In each of the last four tournaments England have played, they have begun with a new goalkeeper. In fact, not since the days of David Seaman, who played in two European Championships (1996 and 2000) and two World Cup finals (1998 and 2002), has a goalkeeper played games in two successive tournaments.
Seaman's last tournament was in 2002, which ended with him being beaten by Ronaldinho's speculative effort for Brazil in the quarter-finals and then crying in front of the press afterwards. Seaman lost his place that October and was succeeded at Euro 2004 by David James, who subsequently lost his place to Paul Robinson for a World Cup qualifier against Poland the same year.
Robinson was in goal for the 2006 World Cup finals before falling out of favour at the end of Steve McClaren's doomed Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. Fabio Capello never liked the look of Robinson and he picked James consistently until he had a shoulder operation in May 2009. Robert Green got his chance and kept his place. Even Ben Foster played two games before the 2010 World Cup finals.
For the first World Cup game against the United States, Capello kept everyone waiting, including his goalkeepers, to announce his first choice on the day of the game. Green was picked, made a bad mistake for Clint Dempsey's goal and James was reinstated for the three remaining games England played. He was probably at fault for the third of Germany's four goals in the first knockout round defeat.
Since then James has not been picked in another squad for England. At 41, he has left Bristol City and is without a club. Green's appearance against Norway in Oslo last month was his first for England since the US game at the World Cup almost two years ago. Foster is now retired from international football. In a nutshell, it has not been a great decade for England goalkeepers. Since Seaman's decline, none before the incumbent inspired the confidence that they were a natural fit for the job.