| An imaginative right winger with a fine repertoire of fast-curling crosses, Stuart Ripley fully earned his England call-up in 1993 when Graham Taylor selected the Blackburn Rovers winger (he is pictured above in action for the Lancashire club) within the crushing inevitability of not qualifying for the following summer's World Cup. Ripley played the whole 90 minutes against San Marino in Bologna, contributing to two of the seven goals scored which still weren't enough to save Taylor's bacon, but Stuart seemed to be snuffed out with his coach as Terry Venables decided never to pick him, despite Ripley's magnificent form in Blackburn's 1995 Premiership success. Under Glenn Hoddle, a second cap did come his way - briefly - when he subbed late on for David Beckham in a cakewalk World Cup qualifier against Moldova, but that was to be that. Ripley didn't put a foot wrong, and simply suffered for having better players than him available for his position. (Matthew Rudd) |