England coach Kevin Keegan has called up Aston Villa defender Gareth Barry and Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard for the first time for next Wednesday's international against Argentina at Wembley. Leeds United winger Jason Wilcox also gets his first call from Keegan while Chelsea skipper Dennis Wise is included, despite his recent disciplinary indiscretions.
Barry trained with the England squad during Glenn Hoddle's reign in October 1998. He made his debut for Villa as a 17-year-old at the start of the 1998/99 season following David Unsworth's aborted transfer - and has not looked back since. He kept his place in the Villa side throughout last season when he was also a regular member of the England Under-21 squad. This season he encountered early disciplinary problems when he was reprimanded by Villa manager John Gregory after breaking a curfew. But in recent months he has been in outstanding form alongside England partner Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu.
Gerrard had encountered horrific injury problems earlier in his career, including a stress fracture of the back and a series of hamstring injuries. But this season he has been a regular at Anfield after an injury in the early part of the season to Dietmar Hamann gave him his opportunity. He made his England Under-21 debut against Luxembourg at Reading in September when he scored the opening goal in a 5-0 win and earned the man of the match award. Gerrard was also Howard Wilkinson's captain at Under-18 level.
Wilcox last played for England as a substitute against France in February 1999. This season he has been a consistent performer for Leeds since his £3million transfer from Blackburn Rovers. He is seen as an ideal candidate to fill the problem left-sided role in the England line-up. To date Keegan has tried Steve McManaman, Ray Parlour, Tim Sherwood and Steve Guppy in that role with varying degrees of success.
Wise has been given another chance by Keegan despite his recent disciplinary problems on the pitch. Only last Saturday he was involved in an altercation with Wimbledon's Kenny Cunningham that precipitated the flare-up in the tunnel at Stamford Bridge. Wise was subsequently hit with a Football Association misconduct charge. But Keegan has demonstrated before that he is willing to put such problems to one side when it comes to naming an England side as was the case with Robbie Fowler and Graeme Le Saux following their Stamford Bridge flare-up last season.
Richard Wright is preferred in the number three goalkeeping role to Ian Walker but there is no place in the squad for the fit-again Darren Anderton or McManaman, or Joe Cole, who Keegan feels should get some Under-21 games under his belt before making the step up to full international level.
England squad to face Argentina in international friendly at Wembley on Wednesday, February 23:
Seaman (Arsenal), Martyn (Leeds), Wright (Ipswich), G Neville (Man Utd), P Neville (Man Utd), Barry (Aston Villa), Southgate (Aston Villa), Campbell (Tottenham), Keown (Arsenal), Ferdinand (West Ham), Beckham (Man Utd), Ince (Middlesbrough), Froggatt (Coventry), Wilcox (Leeds), Dyer (Newcastle), Gerrard (Liverpool), Parlour (Arsenal), Scholes (Man Utd), Sinclair (West Ham), Wise(Chelsea), Cole (Man Utd), Phillips (Sunderland), Heskey(Leicester), Shearer (Newcastle).
