Hodgson: Carl Jenkinson will play for England

Carl Jenkinson has Finnish and English ancestry, so he is eligible for either national team by FIFA rules. Until this year, that didn't appear to be that big of a deal, because few thought he'd be good enough to eventually break into the English set-up. But now, after a roaring start to the season and a training session with the team, it looks like Jenks has decided he's more English than Finnish after all.

Some quotes from England manager Roy Hodgson, via Arseblog News:

I don’t want to trick him to play for England in a few minutes in a game to block him, but he had to make a decision because we’re very interested in him, even if the competition is tougher to get him into the England team rather than the Finland team. He made it very clear he wanted to play for England.

Hodgson also said that Jenkinson "didn't take a lot of convincing," which sort of leads me to believe that he really wanted to play for England all along, and once offered the opportunity he jumped at it. Arseblog also notes that because of his previous experience in the Finnish junior set-up, Jenkinson will need to wait for clearance until he's allowed to play internationally. With England's next match not coming until after the new year, it'll be a while before he plays.

I haven't heard anything about Arsenal's failure to develop British players lately, have you?