Dominic Solanke discusses "perfect time" for England recall
By Tom Vinall
Last Thursday, Dominic Solanke was rewarded for his fine form in a Tottenham Hotspur shirt with a call up to the England national team for nations league games against Greece and Finland.
It was his first call up in seven years, having debuted for England against Brazil in a friendly at Wembley. Joe Hart, Ryan Bertrand, and Jake Livermore all started that game, just to emphasize how much has changed since then. Kyle Walker, John Stones and Jordan Pickford are the only players from the matchday squad that game that have been called up to this squad. With that and a different manager, it is safe to say this environment will feel a lot different than the last squad he was a part of.
Solanke has seen it all since then. He was a Liverpool player at the time, struggling for game time, before moving to Bournemouth, being relegated, promoted, scoring 19 goals in a Premier League season and everything in between, before getting a move to Spurs this summer.
That cap against The Selecao remains his only cap to date, and ahead of the upcoming fixtures, Solanke told the media on what the recall means: "It means so much. I’ve worked very hard to get back to this moment. Obviously, I made my debut a long time ago, and it’s been quite a journey to get back here… it’s a great feeling.
Obviously the dream is to represent the country, hopefully, I can get some minutes. I’m just happy to be here again and want to help the team.”
When asked if he ever believed his chance with England had passed him by, Solanke replied: “I didn’t think it wouldn’t come back round, no… I just had to keep doing what I’m doing; keep playing well, scoring goals, and I believed I could get back here. It was something I was working towards. Hopefully I can stay here.
I was young [last time he got called up]. I’ve done a lot of learning and developing, I’m more mature. Naturally, I’m in a better position now. I feel good.”
There is a lot of talk that Solanke only got a call up to the national team because he now plays for Spurs, rather than Bournemouth. However, when you consider the prolificiy of Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins, plus the penalty prowess that came to fruition of Ivan Toney, it was going to be difficult. Now that Toney has left Europe, it is only right that Solanke is now called up and it's likely that would have been the case had he stayed put.
With Kane currently not part of collective training, there is the possibility that Solanke earns cap number two against Greece on Thursday night, even if from the bench. Let's see.