England’s Future: Townsend, Barkley, Shaw and More.

With England set to play their crucial World Cup double-header, writer Jake Beales-Hobson looks at some of the youngsters who could be pushing for a place on the plane to Brazil.

After yet another weekend of big surprises and big performances in the Premier League, the favourites for the title are still unclear. One thing that is clear however, is that the opening weeks have been perfect for young English talent establishing themselves on the big stage.

With the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil just over the horizon, the number of English talent with potential being produced and nurtured is extremely promising from an English perspective. Roy Hodgson will have a major task in the coming months, choosing his 23-man squad, if England manage to qualify.

With two massive World Cup Qualifiers coming up against Montenegro and Poland, Roy Hodgson will have big decisions to make. With the likes of Ross Barkley of Everton and Andros Townsend of Spurs showing great performances and signs of potential in the opening months of the season, it gives Hodgson a big dilemma, who does he leave out?

There has been a massive list of young English talent who have broken into first teams all across the country. As well as both Townsend and Barkley, Southampton full back Luke Shaw has been praised for his consistency and level of performances. Unfortunately for Shaw, at left-back, he will have to compete with Leighton Baines and Ashley Cole for a place in the England setup, who are arguably the best two left backs in the world. The only positive you could look at for Luke Shaw is that he is only 18, and both Cole and Baines will soon pave way for our next generation. Ashley Cole would be a superb role model for Luke Shaw, with over 100 England Caps and numerous trophies to his name, including a Champions League medal, 3 Premier League medals and 7 FA Cup medals. Shaw has been linked with moves away from Southampton to some of the ‘big-guns’, but Mauricio Pochettino will do everything he can to keep hold of him in the coming transfer windows.

Andros Townsend is another youngster that has continued to impress at club level. Townsend has yet to make his debut for England, however with his level of performance ever-improving, it is become more and more likely he will soon make his first appearance. He is fast becoming a Tottenham regular along with Danny Rose. After spending the majority of last season on loan at Sunderland, Rose has forced Benoit Assou Ekottu out of the squad and therefore forced himself into the Spurs starting eleven. Unfortunately for Rose, to attain a position in the England squad looks slim, with tough competition from Leighton Baines, Ashley Cole and Luke Shaw as well as Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs.

Will Hughes, Ravel Morrison, Luke Shaw, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, James Ward-Prowse, Saido Berahino, Jesse Lingard, Andre Wisdom, Ross Barkley, Danny Rose, Raheem Stirling… The list goes on. The Future of English football, may be a little more promising than we previously expected.

Who do you think is the next ‘big thing’ from our crop of exciting young English stars? Share your thoughts below.