England World Cup Hopes Over For Many As Hodgson Rules Out Surprise Selections!

Speaking after the defeat to Germany, Hodgson commented:

Hodgson has one match left, against Denmark on 5 March, before he selects a provisional 30-man squad for Brazil.

But he has ruled out any surprises before the tournament, despite back-to-back defeats by Chile and Germany.

"I've been looking at players for 19 months so I don't think there's too many who will come out and really surprise me," Hodgson told BBC Sport.

"I don't expect in the coming months to be watching games and suddenly find players I have never really thought of jump out at me and prove to be a lot better."

"It's a question of concentrating fully on the players I have already watched and know about.

I don't know what it is about this comment, but it really frustrates me. We still have 20+ Premier League games to go and we are all but closing the door on any English talent coming through that hasn't received International recognition so far.

It may well be the case that there are no players who will surprise Roy, or any players who are worthy of a call-up.....but why say that? England have a lot of talent in the U21's and if they perform for their clubs and continue their work with the U21's why would you not consider them going forward for Brazil.

Let's just hypothetically say that Danny Welbeck fails to perform the rest of the year, will he be taken because Hodgson hasn't watched anyone else, or doesn't know about anyone else. Lets say Saido Berahino ends up scoring 15 goals this year for West Brom, is he automatically excluded because he hasn't received a call-up recently? How about James Ward-Prowse or Ravel Morrison?

I just think this sends the wrong message, and the little confidence I had with Hodgson is thinning by the day.