Roy Hodgson tells Nathaniel Clyne that form is not enough for England

Roy Hodgson has indicated he will continue with Phil Jones as England’s right-back and made it clear to Nathaniel Clyne that he has no right “on the basis of a good season” to think he should take over from the Manchester United defender.
Clyne was restricted to the role of a late substitute in England’s 3-2 win against Slovenia and was overlooked when Hodgson withdrew Jones, who was suffering from a minor ankle injury, at half-time. Jordan Henderson was switched from central midfield into defence and at the end of the game Clyne went straight down the tunnel. “I suppose he was disappointed,” Hodgson said.
Jones was partly to blame for Slovenia’s first goal and has had an erratic season at Old Trafford but Hodgson gave him his backing after it was put to the England manager that Clyne had been the outstanding right-back in the Premier League last season with Southampton.
“Maybe,” Hodgson said, “but Jones is a top-quality player. We have great faith in him and we are very happy with him. We think Nathaniel Clyne is a very good player but I would be disappointed if anyone thought that on the basis of a good season with their clubs they can walk in and demand a place.
“If I were to play him and leave out Phil Jones there would have been a lot of questions about ‘Don’t you rate Phil Jones?’ and ‘Don’t you think he’s a man of the future?’ I didn’t notice Clyne walk off and you would have to ask him.
“He’s a good lad, he’s been very solid since he’s come in and we like him very much. I would be surprised if he did that. I spoke to him and explained what I was doing but you can’t expect everyone to be happy.
“After the game when you are walking around the substitutes you won’t get the same smiling faces as you do from the 11 who played. That is a fact of life.”
Liverpool had an opening offer for Clyne of around £10m turned down last month. Southampton want the 24-year-old to extend his contract, which has one season to run.

Hodgson Is Of The Mind To Give Terry And Rio Last Chance In This Summer's Finals

Roy Hodgson spoke with John Terry and Rio Ferdinand on Tuesday and has decided that only one can go to Euro 2012, according to ESPN sources.

Initial expectation was that the Chelsea captain would miss out on the European Championships, but reports have emerged claiming Ferdinand will be the man to miss out. Hodgson will name his squad at 1pm on Wednesday.

The exact nature of Hodgson's conversations are to remain confidential, but it appears it would be too tricky to integrate both players for the duration of the tournament given the circumstances of Terry's impending court case involving Rio's brother Anton.

Terry has already been stripped of the England captaincy, and while the FA made it clear to Fabio Capello that Terry cannot wear the armband, the catalyst for the Italian's departure, it would not block the centre-half being in the squad.
England coach Roy Hodgson names his 23-man squad for Euro 2012 on Wednesday ahead of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

His team are in a group alongside France, Sweden and co-hosts Ukraine. BBC pundits assess England's chances in the tournament, address the key issues that Hodgson faces and look at the other sides in the reckoning for Euro glory.

Former England winger Chris Waddle: "England are not fancied, and rightly so, and if they get out of the group they have done well. To win it they would have to play well and need a bit of luck.

Continue reading the main story“Getting out of their group will be a success for England”BBC pundit Robbie Savage"The only way England could win it is in a similar way to how Greece won it [at Euro 2004]. England have nothing to lose, even though we always build them up to say this is the year.

"Former coach Fabio Capello is second to none, but you can only work with the players you've got. If you don't have the quality of player you can organise teams to make them hard to beat and change tactics slightly."

Former Wales international Robbie Savage: "Getting out of the group will be a success. France are the dark horse of the competition and England will struggle against Sweden and the co-hosts Ukraine. Wayne Rooney is suspended for two games so England are without their talisman. Who is going to lead the line? Danny Welbeck? Daniel Sturridge?"

"At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa everyone pinned their hopes on Rooney. He was going to win us the World Cup and we were going to help him do it. Take that out of the equation and it becomes a team game. The selection of the team, especially if it's based on statistics, will be based on whoever is playing well at the time, and going forward as a group. France played well when they came to Wembley in 2010 , while a few years ago Ukraine were the only team in a qualifying group to beat us, so it's going to be tough, but I think coach Roy Hodgson will be able to get a good performance from the squad."

Former England defender Martin Keown: "I'm told Roy likes to work with shape almost religiously, every day he's doing that with players. But at a major tournament it is also about killing boredom too and that's down to the manager. You've got to have the right ambience between him and the players and he's got to know when the lads want to blow off steam.

"At the last tournament it was a big problem. Capello didn't really get it, maybe it was cultural. This tournament we've got an English chap, maybe he'll understand. We're social animals, the English, we might want to talk to each other now and again, I don't think Capello did that.

James: "Out in South Africa the facilities were second to none, we had everything we needed, but it was all in the same complex. We always had football pitches in the background, you never have the separation between work and relaxation."