Sky Sports host claims Leeds star will be subject of PL-wide debate, makes Grealish comparison
Sky Sports’ EFL host David Prutton claims Leeds United forward Patrick Bamford will be part of a Premier League-wide debate on which strikers should make Gareth Southgate’s England squad for Euro 2021.
Bamford, 27, scored his first Premier League hat-trick in Leeds’ 3-0 win at Aston Villa last week to take his tally for the season to six goals in six appearances.
It has led to a discussion about whether or not the ex-Chelsea striker should be in contention for an England call-up.
Former Leeds and Nottingham Forest midfielder Prutton believes that Bamford has a lot of competition for his spot and has compared the Elland Road star’s situation to Jack Grealish’s.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Prutton said: “This conversation will be going on all over the Premier League with English talent playing for teams who are doing particularly well or somebody that is particularly standing out – can that next step for them be England?
“But Gareth can’t then name a 50-man squad for friendlies just so he gets everyone in
“Even Jack Grealish is a player that has come on in leaps and bounds and looks to be the type of creative player that we salivate over but he is still not guaranteed a starting berth or a place in the squad so let’s not walk before we can run.
“But we are going into a season that touch wood hopefully has a tournament at the end of it and if you are looking at that tournament and a manager who is picking purely on form then if Patrick racks up late teens type of goals then there has got to be a conversation.
“But then you can look at Danny Ings, a player who has been fantastic over the course of a couple of seasons now for Southampton and there is still lots to debate about whether he could be anywhere near the England team.
“All Patrick can do is take care of his responsibility to himself and to his team and whatever comes of it after that deal with it as and when but he is doing his share of what the equation would be right now.”
Let’s face it. Bamford is going to have to be very lucky to get included in the England squad for the European Championships next summer.
Harry Kane, Danny Ings, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Marcus Rashford, Tammy Abraham, Callum Wilson and Mason Greenwood are all potential strikers options for Southgate and all of them – unlike Bamford – have been called up for England duty before.
Bamford’s 27 and easily in the best form he has been in his career but most of the aforementioned strikers are younger and have more experience of scoring Premier League goals than the Leeds man.
Kalvin Phillips has a great chance of getting a call-up after his impressive start in the top-flight and the fact he’s clearly impressed Southgate.
But we’re not holding our breath for Bamford, unfortunately.
We’re happy to be proven wrong though.
In other Leeds United news, LUTV host Emma Jones has mocked Gabriel Agbonlahor.