England squad confirmed

The England squad has been confirmed and it contains three Manchester City players: Joe Hart, Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips. This is historic. In two previous World Cups there had been two MCFC men in the squad: Colin Bell and Franny Lee in 1970, and Joe Corrigan and Trevor Francis in 1982. But never three.

This is testament, in Shaun Wright-Phillips case, to the success of our Academy - he is the first of its graduates to play for England (Micah Richards and Joey Barton have also done so), and the first to be included in an English World Cup squad. Joe Hart is not an Academy player, but he was bought from Shrewsbury Town for £600,000 aged 19 and so we did have some active role in his development. Barry, of course, we can claim no real credit for.

But this is still a historic moment, another marker of the upward progress of MCFC in the last two years. More news on more squads when it comes in.