FOOTBALL: ANDY GRAY'S COLUMN: You'll never know about Lee unless you

When England play Portugal at Villa Park on Saturday it marks the start of Sven Goran Eriksson's preparations for the European Championship.

That means he has to look at players who will give England the best chance of glory, stars who have proved they can play at the highest level and score goals on a regular basis.

One such player is Lee Bowyer but it appears the jury is still out on whether the time is right to allow him to pull on an England shirt after the controversy that has dogged his career over the past couple of years.

The word is that team-mate Jonathan Woodgate will be in the England squad when it is announced tomorrow. If that's right, how can Eriksson justify picking Woodgate - who was found guilty of affray - and snub Bowyer, who was cleared of all charges?

I don't understand why picking Bowyer would cause any sort of justified outcry now. It seems a bit hypocritical to welcome Woodgate back into the international fold but not Bowyer, just because of the perception people have of him.

I agree it would have been madness to take the two boys to Japan and Korea because it was just too early after the infamous court case.

Now it's time for these lads to be judged on their football merits and nothing else. If they are good enough to play for England then they should be picked.

Bowyer is playing well, he scored again yesterday, and has the type of talent England need. Let's face it, if he wasn't a class player we wouldn't even be having this debate.

He reminds me of David Platt in his approach and his ability to get crucial goals. He might not have silky skills but if you are talking about getting the mix right in an international side he has to be considered.

No doubt some people think Bowyer is Mr Nasty, an unpleasant personality who should never be allowed the honour of pulling on an England shirt.

You can understand why they might have that opinion and in a perfect world it would be great to get 11 nice lads in a team and watch them set the world on fire.

But this is not fantasy football. This is reality and you cannot have a squad of international footballers with the same squeaky- clean personality.

Some of them are always going to be angels with dirty faces and, I tell you what, you would be lost without them. I mean, if footballers were left out because of their aggressive personality Roy Keane would never play for Manchester United.

I was hardly Mr Clean when I was a player and some people no doubt thought I was loathsome.

All great teams have a tough guy, someone with a bit of attitude who might occasionally go over the top. I know Bowyer's problems were a bit more serious but you can't hold it against him for ever can you? Boys are entitled to make mistakes. The important thing is that they learn from them and from what I have seen of Lee this season he appears to have matured.

The only way Eriksson is going to find out if Bowyer is the right kind of player for England is to name him in the squad. You can watch him play for Leeds as many times as you want but you will never get close to him until you have worked with the boy.

Eriksson already has some talented youngsters in midfield and he may well decide he doesn't need to add Bowyer to the list.

But if I was Sven I would have Bowyer in the squad tomorrow because I would want to know what he is really like as a lad.

He has already proved that he can regularly score goals at the highest level.

There will always be people who say Bowyer should never play for England. I do not agree and I think Sven should give the lad a chance and make him part of his plans for the European Championship and the next World Cup.

There has also been some debate, because of his age, about whether David Seaman should carry on.

For me, the issue is clear. If David wants to continue and feels he can play in the European Championship when he will be 40 then, as long as he is playing well, he should be in the team.

But if he has international retirement in his mind Sven should say: "Thanks David, you have done a sensational job but now it's time to find someone else."

I suspect David will go on but he won't be there for much longer and keepers like David James, Richard Wright - who can reboot his career at Everton - and young Paul Robinson at Leeds need to start banging on the door now.

I haven't seen it yet but they need to show their unquenchable desire to be the one to step into Seaman's boots.

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