is what we are going to look at in this article.
Nick Pope
All of the talk over the last twelve months or so has been about it being Jordan Pickford versus Aaron Ramsdale for England’s number one spot, but we truly believe that Pope has a very good chance of jumping ahead of them. Even if he does not manage to do this, we would be really surprised if he did not make it into England’s squad since he is definitely one of the top three English keepers around at the moment.
Pope moved to Newcastle United for a bargain £10 million in the summer, and it seems that he has ousted Martin Dubravka from the first-choice spot, which will do his chances of making the England World Cup squad no harm at all. In the first two matches of the season, Pope has picked up two clean sheets, making him the first Magpies goalkeeper to not concede a goal in our opening two matches since Tim Krul managed it 11 years back. If truth be told, he did not have an awful lot to do in the opening match against Nottingham Forest, but he put in a very impressive display against Brighton and Hove Albion to help us claim a vital point.
In around a month’s time, Southgate will name his squad for the Nations League double-header against Germany and Italy and if Pope is selected, we are even more certain that he will be on that plane to Qatar come November.
Kieran Trippier
When Kieran Trippier signed for Newcastle in January of 2022, there were a number of pundits who thought that this could lead to him losing his place in the England squad, especially if we were relegated at the end of the season. However, thankfully, relegation was easily avoided in the end and Trippier scored his first goal for us with a quality free-kick in a vital 3-1 win against Everton.
Then he scored another vital goal in a 1-0 win against Aston Villa, but in the same match he broke his foot, and was out for a long period of time. Despite the fact that he only played a handful of goals for us last season, he showed his quality and his two goals definitely helped to release the mountain pressure and went some way to keeping us in the best league in the world.
Southgate is known to be a big fan of Trippier, once declaring him to be a key leader in the Three Lions Group. In addition to his leadership skills, Southgate is also a fan of the fact that Trippier has the ability to play at left-back, right-back, and on both wings, so this versatility is something that will almost definitely see him make the 26-man squad, unless he picks up an injury before then.
Callum Wilson
While we would put money on the like of Trippier and Pope making the squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, we would be less inclined on putting money on Wilson on being there. This is not because we do not think he is good enough, but it is because England have quality in abundance in the front line. In addition to this, he also has had a terrible time with injuries over the last couple of seasons, and Southgate might be wary of taking a player with a poor recent injury record.
There is no doubt that Wilson is a quality striker that can cause defenders all sorts of issues as can be seen from the fact that he has scored 21 goals for us in the 46 matches that he has played. However, we all know that Southgate has his favourites, and in order to make it to Qatar, he is going to have to compete against the likes of Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Tammy Abraham, and Jarrod Bowen. The likes of Sancho and Rashford have been pretty dire as of late, but we really do not see Wilson pushing them out of the squad, no matter the form they are in.
England’s Chances at the World Cup
So, now that we have looked at the three English players that could make it on the plane to Qatar in November, we are now going to have a quick look at England’s chances of winning the 2022 World Cup according to the latest odds from some of the best bookmakers around.
In the table below, you can see the latest odds that the top bookies are offering for an England win as well as who their main rivals are going to be – the odds have been sourced by betinireland.ie, which is a quality sports betting site comparison site where you can find information about many of the best sportsbooks around. More importantly betinireland is covering the World Cup extensively while giving odds for all the markets.
Team | Betway | Ladbrokes | William Hill | BoyleSports |
Brazil | 6.00 | 5.50 | 5.50 | 6.00 |
France | 7.00 | 7.00 | 6.50 | 7.00 |
England | 8.00 | 8.00 | 8.00 | 7.00 |
Argentina | 8.50 | 8.00 | 8.00 | 8.00 |
Spain | 9.00 | 8.50 | 9.00 | 9.00 |
Germany | 11.00 | 11.00 | 11.00 | 11.00 |
Portugal | 15.00 | 13.00 | 13.00 | 13.00 |
Netherlands | 15.00 | 13.00 | 13.00 | 13.00 |
So, as you can see from these odds for world cup football betting, England are the third favourites, behind Brazil and France, to win this tournament. The main reason for this is probably due to our very talented strike force and the fact that England have been handed a favourable draw and are in a group that we should go on to win – we need to play Iran, Wales, and the USA in the Group Stage.
If we do not make it out of such a group and into the knockouts, then Southgate has got to go, but that is a discussion for another time.
Who Do We Think Will Win?
We know that the bookmakers are not always right, but we have got to agree with them here and put our money on Brazil to win the World Cup for the sixth time. The reason we are backing them to win is because we really cannot see any weaknesses in their squad.
In goal they can choose from two top keepers in the shape of Alisson Becker and Ederson, while in defense they can call upon the likes of Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Danilo, and Eder Militao. When it comes to their midfield, they have the likes of Bruno Guimarães, Phillipe Coutinho, Casemiro, Fabinho, and Fred, while their strike force is composed of Neymar, Vinicius Junior, Gabriel Jesus, and Rodrygo.
The reason why we do not think England will go on to win it is due to the fact that we do not rate their defense, especially if Harry Maguire is playing in the centre of it. If they play like they did against Hungary in the Nations League, then they will struggle to make it out of the group stage. In addition to this, if Southgate sticks to his super defensive ways at the expense of our immense strike force, then we will be coming home earlier too.