Tommy Smith: English or Kiwi

Tommy Smith: English or Kiwi

I'm sure most of us here know who he is. 

Well he is pretty much 21 now and doesn't look too much like he will ever be good enough to play for England, do you think that NZF and Ricki should be trying to get him to change allegiance?

I'm trying to work out if this is a weak joke about Tommy Smyth the commentator or a real player who I've never heard of who I assume is in a similar position to that that James and Fallon were in.

If the latter, then what an unfortunate name.

hes a real player hahaha

hmmm apart from having a great name, I really don't knopw that much about him.

not sure we really need him?
 
he's not a consistant starter, which to me sounds like he isn't that great.

surely Boyens and Vicelich would be ahead of him on the pecking order?

then again I am unsure what position in defence he plays? if he is a RB and not a CB then would be handy.

He's not there yet, but he is young and a player for the future - would be great to have him declare for us.

Remember playing against him for Westlake Boys. Was decent and definitely stood out, played as a central defender and was a commanding figure. However I'd say Steven Old, who I went to school with, was quite a bit ahead for his age. Will be interesting to see how they develop. Michael Boxall for Mags too, an absolute giant!

Michael Boxall will be a future All White.

can he play right back

Yes, he can play Right back but is primarily a CB



Ivan is 34 and has come out of retirement, plus plays in the NZFC.  Just how much of a future do you think he has ?

Honestly i suspect he still fancies his chances on U-21 call-up or two for England before he'd declare.

Mind you the position Ipswich are in at the moment he could be down in League 1 next year ...

Ban

Could see that coming.

Tegal - surely that's a very easy decision.  He could easily be our starting right back at the world cup

And give up possibly playing for England,for the sake of a few games? My question was a response to HN saying he'd probably wait to see if he gets an england U21 callup before commiting to NZ. I dont think itd be that easy a decision because of the fact hes still young.

Yeah, but my point is that he's a long way from an england call up (U20s is still a way away) and a pretty short one from appearing in a world cup

For sure,i think he'd lean toward going to the world cup. But at the end of the day thats 3 games,but 3 games that if he plays well in may get him noticed. The flipside is,as HN said,he would want to defer any decision regarding NZ,to see if he gets a shot at representing england.

No they are not.  Many of them are with Premier League clubs, bugger all of them are playing for them.  Smith is playing regularly in the championship, better than an occassional reserve outing for Fulham or Villa.

He captained the U-17 side at a World Cup and but for injury would still be playing U20's now.

I really doubt that he will be look at NZ for sometime, if what HN is saying is true.

If he is not in line for the England Squad for the next four years, then he may think about going to play for NZ. However, I should mention that there are plenty of older English players in the championship who are ex-u20/u17 who never played in the EPL or get play in the EPL 1st team on a regular basis. A prime example is our Fallon.

I concur, with England's large player base, its a gigantic step up from playing England U21s to full national team.  I worry about our defense on Saturday, as well as in SA if we get that far. 

I'd love to see Ricki or his replacement (remembering Saturday might be his last game, I have a good feeling about Steve Cain being the next AW coach) try and persuade Smith and Reid to change allegiance asap.

For those interested in the defenders currently part of the England Under 21s (From Wiki):

Defenders
Michael Mancienne     8 January 1988 (age 21)      Wolverhampton Wanderers     19 (1)
Kieran Gibbs     26 September 1989 (age 20)      Arsenal     12 (3)
Micah Richards     24 June 1988 (age 21)      Manchester City     11 (3)
Kyle Naughton     11 November 1988 (age 21)      Tottenham Hotspur     5 (0)
Ryan Bertrand     5 August 1989 (age 20)      Reading     2 (0)
Chris Smalling     22 November 1989 (age 19)      Fulham     1 (0)
Ciaran Clark     26 September 1989 (age 20)      Aston Villa     0 (0)
Kyle Walker     28 May 1990 (age 19)      Sheffield United     0 (0)

Of those players, Mancienne is on loan from Chelsea and is being touted as a future full international. Gibbs is a really good young player, and plays regularly for the Gunners. Richards (although I don't really rate him myself) has played regular premiership football for the last couple of seasons, and Spurs just spent a bit on Naughton and Walker. Then there's the likes of Ryan Shawcross, Rodwell and Onuoha all having just turned 22. All very good young players playing regular premiership football.

Tommy Smith would be doing very well to get a full England cap

People mature at different ages though. Those at age group level dont necessarily always make it into the england squad,and im pretty sure it is quite possible for someone playing in the championship (and having never won an age grade cap) to make the step up at some stage in their careers. I dont think he would want to give up on that too early. A WC offer may tempt him however.Tegal2009-11-14 00:22:30

Interting... Our defence would be fantastic if we had Reid (Is he another CB though?).

He plays right back, we'll take him!!

Plus both of them are a lot faster then the CBs who played on Saturday

Given Ryan's injury record he's hardly a certainty

I read in some article today that apparently Ricki is keen on young Tommy so who knows??

He's always been on the radar, I think just a matter of convincing him that our future is golden