The chorus of groans and sarcastic commentary when Emile Heskey is introduced at Villa Park on a match day has become somewhat a ritual for Aston Villa supporters.
For fans across the country, Heskey’s penultimate appearance for England at Wembley cemented the argument for him not going to the big dance in South Africa this summer. He simply does not score enough goals.
Despite that, his place in the squad during Fabio Capello’s reign has been bullet proof. Even now when qualification for South Africa is sealed and the time for experimentation is well under way. That decision has come at huge detriment to arguably the most in form and most improved English striker in the Premiership.
Bobby Zamora performs the same target man role for Fulham as Heskey fulfils for England. Unlike Heskey though, Zamora has been banging the goals in this year in Europe and domestically. His twenty-one goals in forty-four games this campaign would be enough to justify Heskey’s place in the squad for sure. Hell, most strikers would be delighted with that. (For the record, Heskey has twenty-two since the start of the 06/07 season.)
To add to the raw statistics, Zamora has scored vital home and away goals against German Champions Wolfsburg, a goal against mighty Juventus and a long range strike against defending Europa League champions Shakhtar before that.
That hasn’t gone unnoticed in some fields. Even the temperamental Dutch goal machine himself, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, has been impressed. This week he joined the “Zamora for England” bandwagon which has been building down at Craven Cottage ever since he scored a crucial goal against defending Premiership Champions Manchester United in November.
“Zamora is an effective striker, he's very important for the team. He holds the ball, he's a team player, works hard and he's an all round striker” he said.
"He can score and he's got more skills I think than you could imagine.”
Many would consider that a glowing endorsement from a man who has over three hundred career goals to his name for some of the world’s biggest clubs. But alas, the man who matters, Fabio Capello, has remained unimpressed.
Maybe he’s right to hold that opinion. Sure, Zamora is having the season of his life and could be considered a flash in the pan.
It’s true that very rarely on the World Cup stage does a striker such as Zamora burst onto the scene and make an earth shattering impression. That role is reserved for the likes of Pelé and Owen.
Sure, Zamora has a tendency to falter in the Premiership in fixtures away at the big boys.
But, and it’s a big but, Fulham are notoriously poor away from home. Maybe that’s not Bobby’s fault.
And maybe, just maybe, given the chance of playing with our nation’s greatest players, he would fill a void England are desperately searching for someone to fill and act as a foil for the irrepressible Wayne Rooney. He at least deserves a chance against Mexico or Japan to try and prove himself.
You never know, he might even manage to score a few goals while he’s at it.
