I’ve got first call. If I pick players they should turn up

ROY HODGSON is heading for another club v country row after insisting that ALL his senior stars must be available for friendlies at the end of the season.

The England boss says games against the Republic of Ireland and Brazil are crucial to World Cup qualification hopes.
Following last week’s disappointing draw in Montenegro, Hodgson has made it clear he is in no mood to allow players to duck out of their international responsibilities — despite growing concerns over their workloads.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is seeking talks with Hodgson to get Jack Wilshere excused from Three Lions duty this summer, while Alex Ferguson is not exactly overjoyed at the thought of his Manchester United players flying to Brazil for the June 2 friendly in Rio de Janeiro.
And Chelsea and Manchester City have just announced plans to fly to the United States to play each other twice in the week before the Ireland game on May 29.
Those US matches will almost certainly feature key England players including Joe Hart, Ashley Cole, James Milner, Frank Lampard, Joleon Lescott and Gary Cahill.
But Hodgson insists: “As far as I am concerned, the Ireland and Brazil games are two bona fide matches.
“A lot of other international teams are playing qualifiers in this period, so I don’t think I need to worry whether the players I select will come and play for England.
“They are aware we need to prepare well for the autumn internationals and these friendlies are part of that.
“We have good opportunities in these two games to do some post-match analysis to make sure that everyone is fully understanding of the way we’d like to go forward.
“May and June are FIFA dates and international matches have first call on the players. We have just had two very important back-to-back World Cup qualifiers and now I have six weeks to concern myself with who plays against Ireland and Brazil.”
Hodgson is still smarting over the criticism his team faced after surrendering two crucial points against Montenegro in Podgorica on Tuesday.
And he dismissed suggestions that his players cannot retain possession — because they were able to hold on to the ball in their previous game, the 8-0 win against San Marino!
He says: “We didn’t win in Monte-negro because we didn’t retain possession and dominate the midfield in the second half as well as we did in the first 45 minutes. It’s no more complicated than that.
“But our ball retention wasn’t too bad against San Marino or in our previous game against Brazil, so I refuse to accept that because we didn’t play so well for 45 minutes, that it’s suddenly all about ball retention.
“Every time a team has a period when they don’t play to the very high levels of expectations, you shouldn’t suggest that everything they are doing is wrong.
“We knew this would be a difficult qualifying group but we are still in with a good shout going into the autumn games.
“Our fate is still in our own hands to some extent.
“Three of our last four matches are at home and we still have to play all of our rivals — Monte-negro, Poland and Ukraine.
“They are also going to be playing each other and dropping points, so there are still twists and turns ahead. We have to make certain we keep our heads.”
In spite of his team’s problems last Tuesday, Hodgson maintains that there are clear signs of progress in the camp.
And he uses the example of England’s Euro 2012 defeat by Italy to reinforce his argument.
He claims: “It’s a different world. Against Italy, we didn’t really see the ball. On Tuesday, it was never a question of the opposition dominating possession.
“We are in a period of change and I think that change is ticking along. One of the better younger players, Jack Wilshere, wasn’t able to be with us.
“Then Theo Walcott, another player of interest, had to cry off through injury.
“Having said that, I was pleased with some of the other young players against San Marino and Montenegro.
“It was a difficult game in a difficult atmosphere on Tuesday.
“But in the final analysis, getting a point in Montenegro might prove to be a very good thing.
“If we are able to beat them at Wembley, we’ll have been able to take four points off them.
“Maybe people will just have to accept that we can’t always produce the performances we want