'I’m here to..' - Burnley's James Trafford makes his England ambition clear after stunning campaign
The latest Burnley news as James Trafford makes his England aim clear.
Burnley’s in-form No1 James Trafford has set himself a target - to be England’s number one pick at the World Cup next year.
The ambitious 22-year-old has enjoyed a remarkable season at Turf Moor, keeping 26 of Burnley’s 27 clean sheets and conceding just 11 league goals. It’s been some turnaround for the stopper, who had to endure plenty of criticism in the Premier League last season as the Clarets were relegated under Vincent Kompany. And now he has his sights set even higher, though he’ll have to get past Jordan Pickford first.
Speaking ahead of the Albania and Latvia games, Trafford said: “I believe I can play in the way he wants to play,” he said. “But no one’s here to make numbers up, everyone’s here to challenge and that goes for anyone in the squad.
“When I came in under Gareth [Southgate] or [Lee] Carsley, I was always coming in to challenge and put in the best account of myself to try and play whatever game it was. “I’m here to challenge as much as anyone else is.
“Nobody has said, ‘You’re going to play X, Y and Z’, or ‘You’re not going to play X, Y and Z’. It’s just everyone’s challenging. Whenever we train, we all give it our best and we all push each other as much as we can and whoever the manager picks, he picks.”
Trafford has been enjoying spending time at the camp with fellow Cumbrian Dean Henderson. He said: “We speak a lot whether it is on camp or off camp and it was good when I got called up, it means there was somebody from my area – because we are different up North.
“It’s someone with the same craic really, we can talk about things from up North that nobody else knows, because we’re both from the area. Just general craic like. Just general things that you get when you talk to someone from your area.”
What has Burnley boss Scott Parker said about James Trafford?
“Fully deserved,” Parker said of Trafford’s call up. “I'm extremely proud. I'm sure his family and I'm sure Traff himself is proud. “I'm proud as his coach, to be quite honest with you, because there’s no denying that last year was tough for him. “I think certainly early on when I first stepped into this role, I could see that. There were some tough moments, so fair play to him.”
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