10) GARY SHAW (Aston Villa)
Position: Striker
In truth, it was really only injury that stopped the huge potential of ‘Villain’ Shaw ever being unleashed in the dreary white of England. At just 20 years young, the livewire goal-poacher netted numerous times as Aston Villa claimed the Division One crown in 1980-81, and earned him the billing of England’s most exciting young striker and the honour of the PFA Young Player of the Year award. Sadly, a serious knee injury, incurred against Nottingham Forest when he was just 22, meant Shaw’s career petered out with unspectacular spells at Walsall, Shrewsbury Town and, um, Ernest Borel, who we thought was an actor in Sam Peckinpah western, The Wild Bunch. File under ‘an even better Michael Bridges’.
9) JULIAN DICKS (West Ham, Liverpool, Birmingham City)
Position: Left-back
Only West Ham fans properly appreciated just how good this ferocious hard-tackling captain really was. To the outside world (and possibly Sky’s Andy Gray), he was a dirty, shaven-headed loon, with a market trader’s beergut-in-waiting and who collected red cards like it was a hobby from childhood. In truth (or at least in claret and blue), he was an inspirational goalscoring defender, who ran hard and mean - despite his alleged diet of fags and pre-match fry-ups - and packed one of the hardest shots known to mankind. It's unknown just how much of a liability he may have been representing Her Majesty’s team, though, and he used to complain that they'd never picked him unless he "grew his hair".
8) HOWARD KENDALL (Preston, Everton, Birmingham City, Stoke City)
Position: Midfielder
‘Younger’ football fans may just about remember Kendall as the follically challenged guvnor who guided Everton to league glory in 1986, but prior to those years, he was a bit tasty kicking a ball as well. One part of ‘The Holy Trinity’ in Everton’s midfield of the late ‘60s (alongside Alan Ball and Colin Harvey), Kendall helped The Blues take Division One glory in 1970, and went onto cement his place as captain for several more seasons, too. Despite successful spells at a host of other clubs and captaining the England Youth side to victory in the 1964 Little World Cup Final, his international prowess never got beyond England’s U-23 squad.
7) KEVIN CAMPBELL (Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Trabzonspor, Everton)
Position: Striker
Arsenal’s lofty homegrown striker boasts ones of the finest top-flight goal records out of any Englishman never to win a cap for England, and rightly so, otherwise he shouldn’t have made this list! After amassing 59 goals in 224 appearances for Arsenal, where he was overshadowed by fellow frontmen Ian Wright and Paul Merson, he secured a £3million move to Nottingham Forest and enjoyed a goal ratio of nearly one-in-two. In his latter days, he got in on the net-bulging act at Everton too, initially arriving on loan from Turkish side Trabzonspor and smashing nine goals in his first eight games. Yet despite his qualities, England never found a place for him. B and U-21 caps were his scant consolation.
6) BRYAN ‘POP’ ROBSON (Newcastle United, West Ham, Sunderland, Carlisle United)
Position: Striker
The little Geordie forward allegedly took ballet lessons to improve his balance (according to this writer’s dad whenever a football conversation arises at Christmas time), and if that’s the case, every footballer should be donning leotards! It can only have been fierce competition from England’s other forwards in the ‘70s that prevented ‘The Bald Assassin’ from winning a full cap, which almost seems hard to digest considering we failed to qualify for World Cups in both 1974 and 1978. Pop Robson enjoyed a near one-in-two goal ratio at pretty much every club he played for, top-scoring for the majority of those campaigns. He’s almost the Kevin Phillips or Darren Bent of his generation - except both those players won caps.
5) TONY COTON (Watford, Manchester City, Birmingham City)
Position: Goalkeeper
The ‘80s and early ‘90s wasn’t a great time to be a brilliant English goalkeeper if you fancied international recognition. In the former, there were two of England’s finest guardian’s of HM’s onion bag in Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence to stand in your way. And then, as mullets fell out of fashion, David Seaman and Nigel Martyn rose to prominence as the new wave of hard-to-beat, cat-like goalies, also - bizarrely - rocking moustaches. Still, at club level, Tony Coton was perceived a true hero, offering excellent reflexes and shot-stopping abilities and winning numerous ‘player of the year’ awards at his two longest-serving club sides, Watford and Man City. If he were around today, you’d bet your life savings that he’d be England’s undisputed Number One, and definitely not Scott Carson.
4) DENNIS MORTIMER (Aston Villa, Coventry City)
Position: Midfielder
Not many captains of European Champion sides have failed to gain recognition at international level, but Mr Mortimer is one of those hapless unfortunates. The lynchpin that led Aston Villa to Division One glory in 1981 and European glory in 1982 with a 1-0 victory over the mighty Bayern Munich, he could only manage a couple of paltry U-21 and B-caps at international level - despite the fact England had a World Cup to play at in the same year Mortimer lifted that coveted the European Cup with a giant, look-at-me grin spread across his face.
3) JIMMY CASE (Liverpool, Brighton, Southampton)
Position: Midfielder
In today’s age, being a key and ever-present member of ‘all-conquering’ giants would pretty much give you a red carpet all the way to the England dressing room. Not so for Liverpool hardman Jimmy Case, an all-rounder whose shot had the power to rupture the organs of anyone who foolishly ventured in the way. A goalscoring central midfielder, Case played a prominent part as Liverpool strolled to four league titles from 1975-80, and also helped his side win THREE European Cups, the UEFA Cup, the European Super Cup and the Football League Cap. All he could muster at international level though was a solitary England U-21 cap. Things add up, alas not.
2) BILLY BONDS MBE (West Ham)
Position: Right-back, defensive midfielder
Ask any West Ham fan over the age of 40 who West Ham’s greatest staffers were and nearly all of them will hit right back with 'Bobby Moore, Trevor Brooking and Billy Bonds'. A model pro with an engine the size of a Harrier jet, Bonzo ran his claret 'n blue socks into the ground, using physical strength and sheer determination to ram holes through opposition ranks. A born leader of men, he managed an astonishing 793 first-team games for West Ham, playing into his 40s. The full England team did come calling once - for a World Cup qualifier against Italy in 1977 - but he spent that match perched on the bench, rightly looking glum.
1) STEVE BRUCE (Manchester United)
Position: Centre-back
‘Hilda’ (that’s our new nickname for Bruce) didn’t get his swollen, broken-nosed face from quietly sitting at the heart of Man Yoo’s defence while the rest of the team fought their way to multiple Championship glories. This inspirational, no-nonsense rock capitalised the British bulldog spirit, muscling out opposition forwards, while Hughes, Giggs, Cantona et al inflicted damage at the opposite end of the field. Yet, despite being a mainstay for England’s most successful side of the ’90s, Bruce had to sit at home while the inferior likes of Steve Howey, Keith Curle and Colin Cooper won caps for England. Very odd.
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