Sam Allardyce believes his English stars should soon start gaining the international recognition they deserve, provided they can maintain the high level of performance displayed in the 2-0 win against Wigan Athletic on Saturday.
A recent article on the Mail online stated that West Ham United would have been third in the Barclays Premier League after 33 games if only goals from English players counted. And after two more strikes from homegrown midfielders Matt Jarvis and Kevin Nolan were enough to overcome an impressive Wigan side at the Boleyn Ground, the West Ham United manager believes that the combination of eye-catching performances and the club's high-profile location should alert the England coaching set up to the playing riches on offer in east London.
"Everyone told me all of my life that if you want to shine, shine in London," Big Sam said. "You'll get more recognition down here than anyone else. We're in the big city so you can come and watch us whenever you want to and we're here for everyone to see.
"Matt Jarvis is playing really, really well for us, which is great to see. The full-backs in the world of football have got a very difficult job trying to stop him producing a ball in the final third for his team-mates."
Jarvis continued his impressive season with another productive display as he terrorised Wigan down their right-hand side. Recently released statistics named him as the league's most successful crosser and his manager backed up that fact by citing the sheer quality of his delivery as the reason he registered his second goal of the season against the Latics.
"He's been an outstanding player and he also releases the pressure. You give him the ball and he runs up the field at the right-back, gets in the final third before the right-back can commit a tackle to him.
"They can't stop him and he gets the cross in on either the right or left foot. Because of the quality of his cross in the first half it went straight in the back of the net. You could say it was a fluke but because the quality is so good, if it hadn't gone straight in one of our players would have touched it or one of their players would have probably knocked it in for an own goal. It was an awesome cross-come-shot!"
After nurturing the Club's record signing since his arrival last summer, Big Sam now wants his team-mates to start capitalising on the winger's consistent deliveries from wide. If they can do that, Allardyce thinks it will not be long before his No7 pulls on the Three Lions shirt for the second time after a solitary England cap two years ago.
"Matt's improvement is something that has been great to see. Prozone have produced some stats that show the level and quality of his crossing puts him as the best in the Barclays Premier League. I've been jumping on the back of that with Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan, Joe Cole, Jack Collison and people like that and saying they should be getting more goals than they are. He's provided the opportunity for people to score and they haven't been taking as many as they should have done.
"He's playing in a side that's playing in its first year in the Barclays Premier League and he's got statistics that are very, very good. If Roy Hodgson is looking for a wide man then he's right up there with the very best in the league at this moment in time."
The 2-0 win all but assured West Ham's Barclays Premier League status for next season and secured the impressive feat of placing the newly promoted side in the top half of the table.
"I'm enjoying the fact that what I wanted the players to do up until now they have done. We're tenth in the Premier League with four games to go and we've never been lower than 14th for the entire season and when you consider Wigan have been there for seven years and are still struggling, it puts our achievements this year into context."
