Harry Kane set for England call up for Euro qualifiers

Roy Hodgson has confirmed that Harry Kane will be called up to his next England squad but insisted that he will not use Wayne Rooney as a midfielder on a day when it also emerged that another of his forwards, Saido Berahino, had become the first player to receive an official reprimand for breaching the Football Association’s code of conduct.


Berahino has been given a formal warning after high-level talks behind the scenes involving Hodgson and the FA’s technical director, Dan Ashworth, to discuss whether the West Bromwich Albion striker’s conviction for drink-driving was serious enough for him to be left out of the squad for the Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Lithuania on 27 March followed by the friendly against Italy in Turin four days later.

The verdict was that a reprimand would be enough but Berahino’s place is at risk anyway at a time when Hodgson says he is not just planning to award Kane his first senior cap but is also giving serious consideration to including Danny Ings on the back of his impressive form for Burnley.

Hodgson made it clear he will not follow Louis van Gaal’s decision to employ Rooney in a midfield role for Manchester United despite the increased competition for places. Daniel Sturridge is fit again, Danny Welbeck is one of the manager’s favourites and Jermain Defoe is also back in contention, and that threatens to bring an end to Rickie Lambert’s international career after his disappointing season for Liverpool.

Kane has elevated himself into Hodgson’s thoughts after scoring 23 times for Tottenham Hotspur this season and the England manager admitted being pleasantly surprised by the player’s improvement. “Is he worth a place in the squad? Of course he is. He certainly deserves a place in the squad as much as, say, Saido did in the last squad. I like to think I do show a certain degree of loyalty to players who have been playing for a while and who I know I can trust. But I also like to think that I’m prepared to give someone a chance when he’s really showing with his current form he’s worthy of a place. Harry has all the qualities you want in a centre-forward.”

Hodgson intends to speak to Rooney to ascertain what the England captain thinks of his new role at Old Trafford, a shift in position that has contributed to him going nine games without a goal and not even having a shot on target in 2015. “If you ask me to judge his state of mind watching him play, I would say he is fine. I watched him at West Ham and I thought he did an exceptional job so I would defy anyone to say: ‘I watched him play and I could see this.’ I look forward to meeting him and seeing how he is.”

It is clear, however, that Hodgson would ideally like Rooney to be used in the position he plays for England. “Well, he’s a goalscorer, isn’t he? So one always likes to see goalscorers in positions where they can get into the box. If you’ve got several other goalscorers and you can afford to use one a bit further back, that’s fine. But he’s our top goalscorer in the qualifiers, and he’s just a few goals away from being England’s leading goalscorer, so I hope he will continue to score goals for us.”

Of the Berahino issue, Hodgson added: “It’s been dealt with. He has been reprimanded and as far as we are concerned the matter is closed. It is up to him to put that behind him and show with his future behaviour that he has taken the reprimand on board.”

As well as Kane and Ings, Hodgson also identified the Tottenham midfielder Ryan Mason as someone else he was monitoring, but indicated that Liverpool’s Jordan Ibe had “a lot of young players he would have to jump over” and was one for the England Under-21 manager, Gareth Southgate, to consider.

Hodgson is not overly concerned by the latest photographs of Jack Wilshere smoking. “I didn’t realise shisha pipes were [smoking]. You are blowing in and you are blowing out but, as an ex-cigar smoker, when I tried it I thought it was a complete nonsense, I couldn’t understand who would do it. Apart from a faint fruity taste in your mouth that was about the end of it.

“If you are asking me, in an ideal world is that an ideal thing to happen? Of course it isn’t but we don’t live in an ideal world. I am happy it has been dealt with and it won’t occupy a lot of my time.”


By Daniel Taylor, Guardian