Long dropped: England's future goalkeepers stock continues to drop

With George Long getting dropped to the bench at Sheffield United and his replacement managing a series of clean sheets, England U21's goalkeepers and the stock of future goalkeeping standout talent in the British Isles continues in its downward trend. If Long wants to continue developing, he needs game time not bench warming experience, and sitting each weekend until the season's end unfortunately won't help his ambitions of first team football and beyond, just as Butland needed to secure a loan move if he wanted to keep his faint dreams of going to Rio alive. Jason Steele is back from injury, but again is also out of first team action due to rust, forcing Dimitri Konstantopoulos into action under the coach's guidance.

Declan Rudd is getting crucial game experience on loan at Preston, having pushed out regular Stuckmann, but the only shining light in the Championship and for the England U21's, is Karl Darlow (other than Butland obviously, but the expectations are for him to be a Premier league starter and included fully in the English set-up given his ability), and even he is struggling, conceding five against Derby this weekend.

Whilst there is other goalkeeping talent around the leagues, there are no standout goalkeeping proteges, to challenge the likes of say Leno, Ter Stegen or Perin on the continent. As in there are no real Shilton-esque potentials, continuing to show the lack of depth and lack of goalkeeping stars in the younger ranks, having a big impact on the future of English football as a result.