Collymore’s column: Jordan Henderson inclusion in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad, Darwin Nunez and Alexander Isak, and more | OneFootball

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa and Liverpool striker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including the latest England squad, Liverpool’s Champions League and Carabao Cup blows, Enzo Fernandez’s links to Real Madrid, and much more.

Thomas Tuchel must get rid of England’s big club bias

Thomas Tuchel in training ahead of his first match as England manager (Photo by PA)

I have no problems with Dan Burn being called up to the England squad. His form for Newcastle has been very good for a while, although he is not going to be the future of English defenders – that will be players like Marc Guehi, Levi Colwill, Ezri Konsa and Jarrell Quansah. However, it is a great story for him, winning the Carabao Cup on Sunday before getting his first call-up. He is a Harry Maguire-esque central defender that is no nonsense, and he will fit in.

Miles Lewis-Skelly is another that I have no problems with – if he is going to be the future for Arsenal and England. However, I think that if he was someone that played for a team in the lower half of the Premier League, and he had the same sample size of matches as he has had, I’m not so sure that he would not be in the squad.

We need to start rewarding players that play well regardless of the team that they play for in the Premier League, and that is a massive argument with the Nottingham Forest boys. For me, Morgan Gibbs-White was undoubtedly only brought in to the England squad as a late call-up because of the media attention that his omission received. I like to think that I have a voice as much as any of the other big voices when it comes to England and English football, and I am certainly someone that reacted when I saw that there were no Forest players included in the squad. Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson and Callum Hudson-Odoi all deserved to be called up, they have all played every week for a team that are third in the Premier League.

I think questions have to be asked about who is watching matches. There was already a story that Tuchel has not come over to watch many games, and now the call-ups will start to create a narrative that he does not watch players, and that his scouting system is not working as it should be.

In terms of the rest of the squad, I have no problems with Marcus Rashford getting in. He has not been as good at Aston Villa as many have been saying, but he has looked infinitely better than when he was at Manchester United earlier in the season, and I think that he just about deserves to be there.

Jordan Henderson does not deserve England call-up in any way

Jordan Henderson is back in the England squad (Photo by Peter Lous/BSR Agency)

From my perspective, there was an opportunity for England to completely move away from the old guard after Euro 2024, regardless of whoever came in to replace Gareth Southgate. Jordan Henderson is a great lad, and he has had a great career, but there is no way that he deserves to be in the England squad at this stage.

If the suggestion is that he gets in because of his leadership skills, then that is very patronising. Jude Bellingham is a leader, Harry Kane is a leader, Jordan Pickford and Kyle Walker are leaders too, and Marcus Rashford can be also. Maybe Tuchel is being clever by thinking that he needs an older head in his dressing room because he has a lot of younger players, or maybe he actually believes that Henderson can be part of an England team that can win the World Cup. I would be very interested to hear whether readers believe this, and if not, then they should agree that he should not be included in Tuchel’s first squad.

I think his inclusion sends the wrong message to players that have missed out on being included after playing very well, and this can lead to them deciding to turn their backs on England – it is dangerous. Tuchel must look to move away from players like Henderson, and the old guard in general.

Premier League title is a very successful season for Liverpool

Arne Slot saw his Liverpool side beaten by Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

I think if you asked any Liverpool fan or anyone associated with Liverpool last summer if they would be in the position they are now ahead of the season run-in, where they are almost certain to win the Premier League, everyone would have taken it – even if it meant that they went trophyless in any other competition.

Any fan at the start of the season would have said that the Premier League is the most important competition for Liverpool – and while they could collapse and miss out on winning it, I really don’t think that will happen, even if they need to buck up their ideas as their performances in recent weeks have been poor.

Talk of quadruples, trebles are not for me, I will leave that to influencers to speak about. Even a double is a very difficult thing to do in football, and many clubs have not achieved it over the years in English football. Regardless, the Premier League title is the gold standard for me, and if Liverpool can win it by even 3-6 points, it would be an outstanding achievement, especially with Arne Slot being a rookie manager in England.

Liverpool should use Darwin Nunez in Alexander Isak swap deal

Darwin Nunez missed a crucial penalty during Liverpool’s shoot-out defeat to PSG in the Champions League (Photo by Getty Images)

I think the Alexander Isak to Liverpool rumours are not going to go away anytime soon, and Newcastle may need to sell because of FFP – especially if they do not qualify for the Champions League. And I think Isak would do very well at Liverpool, and it could be one to watch.

Darwin Nunez arrived at Liverpool as a very confident player, and now he looks too robotic – and that is probably because of the pressure that he is under at Anfield, which is a complete kettle of fish compared to what he experienced at Benfica. He just does not look confident, composed or relaxed, even if his goal output is not as bad as many people make it out to be. And the longer that this pressure remains, the harder it will become for him, and it has already started to affect his decision-making on the pitch, and especially in front of goal.

Nunez has definitely been affected by his Liverpool experience, and I think that he should leave – simply put, he is not up to the standards needed at Liverpool, which can be very unforgiving. My record at Liverpool is often looked down upon, and I had 50 goal contributions in 89 appearances! And the problem for Nunez is that he is being compared against the great Liverpool strikers, such as Ian Rush, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez, Michael Owen… and of course, he is a massive disappointment when lined up against them.

Isak would be a massive upgrade on Nunez. His all-round play is what Liverpool need in a striker, and in my opinion, I think it could benefit Newcastle to take Nunez. There is certainly a player in there, but he is not someone that can handle player for a club like Liverpool that brings so much scrutiny and pressure. He would be a really good fit at Newcastle, and their supporters would love him.

Newcastle are a really big club, so it would not feel like a massive step down for Nunez, but the important thing is that the pressure would not be as telling. And I think Eddie Howe, who I think will become England manager in the future, can make Nunez into the player that many thought he would become at Liverpool.

Whatever happens, I think Nunez will leave Liverpool in the summer, but it would not surprise me if he went to Newcastle with Isak going in the opposite direction as the two clubs could reach an amicable agreement when considering their respective FFP situations.

Chelsea should think twice before selling Enzo Fernandez

Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez in training with Argentine ahead of their 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil (Photo by Getty Images)

Chelsea’s billion-pound experiment has failed, make no mistake about it. Their idea of buying every young player with the idea of them being good enough in 5/6 years is naïve, as football simply does not work like that. Their theory is fine, but the practicality does not work. You just have to look at Cole Palmer, who no one thought would be as good as he was as quickly as he was after joining from Manchester City.

Despite their struggles, I think Enzo Fernandez has been one of Chelsea’s better players. And I think they can afford to sit back and tell interested clubs that they are not going to sell, and that they don’t need to sell. From that perspective, they can look to keep him, especially when they have other big names that are better suited to be sold, like Mykhailo Mudryk.

If I was a Chelsea fan, Enzo would be one of the players that I would build their team around. And because of this, I think that they should be reluctant to sell unless they received north of the €80m figure that has been reported.

If Chelsea were to do a deal, they could consider looking to sign a player or two from Atletico Madrid or Real Madrid to ensure that the two clubs satisfy their FFP needs – this was what they did last summer when Conor Gallagher left to join Atletico, with Joao Felix going in the opposite direction. There could be players that are at either club that Chelsea could be interested in, and they can use the interest in Enzo to leverage a favourable deal, whether that be for an experienced player – which I think Chelsea need more – or another young talent.

But I think it should have to be a very, very good deal if Chelsea were to sell – there have not been many players that have been a success during this project, but he can probably count as one of them.