Collymore: Newcastle’s rock WILL be an England international

Arguably the most pleasing aspect of Newcastle’s start to the 2011/12 Premier League season, is that Alan Pardew’s men have recorded back-to-back clean sheets. That is something of a rarity, and although Tim Krul has been solid, you wouldn’t have said that he’s had to make a string of stunning saves over the course of the two matches against Arsenal and Sunderland. That means that Newcastle’s back four must be doing a great job and an important part of that is the much maligned Danny Simpson.

Last month I wrote an article saying that Simpson is the most underrated player at Newcastle and possibly even in the Premier League. The comments that you gave me kind of supported that view, saying that he’s ‘below average’, ‘his tackling is atrocious’, ‘backs off far too much’ and ‘probably our worst first-team player last season’. Those thoughts seemed to be the general consensus and that my view was going against the grain. However, it seems that Stan Collymore has a similar way of thinking.

While on the whole I wouldn’t usually agree with what Collymore has to say, on the issue of Danny Simpson it seems that we share similar thoughts. Simpson was on talkSPORT last night, talking about Newcastle’s win over Sunderland and Stan was very complimentary about Newcastle’s right back. Maybe he was just sucking up to Danny because he was on the show, but Collymore said “Danny Simpson will be an England international”.

Now, I know many of you will tell me that Collymore is talking out of his backside, but it’s nice to see that Simpson is getting praised by the sporting media, even if it is by the marmite figure of Stan Collymore. I actually have to admit that I don’t think Simpson had his best game against Sunderland, with Jack Colback getting in down the left a number of times in the first half. However, he covered very well round the back, preventing Stephane Sessegnon from converting a simple header, in a similar way that he stopped Gervinho pulling the trigger last weekend.

Simpson clearly is a pretty confident player as well and himself has international ambitions. This morning he Tweeted Chris Kamara saying “any chance of him (Fabio Capello) comin up to the north east n watching a game for once”. While right back isn’t England’s strongest position, I would say that Micah Richards, Kyle Walker and Glen Johnson are ahead of him of Danny Simpson in the pecking order, purely for their attacking abilities.

Danny Simpson is never going to be a right back that bombs up and down the flank, but at 24 he has time to work on his game and has a strong level of defending as a solid basis to work from. I’m not sure he will become an England international like Stan Collymore thinks, but he will continue to be part of a solid back four at Newcastle; I only wish the rest of the Toon Army would give him a break.

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