Players who lost it straight after being capped

[hawkvshandsaw]

Michael Ricketts
Dean Ashton (due to injury)

who else?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Raheem Sterling's well on the way

[Tony C]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Well, not exactly "lost it" but I think that in the case of Shaun Wright-Phillips his England debut represented the apex of his form rather than the beginning of a great international career.

Mourinho knocked the spirit out of SWP.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

This reminds me that I always get Peter Davenport mixed up with the lead singer of Orchestral Manoeuvres.

[The-Reverend]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Richard Wright
Dave Beasant

[Diable Rouge]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Mickey Evans
Stephen Ireland

[Borracho]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Emile Heskey

[SouthdownRebel]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Francis Jeffers

[ursus arctos]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Freddy Adu

[Sean of the Shed]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Green Calx wrote: Emile Heskey

Way off the mark.

[KGR]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Lee Hendrie

[Borracho]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Sean of the Shed wrote:

Emile Heskey

Way off the mark.

He usually was.

[Lucy Waterman]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Both Matt Le Tissier and James Beattie seemed to fall away dramatically after being dumped by England, but not after their first caps.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Owen Hargreaves. Sadly

[Sean of the Shed]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Green Calx wrote:

Emile Heskey

Way off the mark.

He usually was.

Hah, open goal there.
To be fair to Heskey though, he managed a ten year international career and a further thirteen years in the Premier League, so I don't think his career was in any kind of downward spiral following his international recognition.

[anton pulisov]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Paul McShane

[David Agnew]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

The-Reverend wrote: Richard Wright

Wright's best season was the season after his first cap, prompting Arsenal to sign him. He wasn't a big game player, and we had a couple of season, Arsenal had more, and that was his undoing.

[rick derris]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

as somebody who watched cardiff city at the time, Jay Bothroyd wins this

[Carlos Costly]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

David Dunn. Perhaps not straight away but before that first cap he looked like he could have been a real top level player. Comparisons to Gascoigne weren't entirely unjustified. One cap in a friendly doesn't really feel sufficient for someone so talented.

Injuries at Birmingham, in what should have been his peak years, ruined him, as did a general distrust of playing him centrally. Like Joe Cole he could have been much more influential through the middle but was often shunted out wide. Shame it didn't work out for him as it might, he was brilliant in Blackburn's promotion season and their first two back in the Premier League.

When occasionally not crippled at Blues he was delightful to watch, sliding the ball through for Forssell to finish. In an alternative reality, where neither got injured and Robbie Savage decided to stay, things would have turned out rather differently for us.

[Toro Toro]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

James McClean.

[danielmak]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Rickie Lambert

I wonder if the thread here is players who are punching above their weight a touch perhaps finding a true balance if they would just stay put. SWP, Lambert, did Sidwell ever get a cap with England? These guys move from small sides where they have room to breathe and develop and then sign with sides where they are doomed to be bit part players and that's that for the national team career, if not the career more generally.

In other leagues, I think Sahin killed his Turkey career when he moved from Dortmund to Real. I could be wrong about this and someone who pays attention to Turkey might know more.

[Third rate Leszno]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

In a slight variation to the theme, Matt Jansen - in the squad for the Paraguay friendly in April 2002, withdrew through illness. On standby for the World Cup squad, knocked off a scooter in Rome and left in a coma for six days, never fully recovered or capped.

[Sam]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

I initially misread that and thought someone called Matt Jansen had been capped for Paraguay.

Anyway, if Independiente's Federico Mancuello doesn't pick things up pretty sharp, he'll be joining this thread.

[Haddock]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Rod Wallace was called up for the first Eng game of 92/93, then got injured, was out for a couple of months, and never really performed to the same consistently high level again. Meaning no further England look-in.

[Borracho]

Players who lost it straight after being capped

Wallace was actually very good for Rangers in the Champions League during the late 1990s, against strong teams like Bayern, Valencia and Parma. But it was for a Scottish club, so it didn't count in the eyes of Hoddle and Keegan.