Ben Foster has admitted he will be ‘in Sir Alex Ferguson’s face’
next season, in a bid to improve his chances of claiming the number
one jersey for England.
The keeper has been named in the England squad by Fabio Capello
for the friendly with Slovakia and World Cup qualifier with
Ukraine, despite being on the fringe of the first team at
Manchester United.
Foster is aware that in order to press his claims for inclusion
at the 2010 World Cup, he needs to be featuring regularly at club
level.
The problem for Foster is the path to the first team at United
is blocked by the sizeable presence of Edwin van der Sar and the
Dutchman is showing no signs of heading into the sunset.
The keeper is not keen on heading out on loan, as his priority
is making the grade at Old Trafford, but he is aware it could
impact on his short-term international chances.
”It is nice to get a bit of recognition,” Foster said on
Setanta Sports News. “Before now I could not
really expect to get in the team having not played and not done a
lot, but it is nice to get recognised by Mr Capello.
”It is a big boost for me so I have got to push on from
here.”
Assessing his club situation, Foster added: “I don’t know if it
(loan) is going to be an option, you would have to ask Alex
Ferguson about that.
”It is important to be able to play first-team football, I think
everyone knows that.
”It is a balancing act really, I am at the biggest club in the
world and I don’t want to leave that.”
Foster is rated extremely highly by Ferguson and he will to make
life difficult for his manager in the summer.
“It is the biggest competition in the world, the World Cup and I
know the manager is only going to pick the players he thinks is
right – the players that are playing regularly,” added Foster.
”I know I’ve got to go back in the summer, the start of next
season and get in the manager’s face as much as I can. I’ve got to
get into the squad really, it’s as simple as that really.”