How Andros Townsend made it back into Roy Hodgson's England squad

Mauricio Pochettino was scathing about Andros Townsend just six months ago, but the winger has rebuilt his career and reputation at Newcastle and is now back with England

Andros Townsend celebrates scoring one of his four goals for Newcastle (Getty)

Mauricio Pochettino does not often go into specifics when discussing his players, but he made an exception last November when it came to Andros Townsend.

The 24-year-old winger had become grumpy and disaffected at Tottenham having only started three games all season, against FK Qarabag, Anderlecht, and a Capital One Cup game against Arsenal. With just three brief substitute appearances in the Premier League, it was clear that Townsend was barely on the fringes of Pochettino’s plans, and he was not taking it well.

Townsend’s pent-up frustration eventually spilled over. After another long evening on the bench at White Hart Lane, he took exception at being asked to warm down and scuffled with fitness coach Nathan Gardiner.

Pochettino usually prefers to keep these issues in-house but had no qualms about publicly ending Townsend’s Tottenham career at his next press conference.

“It was not normal behaviour,” Pochettino said. “He is young and you need to understand that it isn’t the way to impress the manager. He needs to learn about football, about behaviour, about discipline, about a lot of things. Football is not only about taking the ball in your feet and playing. You have a responsibility as a professional. When you behave in the wrong way you always need to pay.”

They were strong words, words which marked the end of Townsend’s time at Tottenham. He was relegated to the Under-21s, and he played for that side to maintain fitness until the opening of the January transfer window, when he joined Newcastle United for £12million.

When Townsend arrived at Newcastle he said that he “was not thinking about England at all”. And yet in his 13 Premier League appearances for Newcastle, in which he scored four goals, he clearly did enough to persuade Roy Hodgson to pick him over Theo Walcott for his 26-man group for Euro 2016.

Townsend brought pace and spark back into a side that had lost both under Steve McClaren. His free-kick against Crystal Palace provided hope that Newcastle would survive. It was not enough in the end, but he certainly gave everything he had to try to keep Newcastle in the Premier League. Not every recent signing can say that. He also impressed staff at the club with his commitment, a sign that part of Pochettino’s criticism may have got through.

“Andros and Theo are both good players, both very different players,” Hodgson explained at his press conference on Monday. “Andros was unlucky to lose his place in the squad when he wasn’t getting a regular game [at Tottenham]. Since he has gone to Newcastle he has not only got a regular game, he has actually done very well.”


 Townsend's form for Newcastle earnt himself a late recall 
 (Getty)

Townsend has not played for England since last October. But Hodgson remembered that he was important to England’s qualification for the 2014 World Cup, impressing and scoring in the two crucial wins against Montenegro and Poland in October 2013 that took England there. But that was when Andre Villas-Boas was still in charge at White Hart Lane and a 22-year-old Townsend was on an upward trajectory. He would likely have gone to the World Cup but for an ankle injury.


 Theo Walcott missed out on selection after a run of poor form 
 (Getty)

Now, two years on, Townsend is back. He is coming off the best Premier League run of his career, even if it was a run that saw Newcastle relegated. He has overtaken Walcott at the final hurdle and can claim to the best genuine wide-man in the England squad. If he can prove to Hodgson that he has learned from what Pochettino said about him, that he has grown up, that he has learned about “football, behaviour and discipline”, he could yet star in France.