ONE midget out, one midget in. That is how 5ft 7in full-back Leighton Baines sees it if, as expected, he plays his first competitive game for England in the opening World Cup qualifier in Moldova tomorrow.
With 5ft 8in Ashley Cole, capped 98 times, out with an ankle injury the hour appears to have come for his modest Everton understudy.
While Cole is perceived, sometimes wrongly, as a southern flash boy and is always in the public eye, down-to-earth northerner Baines has quietly gone along under the radar.
Yet, perhaps surprisingly, the pair are good mates.
Their friendship has built up because they both get changed together as part of “the midgets club”.
Baines laughed: “At training there are two dressing rooms — and there’s a separate one for midgets.
“We get put in a different one because we all wear smaller kits so I guess it’s easier for the kit-man.
“I rub shoulders with Ash in there and have got on really well with him.
“Just being in his company I end up chatting with him quite a lot.”
Baines might have won 50 caps by now had he been a right-back — instead he has just nine.
As a left-back he has had the misfortune to be born in the same era as Cole, possibly the greatest player in that position that England have had.
In the 3½ years since Baines was first called up, he has only ever played in friendlies.
He went to Euro 2012 and never kicked a ball in anger.
He said: “It’s been a while, in and around the squads, picking up caps here and there so it’s been a bit of a slow burner. It will be nice, if selected, to get out there.”
Baines is not one of those to throw a hissy fit if he does not get picked.
He grew up in the lower leagues and rose through to the Premier League with Wigan before being noticed by the Toffees in 2007.
England caps are precious to the 27-year-old, he cherishes every one, which is why he will grab his opportunity with both hands.
He added: “I can’t get too frustrated about things when the guy in front of me is such a good player.
“If it had been like this since I was 20-years-old and it was eight years down the line and I’d only got eight caps, then maybe the frustration would have built a bit more.
“But it’s only been two or three years, I’m still keen to get involved and get games.
“Along the way you do pick up caps and that keeps you going as well. I’ve done well enough at my club to get to where I am at this stage and be the second-choice left-back for a while, but I’ve not been able to push on to that next level.
“There are certain things that play a part — like not playing at the top level in terms of Champions League carries some weight as well as the fact Ash is so good.”
There were strong rumours in the summer that Manchester United were coming in for Baines — a move which would have taken him to that big-time level.
In the end, it did not happen but Baines insists he is grateful for where he is in his career and certainly had no intention of demanding a transfer.
He said: “It’s been like that for the last two or three windows, although this summer there was probably a little bit more than previously.
“People were asking me and I didn’t know anything.
“It was getting mentioned so often that I was getting puzzled by it.
“We’re very lucky and blessed to do the job that we do and be in the profession we’re in, so I just stay focused on that.
“There was no point worrying about something I could do nothing about so I got on with my job.
“I’ve never been one to rock the boat, I appreciate the position I’m in in life and I love what I do. But at the same time you do have to have a bit of ambition because it doesn’t last long and, before you know it, it will be over.”
Whether Baines will ever replace Cole permanently is something even he seems to doubt.
One thing in his favour is his dead-ball expertise from free-kicks which could be invaluable.
But you get the feeling that deep down Baines knows he will always be second fiddle. He said: “It’s difficult because of what Ash brings to the table and for me it’s just going to be one or two games.
“But you have to believe. Hopefully, if I get the chance to play, then I can do well enough for that to be a possibility.”
By SHAUN CUSTIS
