NOW THAT ENGLAND HAVE QUALIFIED FOR THE WORLD CUP NEXT YEAR, THE GREAT DEBATE CAN BEGIN: “WHO WOULD YOU HAVE IN YOUR STARTING XI FOR GERMANY 2006?”

The more interesting discussion though would be to name a player not yet in the England set-up who could still force his way into the team. Impossible? No. Improbable? Maybe. But a glance back to 1966 does give a little hope to those on the fringe of England selection.

Many people are familiar with the Geoff Hurst story, named in the squad for the 1966 tournament but only brought into the team at the quarter-final stage after injury to Jimmy Greaves. The only goal of the game against Argentina cemented his place in the team as Sir Alf Ramsey decided to stick with the same players for the semi-final with Portugal and on to the final with West Germany.

Hurst became the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final, but that was all the more remarkable for the fact that he wasn’t even a full international at the turn of the year.

Hurst made his England debut in February 1966, just four months before the World Cup was due to begin. In one of those strange quirks of fate that football likes to kick up, the venue for his international bow was Wembley and the opponents were West Germany, though it was a solitary Nobby Stiles goal that won that particular day.

But there was another of the successful 1966 team who earned his first cap as late as May: Hurst’s fellow Hammer, Martin Peters. Wembley was the setting again on May 4, Peters making his England debut in a 2-0 win over Yugoslavia, Geoff Hurst making just his third appearance for the future world champions.

Hurst and Peters both won their eighth caps in that famous 4-2 final victory on July 30, 1966, and to hope for such an impact from England newcomers again would be asking too much, but do not rule out the possibility of a new face in Sven-Göran Eriksson’s squad.

For the Korea-Japan World Cup in 2002, Eriksson selected a striker who hade made his England debut just four months before the tournament began. It was Aston Villa’s Darius Vassell, then just 21, who forced himself into the reckoning and an acrobatic goal against Holland helped book him a valuable place in the finals.

In France 1998, the youngster making the headlines had again won his first cap just four months before the tournament began, an 18-year-old Michael Owen being the late inclusion in Glenn Hoddle’s squad.

There is a familiar pattern of course. The best way to grab attention is to score goals, so if there is to be a new England face at Germany 2006 he will probably be a striker. Charlton’s Darren Bent is perhaps then the most likely to fit the bill, after his blistering start to life in the Premiership. He has also scored eight goals in 12 appearances for the England Under-21 side and, like Vassell in 2002, could be employed as the back-up striker, able to enter a game from the substitutes’ bench and have a goalscoring impact.

So there is still time for somebody out there to stake their claim. Wouldn’t it be extra special though if that somebody normally plays his football in E13?