Gary Cahill still guaranteed England starting spot at Euros despite bad season — report

In a way, The Times's story of Hodgson "guaranteeing" Gary Cahill a starting spot at Euro 2016 is as obvious of a story as Chelsea not taking up our buy-option on Falcao.  Sure, there is technically another option, but for all practical purposes, there is only one possible outcome.

While Chris Smalling has had an excellent season at Manchester United and Everton's John Stones is no doubt highly talented and highly promising, Gary Cahill remains the steady center of the English defensive universe.  Not to mention, he's Hodgson's vice-captain.  Maybe if Wes Morgan were English, we could be talking about an alternative, but he isn't and so we aren't.  (He plays for Jamaica, right 'Arry?)

On the other hand, Even Cahill has had a rather indifferent season at an already pretty bad Chelsea team, starting barely half of our league games and many of those simply because of injuries to John Terry and Kurt Zouma.  While he formed a formidable partnership with JT last season on our way to a Premier League title, that setup, along with most other systems in the team, failed spectacularly in trying to defend our crown.  Were Hodgson to drop him, I wouldn't consider it all that surprising.  But apparently that's not going to happen.

While Hodgson would certainly be well served to give youth a chance at other positions — especially the likes of Kane, Alli, Dier, Sterling, Barkley, Lallana — perhaps it would indeed be wise to opt for experience in the defensive positions.  So go on, EBGC, do us proud!