During Leicester City’s run to the Premier League title last season, captain Wes Morgan won himself plenty of plaudits.
There were even suggestions from Harry Redknapp that Morgan should have been in Roy Hodgson’s thoughts for Euro 2016 – ignoring the slight issue that Morgan was a Jamaican international who had represented his country at the previous summer’s Copa América.
It’s an easy mistake to make. When a player has an English accent and has spent his entire playing career in England, he can register in your brain as being English.
But if you’ve made the mistake once, you’ll be extra careful about doing the same thing again. Or perhaps not.
Redknapp – clearly hailing from the ‘that’s why they put erasers on pencils’ school of thought – has said of Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha ‘People talk about him being an England player’.
That’s the same Wilfried Zaha who is unavailable to Crystal Palace because he is part of the Ivorian squad for this month’s Africa Cup of Nations.
I have enjoyed the preparation here in Abu Dhabi now I am looking forward to Gabon with the team #225🇨🇮 #Can2017 pic.twitter.com/dHWociBSRS
— Wilfried Zaha (@wilfriedzaha) January 11, 2017
‘People talk about him being an England player but he hasn’t shown that level yet,’ Redknapp writes in his Evening Standard column.
In fairness to the former Tottenham and West Ham manager, Zaha does have two England caps to his name, but those didn’t come in competitive matches and he was allowed to switch his allegiances late last year.
‘Zaha’s delivery hasn’t been good enough. He’s got to do a lot more if he’s going to be a top player,’ Redknapp adds.
Yes, that’s the same Wilfried Zaha who was named Crystal Palace’s Player of the Year last season, and has four goals and six assists to his name in the current campaign.
Yannick Bolasie, who left Palace over the summer and who Redknapp claims was considered the better of the two wingers by Joe Jordan, has one goal and four assists in five fewer games than his former colleague.
