Craig Dawson: The best Team GB has to offer
The West Ham United centre-back is in the form of his life and earning rave reviews.
Ten years ago, with the Olympic Games being held in London, football fans finally got to see what a Great Britain football team might look like. (Well, kind of).
As it was the Olympics, the bulk of the squad had to be Under-23 players and coach Stuart Pearce picked England and Wales’ most gifted talents.
However, not many of the youngsters in that squad went on to match the hype. In fact, two have already retired from the game.
Of all the players in that squad, the inclusion that might have raised the most eyebrows was that of Craig Dawson.
Coming off the back of a fairly uneventful debut season with West Brom, of the roll call Pearce assembled, his name was perhaps the least glamorous.
Fast-forward a decade and, right now, there is no player among that Team GB group performing better than the 31-year-old defender.
Dawson has just produced two sensational performances in the UEFA Europa League. The defensive rock blunted and bullied Lyon’s potent attack over two legs. He even got the party started in France, his brave near-post header giving the Hammers the lead in France as they won 3-0 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate.
Not only did he put in a brilliant individual performance, but he also commanded an unfamiliar back-four, which included usually benched defender Issa Diop as his central partner, replacement goalkeeper Alphonse Areola and right-back-come-left-back Ben Johnson, with aplomb.
With West Ham now in the Europa League semi-final and sitting sixth in the Premier League, Ballon d’Aawson, as fans have taken to call him, deserves to be considered one of the best bargains in recent memory - costing West Ham just £2.5million as part of an initial loan deal agreed in October 2020.
When West Ham signed Dawson from Watford, with whom he had been relegated the previous season, I doubt there were many Happy Hammers. That feeling would have swiftly dissipated after his man-of-the-match performance on debut against Southampton.
The same transfer window in which West Ham snapped up Dawson, Tottenham Hotspur paid £11m for Joe Rodon, Leeds United spent £18m on Diego Llorente and Everton committed £25m of outlay for Ben Godfrey. All three perhaps ‘sexier’ options but, on current form, are not on Dawson’s level.
The question now is, does this form warrant an England call-up?
You could argue, that other than Manchester City’s John Stones, Dawson is the Premier League’s in-form English centre-back. He’s certainly performing better than Manchester United’s struggling captain Harry Maguire or the out of sorts Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings - two Gareth Southgate stalwarts.
If England end up taking five centre-backs to Qatar the case could easily be made - Stones, Maguire, Ben White, Conor Coady and … Dawson?
Probably not.
Southgate has a core and Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi was recently given a well-earned call-up. Meanwhile, Joe Gomez is returning to fitness at Liverpool, Fikayo Tomori is one of Serie A’s top defenders at AC Milan and there is Eric Dier’s impressive turnaround under Antonio Conte at Tottenham to consider.
It means, at 31, the time has probably passed for Dawson to achieve international recognition for England.
He will always have the distinction of having represented Great Britain on the world stage, a small privilege in the men’s game. That might offset any disappointment regarding ability that is clearly worthy of international football.
Meanwhile, the other nations who make up that Union will likely be on the hunt, digging through Ancestry.com and asking a few questions around Dawson’s hometown of Rochdale.
You can almost hear the call to his parents now.
“Aye. Has your Chris got a Scottish granny by any chance?”