You can hardly blame him.
Gareth Southgate's brave new dawn at the helm of the England team may show some slight shoots of optimism and recovery from the Euros debacle under Roy Hodgson, but if we're being honest, it has been quite an underwhelming international break for England fans, even by international break standards.
The loss in Germany followed by a routine victory over Lithuania were fairly drab affairs, and even the most optimistic Three Lions' supporters were clutching at straws as far as positive signs go. Certainly there was room for a tad more experimentation and at least
something to get us all excited.
Many were looking forward to midfielder Ross Barkley getting a runout in one of the two games to continue his sparkling form for Everton this term. But alas it was yet another squad call up for the 23-year-old that was rewarded with zero minutes on the pitch. Many were mystified and annoyed on his behalf...
https://twitter.com/OliverKayTimes/status/846056257706438657
https://twitter.com/J_J_Fazz/status/846102329422200833
https://twitter.com/MLoughlin1878/status/846078398967533568
https://twitter.com/MartinSamuda/status/846078764987633664
https://twitter.com/MarkBirch1988/status/846055370275606528
For his part, Barkley has remained utterly professional and tight-lipped about his strange string of squad listings without reward. He has never complained or sulked, despite the fact that he has been called up for SEVEN games now, just to train with his England colleagues and nothing more.
But on Sunday, he showed his understandable frustration about collecting splinters instead of caps whilst on national duty by
liking a tweet by those fine men and women at
Squawka, highlighting the consistent waste of his ample talents...
The tweet shows Barkley's last seven England call ups and 0 minutes minutes for him next to each of them. We can't blame the poor fella for being slight put out by the stat, and hope it's next time lucky for the wonderfully talented young playmaker.
