With England out of the World Cup in rather embarrassing fashion – they were at least expected to beat Costa Rica – now’s the perfect time to make us all even more miserable with the thought of what kind of team England could’ve had had they played as Great Britain.

For those of you who never liked geography or have been celebrating your own country’s success a little bit too much over the past few days, Great Britain consists of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. All four countries have qualified for the World Cup at some point, with varying success. Only England have won the competition, beating West Germany 4-2 in the final at Wembley in 1966 with Geoff Hurst scoring the only hattrick ever scored in a World Cup Final, and have not been too far off on a number of occasions. At Italia ’90, England were a penalty shootout and a very large number of missed chances in extra time away from the World Cup Final and in 2002 and 2006, under Sven Goran Eriksson, two Quarter-Final knockouts could’ve been very different but for a little bit of luck and maybe an extra couple of decent players.

Wales last qualified for the tournament in 1958; Scotland, though they have qualified on a number of occasions, have never got past the group stages and Northern Ireland may not have qualified for a World Cup since 1986 but have had the greatest success of those three teams when getting there, making the Quarter-Finals in 1958 and the Second Round in 1982.

Albeit none of those three teams have really made their mark on the competition, there is no question that they have all had some sensational players in their time. Great players such as Ian Rush, John Toshack, Ryan Giggs and in the current crop of players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey have all represented Y Dreigiau, and four Welshmen: Rush, Giggs, Bale and Joey Jones, have won the European Cup or Champions League.

Scotland have their own group of notable players and a very impressive list of Champions League winners. The entirety of Celtic’s European Cup winning squad in 1967 was Scottish: Denis Law and Pat Crerand both won the European Cup in 1968 with Manchester United: Ken McNaught, Des Bremner and Allan Evans were all part of Aston Villa’s European Cup success in 1982: Frank Gray, Kenny Burns, John McGovern, John Robertson and John O’Hare all won successive European Cups with Nottingham Forest: Alan Hansen, Kenny Dalglish, Graham Souness, Steve Nicol and Gary Gillespie all had plenty of European Cup success with Liverpool between them. Finally, current Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert won the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in 1997; the only Scotsman to win the competition since its renaming. Certainly the true greats in that group of Scots are Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law. “King Kenny” as he is known on the red side of Merseyside, is arguably the greatest ever player to grace one of the most successful football clubs in the world; Denis Law is a Ballon d’Or winner. Need I say more?

Northern Ireland do not quite have so many greats as England, Wales and Scotland (yes I’m aware that they technically aren’t part of Britain but the United Kingdom), but George Best and Martin O’Neill have both won European Cups, two in the latter’s case, as he rather amusingly pointed out to Adrian Chiles during this ongoing World Cup, whilst a number of Northern Irishmen including Pat Jennings, Danny Blanchflower and Steve Morrow have won other European honours. However, by an absolute country mile the standout player is George Best. What an incredible player. What an incredible man. Skills beyond compare at that time, certainly in the English game, including scoring a staggering six goals in one match against Northampton for Manchester United, he cut his career and life short thanks to his alcoholism. Even though he never played in an international tournament and his career had very few highs indeed after he reached twenty-eight he is still not regarded as a wasted talent. It’s worth mentioning that he had quite a lot of talent with “the ladies”; a rather good way to endear himself further to his adoring fans.

Who knows how Great Britain might have done instead of England if any of those abovementioned players had been included in past years? Certainly, England could have done with Ryan Giggs, for example, at any number of tournaments in the last 20 years, perhaps most notably the 2002 and 2006 World Cups as well as the 1996 and 2004 European Championships. Alas, we will never know. Instead let us look towards something which has a (very small) possibility of happening: the current combined Great British XI. I’ve gone for a 4-2-3-1 formation as that, very approximately speaking, was the formation which Roy Hodgson employed at the World Cup.

Great Britain Combined XI

Goalkeeper

Candidates: Joe Hart (Manchester City and England), David Marshall (Cardiff City and Scotland) and Wayne Hennessey (Crystal Palace and Wales).

