Carlton PALMER

31/03/93 v Turkey (A) W 2-0 (WCQ)

28/04/93 v Netherlands (H) D 2-2 (WCQ)

It's been too easy (not to mention untrue) to say that Carlton Palmer's presence in the England team was an individual representation of Graham Taylor's unsuitability for the job. Supporters of many of Palmer's clubs - West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United - will point doubters towards a tireless, vocal midfield leader with more skill than his unusual physical shape seemd to showcase and a stamina which all good midfields require if relying on another player to act as creator or marauder. Palmer's debut came in 1992 in a friendly against the short-lived Commonwealth of Independent States, and showed himself to be an impressive and fantastically unfussy holding player who rarely gave the ball away. Taylor rated him and few in the media begrudged the choice in that Palmer was a form player and England were missing a natural successor to Bryan Robson, given that Paul Ince was not quite deemed to be ready. Carlton stuck around for the rest of the preparation period for the 1992 European Championships (the photo above is during the final warm up match against Finland which England won 2-1 on 1st June 1992.   Photo G Herringshaw. ©), winning three more caps and cementing his place in the squad, playing as the holder behind the free-running David Platt, and using his moments on the ball to spread play to Trevor Steven on one side and Paul Merson on the other.

England were generally poor as a collective in Sweden, scoring just once and going out of the group as a result, but Palmer escaped individual criticism except from the biased and blinkered. His club antics, ungainly nature and perhaps over-confident persona in interviews had made him a boo-boy target from opposing fans who disliked him as a human being, but at international level England's supporters stuck with him in a way which John Barnes would have killed for. Palmer played eleven more times for Taylor, including a role in each of the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup qualifiers barring the ludicrous last game of insignificance against San Marino in Bologna, by which time, one suspects, he knew that his time as an international player was going to be over. Palmer's one goal for England had come against San Marino at Wembley in February 1993 - a fine diving header after a pitch-length counter attack - but this was to prove to be his only real highlight. The arrival of Terry Venables and the emergence of Ince as a real international force brought down the curtain on an eventful England career which - despite all the rhetoric - ultimately had very little wrong with it. (Matthew Rudd)