Hooper for England?

In what will likely be the main UK sports story of the day, in England at least, tomorrow Roy Hodgson will announce his squad for Euro 2012. Naturally, much debate has been had over who should be on that plane to Ukraine but no one can say for certain yet who will be going.

An outside shout for a place amongst the forwards could be Celtic’s Gary Hooper. The 24 year old has scored a highly impressive 51 goals in 86 games whilst helping the team to a Scottish Cup and SPL title in his two seasons in Glasgow.

With Wayne Rooney probably the only striker who is a nailed on choice there are places up for grabs in the forward line. Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Andy Carroll and Peter Crouch will be among those hopeful of a call, while Grant Holt has been suggest by some as a possibility too.

However, Gary Hooper offers something different. Diminutive yet strong the Harlow born striker is a predator in the box. He was simply born to score goals and does so with ease and joy. One of Hooper’s greatest qualities is his efficiency in front of goal; whilst always being amongst the top scorers he is not one who needs a lot of chances to find the net.

To exemplify this let’s compare his stats with those of Nikica Jelavic. The Croat striker took more shots in half a season at Rangers than Hooper did in the full campaign and yet the Englishman outscored him by ten SPL goals. Jelavic, of course, joined Everton in January and is proving to be a fantastic signing.

Hooper finished this season with 24 league goals (29 in all competitions), five of which came on the final day when he ran riot against Hearts before Celtic lifted the SPL trophy. If there is one English striker who is flying and high on confidence right now then it is Gary Hooper.

The biggest factor counting against Hooper in his bid to be considered for international selection, just like it was for Alan Thompson before him, is that he is playing in Scotland – a country that England managers have continually looked down upon. Of course the SPL as a whole cannot be compared to England’s Premier League but it is folly to suppose that there are no quality players playing there.

Hooper has outscored every other English striker (apart from Rooney) this season and is the only one currently celebrating being a champion. That must count for something. The importance of a winning mentality and of being able to play well under pressure must not be underestimated, especially when making the step up to international football.

The demands of playing for Celtic cannot be stressed enough. You are quite literally expected to go out and win every game and Hooper, as the principal goal scorer, has handled this burden well, continually coming up with the goods and at crucial times.

In the interests only of making a comparison and with all due respect to Grant Holt and Norwich, who have done fantastically this season, their only ambition would have been to survive and anything beyond that is a bonus. For Hooper’s Celtic a second place finish would have been a failure that would have cost the manager his job. It’s a different kind of pressure. A pressure to win, always.

What are England’s ambitions this summer? Will they be heading to Poland and Ukraine hoping to return with the trophy or will they accept a decent showing and going home with nothing?

Of course that is not to say that taking Gary Hooper over players playing for teams of a lesser standing within their own divisions will necessarily bring England greater success but the mental demands of playing for Celtic would stand Hooper in good stead for the pressures of carrying England’s hopes.

Despite all this many will still laugh off the suggestion of Hooper playing for England as long as he’s playing in the SPL. However, he has scored goals for Celtic in European competition (three in seven appearances) and also has a habit of scoring in one of the highest pressure games in the world, never mind for Celtic, with five goals in ten games against Rangers. These are big games that many players with far bigger reputations than Gary Hooper have struggled in but Hoops has scored some of his best goals in Glasgow derby games.

A lot of his goals are close range instinctive finishes but he can also score from further out, from the spot and with his head. He knows how to use his body, possesses a decent turn of pace and has great control in the box.

If Hodgson picks his squad on form, not reputation, then Hooper will be on the plane. He has the ability and if the new manager has the guts to give him a chance then England may reap the rewards.

Imagine it’s the latter stages of the tournaments, in extra time, and the game is heading for the “dreaded” penalties and the ball falls in the area to an England striker… Are there many people you would feel more confident in than Gary Hooper to stick it away?