Whilst Joe Hart has had a few wobbles this year and Messrs Marshall and Hennessey have both done very well indeed for their respective clubs, in Hennessey’s case his past clubs as he is yet to make a real impact at Palace; there is even talk of Marshall moving to Arsenal at the moment, it is hard to look past Hart, though it is closer than first thought. Hart has been rated as one of the top ‘keepers in the world at times and his Premier League medal compared to Marshall’s relegation and Hennessey’s midtable finish gets him in the team.

Right-Back

None of the British teams are well catered for at right-back, but it seems that the less than desirable Glen Johnson walks into the team with very little competition. However, the Northern Irish could stake a claim in the future, with FA Youth Cup runner-up Liam Donnelly and Liverpool teenager Ryan McLaughlin both looking like promising players.

Centre-Back (Two)

England have not quite the talent at centre-back one would associate with them. Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka both did perfectly sound jobs at the back in Rio, but neither would make the 1st, 2nd or 3rd XI of the world as many English centre-backs of the past would have. However, once again there is little competition. Danny Gabbidon of Crystal Palace and Wales is the only regular starter for a Premier League side of the other teams and the aging defender does not quite match those two. England’s partnership of Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka continues to function in the British side.

Left-Back

Neither is quite of the calibre of Ashley Cole yet, but with Leighton Baines and Luke Shaw of Everton and Southampton, with Kieran Gibbs waiting in the wings, as England’s choices, left-back seems like an area in which England don’t have to worry so much for the next few years. The only Premier League competition, as of the past season, for them is Steven Whittaker of Norwich and Scotland and Neil Taylor of Swansea and Wales, neither of whom are close to the standard of Leighton Baines.

Centre Midfield (Two) and Attacking Midfield

This is where it starts to get interesting. There is no question that Aaron Ramsey of England and Wales must be in the lineup. He burst into life and the player many knew he could be last season, scoring an incredible eight league goals before his three month injury in December which, coupled with various other Arsenal midfield injuries, probably cost the Gunners the league title, he was one of the Premier League’s top players whilst fit. Then who to play alongside him? I’ve thought long and hard about this. I shan’t include Steven Gerrard as his days in international football at least are numbered. Certainly, had this been selected four or five years ago Darren Fletcher of Scotland and Manchester United would firmly been in the mix, but I’ve narrowed it down between Ross Barkley, Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshere. Barkley and Wilshere are more similar to each other than Henderson in that they run at players and look to break the door down instead of finding a way of opening it, although Wilshere is equally apt at both measures, though in rather different ways. Henderson is a deeper lying player with less buzz and pace about him. On current form, it is tough as Wilshere has endured a tough few months and Henderson looked very good for Liverpool whilst their title challenge was alive. All things considered, Jordan Henderson will get the nod next to Ramsey after his fine season. However, Ross Barkley seems to be an important part of England’s future and I have chosen to put him as the attacking midfielder. If this were just England, Henderson and Wilshere.

Wingers

On the left, there’s no choice but to choose Gareth Bale of Real Madrid and Wales. The world’s most expensive player ever has been the provider of many incredible moments in the last two years, including his final year at Spurs, where he very nearly carried the team to their first league finish ahead of Arsenal in eighteen years, and his goals in the Copa del Rey and Champions League finals helped Madrid to two more trophies and their tenth European Cup/Champions League success. On the right, things are slightly more difficult. The contenders are Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Raheem Sterling, all of England and of Arsenal and Liverpool, in the latter’s case. I really cannot choose between them as we have not seen enough of Walcott and Chamberlain due to injuries to tell.

Striker

Some of you might call me controversial, but I choose Daniel Sturridge. Wayne Rooney has become such a liability for England that it seems better to turn to someone with a fresh slate in England colours, he even scored a World Cup goal on the first try, unlike Rooney, who took three World Cups to get on the scoresheet, to lead the line for the Three Lions.

And there you have it: my Great British XI. It’s a shame I’ve been so boring in including so few non-English players and no Scottish nor Northern Irish players, but it seems those two countries are at a particular lull in their history. Who knows, perhaps a new “Golden Generation” is just around the corner for all four countries, and we could see a full set of the “Home Nations” at a World Cup some time soon.

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