The words that surely served to deflate Scott Dann were uttered in a nondescript conference room of a chain hotel in Vilnius city centre just under a month ago. It was the eve of England’s final Euro 2016 qualifying fixture, with nothing other than their perfect record on the line, and talk had turned to the squad Roy Hodgson might select for the prestige friendlies against Spain and France, games to get the juices flowing, to come in November.
“We’ve had time to see a lot of players in the qualifiers because we’ve had so many injuries to contend with,” said the national manager. “Now we are going to concentrate on a core group who, if they’re all fit, will be with us in France next summer. The November games won’t be a moment to give someone a chance just because he’s scored a goal on a Saturday. People will have to work very hard to break into the group now.” There may have been a bit of wriggle room for players already ensconced in the system, as Eric Dier’s recent call-up has proved, but the implication was clear enough. This squad is a closed shop.
All of which would appear to snuff out at source any lingering aspirations the uncapped Dann harboured of being involved at the European Championship. The centre-half deserves better. His latest nudge to the selectors came on Sunday when he connected with Yohan Cabaye’s corner at Anfield and drew a save from Simon Mignolet, then readjusted his body smartly to nod the rebound into the top corner and secure Crystal Palace’s third successive league victory over Liverpool, the club the defender had supported in his youth. Around 15 members of his family celebrated with the visiting fans in the Anfield Road End. They would probably have enjoyed the flurry of meaty blocks and saving tackles mustered by the centre-back as much as that winning goal.
It was an occasion for Dann to cherish, yet his is actually a recent story of consistent excellence that has not always been readily acknowledged. Perhaps he has suffered because his nomadic career has not included a move to a more glamorous employer, a Champions League club or regular contender for trophies. At 28 he is the same age as Jamie Vardy, suggesting he has not been overlooked by Hodgson purely because he does not represent the long term at international level. Where the Leicester forward forged a reputation in non-league, the defender had initially been picked up by Walsall as a junior, seizing on glimpses of first-team action on loan at Koge BK in Denmark, Redditch United and Hednesford Town before gaining regular involvement with the Saddlers in the bottom two divisions.
He stepped up to the second tier with Coventry in 2008 and the top flight at Birmingham and Blackburn. The Lancashire club had spent £6m on him three years ago – he would endure a second relegation from the elite with Rovers – but Tony Pulis restored him to the Premier League at Palace in January 2014 for a bargain £2.65m. He arrived with a reputation as an old school defender, a 6ft 5in bruiser to implement the discipline Pulis demanded across his team’s backline, but quickly proved himself to be classier than that. He is a ball-playing centre-half who reads the game expertly, is brave and eager in the challenge, as well as a considerable threat at set pieces as Liverpool discovered. Everton were keen to lure him back to Merseyside in the summer but Palace were in no mood to part with their player of the year. The five-year contract he signed in July, convinced of the Londoners’ ambition by Cabaye’s record arrival, was confirmation of how integral he has become.
Pardew has long championed his cause, pointing to a player “coming into his prime who already has a lot of experience under his belt at this level”. He has been unfortunate, too, that the occasional visits Hodgson or his assistant Ray Lewington have made to Selhurst Park have coincided with some of Palace’s shakier defensive displays. The latter was in attendance when Dann’s rare but blatant mistake presented Christian Benteke with a chance, gleefully taken by the Belgian, when Aston Villa won in south London last December. But those errors are uncharacteristic and, on the face of it, a player who appears to be rated sixth in line for a call-up might feel aggrieved not to be involved.
Those above him in the pecking order are led by Chris Smalling and Gary Cahill, though the England vice-captain has found his place in a struggling Chelsea side usurped by Kurt Zouma in recent weeks. John Stones is a player of undoubted class and colossal potential, but Phil Jagielka is out until around Christmas with knee trouble and Phil Jones, included in the current squad, has endured a stop-start campaign at Manchester United. He has made two Premier League starts this term. On the basis English midfielders, wingers and strikers have tended to drop like flies of late, and often in batches, was there not an argument in blooding one of the fringe centre-halves in these friendly fixtures just in case those same injury issues suddenly afflict the defence?
Maybe the management were scarred by Ryan Shawcross’ toils on debut against a rampant Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a friendly back in November 2012 – that remains the Stoke player’s only cap – though surely there was an argument at least to see Dann at first hand in training in Alicante this week? After all, Hodgson has yet to settle on an obvious first-choice centre-half pairing. He has used five combinations of Smalling, Cahill, Jagielka, Stones and Jones in eight matches in 2015.
“There is a lot of competition in centre-back positions,” he said last week. “We’ve got Phil Jones back, who looked very, very good in the game against Lithuania. We’ve got John Stones who wasn’t available last time. Whichever combination of the four I use [in the absence of Jagielka] we’d go on to the field with very good England centre-backs. We won’t be weak at centre-back. I won’t be looking to bed down in November but partnerships will get a chance to play together.”
The disappointment felt by Dann will be shared by Aaron Cresswell and Carl Jenkinson at West Ham, and by Norwich’s Nathan Redmond, the latter in particular given the absence of the injured Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from the current squad, in their respective positions. Palace’s Wilfried Zaha might also have a case, not least because by March, when England face Germany and Holland, Hodgson hopes he will have his walking wounded restored to fitness, thrusting the fringe players even further down the pecking order. Heaven forbid the injury jinx strikes again and leaves the management having to delve into the untried and untested on the eve of the tournament.
But for now Hodgson has made his choices and Dann’s wait is prolonged. “Scott has been really underestimated throughout his career,” Pardew said on Sunday, “but now I manage him I realise how good he is.” His England counterpart might just be missing a trick.
