Richards in, Barton out for England

Fairly predictable stuff but the latest England squad sees Joey Barton axed following his debut against Spain in the recent friendly, but Micah Richards keeps his place in the squad for the double-header against Israel and Andorra.

There was a little speculation that senior members of the squad had called for Barton to be left out due to his 'big-time Charlie' antics when he was in the last squad. Despite ruffling a few feathers with some of his comments about the team, surely it was inevitable that McLaren would revert to type and plump for the tried and trusted faces when it came to the 'serious' games.