After watching a highly impressive England B performance that will have the rest of the footballing world quaking in their boots in advance of the World Cup, I felt compelled to stick up for Jamo, which will perhaps surprise some of those you know me, as I’m not his biggest fan myself.
Now it was sad to see Robert Green pick up a bad injury that has ruled him out of the World Cup; it’s devastating for the poor lad and we all wish him a speedy recovery.
However, I just wondered what the back pages would have looked like today if it had been David James instead of Green, as his scuffed clearance led to a Belarus goal as he picked up that nasty groin injury; not his fault at all – just one of those unfortunate things that happen from time-to-time. Similarly, I’m sure James would have got the blame for the second goal had he been on the pitch.
I strongly suspect that the football hacks would be sticking the knife in and citing this as another example of why he shouldn’t be the England No 1, let alone in the squad.
Jamo is one of those guys who you either love or hate – there’s no middle ground, but come on people, let’s be fair and apply the same criteria to James as other ‘keepers. He’s an easy target these days and a lot of it is unfair. True he seems to save his better performances for City, but if anything happens to Robinson ( who I believe is rightly England No 1 on current form ), we should be thankful we have a guy of James’ experience to step in.
Once you look further down the list and see the likes of Carson and Foster, it shows the limited ‘keeper options England have at their disposal. No disrespect to the other two, but they are still young and inexperienced and I’m sure they’ll develop into international ‘keepers, but for now I’m glad that Jamo is still around.
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