What's Dutch For Deja Vu?

Watching the Under-21's go out, on penalties, against the host nation Holland in the European Championships there was an overwhelming sense of deja vu. There has been a lot of head shaking and psychobabble on the radio today about lack of mental toughness etc but sometimes you have to put things down to bad luck.

Anton Ferdinand's effort, which smacked against the bar, proved decisive as we lost 13-12 on spot-kicks. Yes, 13-12, we scored enough penalties to win three penalty shoot outs under other circumstances and the one that hit the bar wasn't that far off, not that that is of any consolation.

The one thing that worried me watching the tournament was how many of our players will actually make the step up to full international level. Of the players who were qualified to play in this tournament but didn't only Wayne Rooney and David Bentley are likely to play in next years European Championship, that's assuming we qualify, and it will be Rooney's third major tournament and he will still only be 21!

The Dutch, Serbs, Portuguese and Italians all had players in their squads who have played at full international level, we didn't have one. Scott Carson, Steven Taylor, Ashley Young and possibly Leroy Lita will be on the fringes of the full squad next summer but will they actually be in the squad. Italy's left back is already being called the new Paolo Maldini and being tipped for a long international career.

I heard Ian Wright saying we shouldn't be too hard on the players because it's only Under-21, but it was only Under-21 for the other teams as well.

The other thing is why don't we use our full side's friendlies to actually try out more of the Under-21's? Do we learn anything by constantly playing the likes of Terry, Ashley and Joe Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Owen and Beckham in friendlies? Brazil played a fairly strong side at Wembley recently but that was because it was the first international there, have you seen who has lined up for France, Italy and Spain lately in their friendlies?

My concern lies with the fact that next summer, assuming we qualify without having to beat Russia away after a sixteen hour flight to the middle of nowhere, is that there will be players in the squad who have failed at either, or in the case of Gary Neville all but the last one, the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 World Cup or European Championships. Talented individuals they may be, good club players they may be, but at international level they have been weighed, they have been measured and they have absolutely found wanting (to borrow from A Knight's Tale).

Isn't it time we gave some of the younger players a run out in friendlies?