The text messages arrived from the FA’s player liaison officer around lunchtime, just as most of the recipients were walking off the training ground at their respective clubs. For some of those 30 young men there were sighs of relief and from others there were incredulous squeals of a type usually heard from wannabes on TV talent shows; after an audition process lasting 19 days, these were the players Fabio Capello had chosen to lead English football into a brave new era.

Since flying into London in early January, Capello and Franco Baldini, his assistant, have barely missed an opportunity to watch England’s elite players in action for their clubs. Just like Sven-Göran Eriksson seven years ago, the idea had been to start with a clean slate and assess just what their adopted country had to offer. Capello’s findings would appear to suggest a well of young English talent at Aston Villa and no shortage of alternatives to the fading David Beckham on the right-hand side of midfield, even though only two of the 30 players he named yesterday – Curtis Davies and Gabriel Agbonlahor – were entirely new to the senior set-up.

“Franco and I have been watching many games since we arrived in England and we have tried to see as many English players as possible before deciding on the squad,” Capello said yesterday. “There were a number of players that we already knew about but there are many we have seen playing live for the first time.

“We will use the time between now and our first World Cup qualifying match in September to look at the players and find the best formula for the England team. I will also look at players who have not been included in the squad this time.”

Capello had not come up with what anyone would call “a Chris Powell”, the Charlton Athletic defender having been the most obscure of the players chosen by Eriksson for his first squad in February 2001. Davies and Matthew Upson were surprise inclusions, but both have been among the most assured central defenders in the Barclays Premier League this season. They are among the players least likely to make the cut when the squad is trimmed to about 23 over the weekend, but, with doubts over the fitness of Ledley King and Jonathan Woodgate, neither should start making alternative plans for next week just yet.

Agbonlahor, 21, the impressive Villa forward, was known to be in Capello’s thoughts, but, for Davies, his teammate, there was a sense of shock at receiving the text message from the FA. “When I got the news I thought it was a wind-up,” he said. “I had to check several times before I realised the message was genuine. I really didn’t have a clue I would be called up. I thought about those who might get into the first squad but I didn’t think I’d be one of them.”

Such modesty was not surprising from Davies, who is best known for likening his performance on his Villa debut in August to that of a “pub player”, but he has played in front of Capello twice in recent weeks, evidently being among the first to make an impression on the new manager when he arrived to take in his first game, Villa’s FA Cup third-round defeat by Man-chester United on January 5. Add to that his successful handling of Fernan-do Torres during Villa’s draw away to Liverpool 16 days later and it is easy to see how he came to figure so prominently in Capello’s thoughts.

For others, the hopes that had been raised were false. These included Dave Kitson, the Reading forward, who was said to have caught Capello’s eye with a timely goalscoring run.

For others, the future is brighter. Capello cited Joe Hart, the Manchester City goalkeeper, David Wheater, the Middlesbrough defender, Aaron Lennon, the Tottenham Hotspur winger, and Theo Walcott, the Arsenal forward, among those who had narrowly missed out on elevation from the under-21 squad. In time, they, too, are likely to get the cherished text message from the FA.

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