ENGLAND'S BEST SIDE
THE TEAM I WOULD PLAY AGAINST SCOTLAND
William Meredith | 14/11/1908

I am asked to give my opinion on the best English Eleven that could be selected at the present time. I do so with pleasure, because it enables me to publicly express certain views I hold, though not held by the gentlemen who select the English team.

Last season it was common knowledge among players that there was one centre half-back in the country who ranked far above all others. Good man though the great little Wedlock was and is, Charles Roberts was and is, a better man. Yet Roberts was totally ignored last season when the honours were awarded, and again this season when the English League side was chosen to meet the Irish League. I hold that Roberts has been treated most unfairly by the Selection Committee, and I know that view is held by many players.

Again the English selecors will persist in refusing to know that Stephen Bloomer is as great as over he was, and is to-day the best inside right in England — to my mind, and the greatest inside right in the world. But for some reason he was passed over last season. He is getting goals every week this season, and if he does not play against Scotland when the great day comes the matter will be nothing short of a scandal.

THE TEAM I WOULD SELECT.

I will begin with the position of goal. James Ashcroft, once of Woolwich Arsenal and now of Blackburn, is a great custodian. But there is a greater — I mean Sam Hardy, the Liverpool keeper, with the modest, quiet manner, the huge hands, and the cat-like spring across the eight yards space. Hardy is to be classed with L. R. Roose. They are the greatest goalkeepers playing the game in England.

My right back and captain would, of course, be big, cheery Bob Crompton, the hero of Blackburn, and, apart from his great ability as a player, the finest captain I know. As a captain Crompton does not fear to order and instruct, and that is as it should be.

Coming to the left back position, here again I should probably quarrel with the Selection Committee, because they would wish to play Pennington, of West Bromwich Albion. Now, Pennington is young and strong and reliable, but I venture to assert that no man understanding the game could pretend to put the Albion man in the same class as Herbert Burgess. Pennington is very robust, very strong, but, to my mind, has not the polish or the brains of the other man, about whose selection there never ought to be any doubt at all. Burgess is yet as clever with his head as he is with his feet.

A STRONG HALF-BACK LINE.

At right half-back Warren is still the best, though since he went to Chelsea he has not played the consistent game of old. Still, he is a great artiste, and he has the vigour needed for international football. Crompton and Warren use their shoulders more fairly than most, and the pity is that the honest and heavy charge is not more cultivated nowadays instead of the vicious dig with the elbow, the ankle rap, or the old trick of holding a man when you have him on the blind side of the referee. 

Warren (Chelsea), Roberts (Manchester) United), and Makepeace (Everton) — there is my half-back line. All three are fast, and if Makepeace is not quite so clever as the other two, he can give both a start in a sprint. All these three half-backs are men whose game it is to join in the attack, there is not a "chiefly-defensive man" among them.

I confess that I hesitated even selecting Makepeace, because he has a strong rival in Ernest Needham. I imagine the reader looking surprised at this, but I mean it. Yet, I know that Nudger Needham is now on his seventeenth season, and that his hair is grey, but what does that matter seeing that he is yet playing a great game, and is the backbone of the Bramall Lane eleven to-day. I do not know if I have done right, but I have given the berth to the younger man, seeing that just now Harry Makepeace is playing better than he ever did in his life.

THE FORWARDS.

My outside right is Rutherford. The Newcastle United man is, to my mind, an altogether greater player than John Sharp, despite the fleet feet of the latter. Rutherford I hold to be the cleverest man in his position in the English League.

The English Selection Committee may think as they will about the inside right position. Stephen Bloomer — the man of 250 goals in League matches, whom Middlesbrough players tell me has never played better in his life — is good enough for my team. If he is not chosen this year, it will be a deliberate act of friendship to the Scottish custodian, apart from being also an act of injustice to the man who hasdone more for his country at Association football than any other forward of the last ten years.

As centre forward I should not hesitate to introduce to you the man who was not good enough for Aston Villa or Woolwich Arsenal, but who is getting goals at an amazing rate for the best team if the season in England — Everton. When the Everton people parted with such men as Abbot, Booth, and Settle, and also lost H. P. Hardman, everyone thought they were in for a bad time. Anyhow, their argument was that last season they had not been able to win matches with talent, so they were going to have a change. They are to be complimented on their success. Freeman is showing himself the centre forward of the year, and I do not see how he can fail to win honours, despite the fondness that exists in certain quarters for amateur inside forwards. I make bold to say that there is no amateur in England who has the slightest right to be preferred to Bert Freeman, the man who is banging goals through every Saturday for Everton. If the authorities — they do funny thing sometimes — prefer an amateur to Freeman, then I say again they will be doing a kindness to the land of the heather.

The cleverest inside left England has is undoubtedly Windridge, and though the Selection Committee did not think so last season there is no doubt that George Wall is the man who should play outside left for England. He is superior to Bridgett, and that Hardman was ever preferred to him was amusing to players, though the little amateur was, and is, a pretty fine footballer.

There you have my team.

A RESERVE TEAM.

My reserve side to that would be: — Ashcroft (Woolwich), goal; Pennington (West Bromwich) and Maltby (Notts Forest), backs; Duckworth (Manchester United), Wedlock (Bristol City), and Needham (Sheffield United), half-backs; Sharp and Coleman (Everton), Brown (Sunderland), Bradshaw (Sheffield Wednesday), and Bridgett (Sunderland), forwards.