THE first thing I thought when I saw Sven's England squad for Euro 2004 this week was : 'Where did he get Ian Walker from?'

Then I thought again. Starting at the top and working my way down, I was looking for English goalkeepers in the Premiership and, sadly, they are lacking.

The fact is we have two keepers who have just got relegated and even our first choice played half the season in Division One.

If David James gets injured we are going to struggle. I do rate Paul Robinson but it says a lot about the standard of goalkeeping in this country.

For years we were renowned for having the best shot-savers in the world but now there's hardly any to choose from.

Chris Kirkland is injured, as is Robert Green at Norwich, while Nigel Martyn has refused to come back. And look at the number two to him at Everton, Richard Wright.

He was raved about when he joined Arsenal but he's just died away and now he can't even get in the Everton side so it is worrying.

Similarly up front, we have problems if Michael Owen is injured because we have no other natural goalscorers.

I see that Darius Vassell is struggling to be fit, which could pave the way for Alan Smith or Jermain Defoe, who must be absolutely gutted to be left out.

Any opposition manager that looks at the England team will know that if they can put Owen out the game, we don't have anyone else that is going to get us the goals.

People say that it's good thing that Emile Heskey hasn't been playing regularly because he will be hungry and fresh, but you can also get rusty and it will be difficult for him to pick up tournament pace.

That's why I also think we can do without Nicky Butt. You can't go from reserve team football to international football just like that and our midfield is strong enough on paper anyway.

We should have had another centre back, like Matthew Upson, or another forward because these are the areas where we will struggle to replace injured players. However, I still think we have a chance and I'm sure we will make the last four.

You can never write off Germany and Holland have a point to prove after not making the World Cup - but France are the definite favourites and I can't look past them.

BLACKBURN Rovers and Dwight Yorke will agree on one thing this week - that they'll both be better off if he's away from Ewood.

The striker is fifth in the pecking order now, which is no use to him at 32. And the club certainly can't afford to have one of their top earners being that far away from the first team!