| Most England coaches introduce a debutant to the side when they begin their tenures - it's a way of making a statement about being in charge. Don Revie threw in Gerry Francis; Ron Greenwood chose Terry McDermott; Bobby Robson selected Ricky Hill and Terry Venables found room for no less than three newbies. The choice of Kevin Keegan when he took over in 1999 was Tim Sherwood, skipper of Blackburn when they won the Premiership title and an in-form holding player at a time when Paul Ince and David Batty were unavailable, who had moved to Tottenham by the time he earned his England call-up and played a clever, effective game behind the likes of David Beckham, Steve McManaman and hat-trick scorer Paul Scholes as England beat Poland 3-1 (the photo above is during the game) to re-ignite a faltering European Championship qualifying campaign. Sherwood played in the next two England games - a 1-1 friendly draw against Hungary and a 0-0 Euro qualifier stalemate versus Sweden - before Batty and Ince returned. Like many England careers it was brief, but anything but a let-down, especially for the player himself. (Matthew Rudd) |