Comment: Bradley's not there yet

The 20-year-old was the only City player named in the England squad, and with Preston's David Nugent and Norwich's Ian Henderson the only other out-and-out strikers, it was a great chance to show what he can do.

However, I have to say, he was a little disappointing.

He started the first game against Tunisia and worked hard in England's 2-0 win, chasing long balls and holding it up, but didn't manage to get a chance.

He was then left out of the 1-0 defeat by eventual finalists Portugal as coach Peter Taylor rotated his squad, but returned for the last group game against South Korea.

I noticed somehting in the M.E.N. said he had a good game, that he had a couple of chances and that England scored after he'd hit the post. The fact is, though, he should certainly have scored the first chance and could well have converted the second too.

He was put clean through for his first effort but his shot was hit with little conviction and, although it went wide of the keeper, it rolled against the post and thankfully Liam Rosenior was on hand to knock in the rebound.

The second was difficult to keep down as he was stretching to reach a cross into the six-yard box but you'd expect more experienced players to score from there.

What's more, the open stadiums and small crowds meant you could hear virtually everything from the players but I didn't hear Bradley once. Even Taylor shouted at him once to communicate more.

Bradley missed the semi-final shoot-out defeat by eventual winners France and England had another shoot-out in the third-place play-off with Mexico. He came on towards the end and again worked hard before missing in the shoot-out, which he can't be blamed for.

I know I shouldn't be too critical as he's still young, but I expected more from him. Perhaps that's the problem, though. I can only go off what people around the club have been saying as he hasn't been given a proper go in the first team yet so perhaps we've built him up too much, perhaps he's not going to be the player we all thought he might be.

He always has Shaun around at City too so perhaps he found it difficult with a load of new faces in France and became a bit shy.

Whatever it is, I thought he was ready for a go last season but now I'm not so such, and it looks like Stuart Pearce thinks the same as he has been holding him back. He's certainly got potential though so let's hope Pearce continues to take it easy with him and can help him improve, and maybe in a year or so he'll be set to be a frontline striker.

With Jon Macken having now moved on - I think he needed a fresh start - it suggests that bringing in a proven, senior striker to play alongside Robbie Fowler is now the City boss' priority in the transfer market this summer.

What happened to the days when we had Anelka, Fowler, Wanchope, Goater, Huckerby and Macken all in contention? Perhaps we should try to get Paolo back from his 'pain in Spain'...