Even if Michael Mancienne, Curtis Davies, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young don't get to play against Germany in Berlin this evening, Fabio Capello will have learnt everything he needs to know about them. International football is not rocket science. In fact, it is a walk in the park compared with most Barclays Premier League games. Unless you are playing one of the top teams in the World Cup or the European Championship, international football is a step down from the bread and butter of domestic English action.

Germany may have won three World Cups, but recently they have been poor defensively and Agbonlahor and Young should be licking their lips if they get a chance to make an impact. They will be desperate to prove how good they are, but what they do on the pitch in Berlin will not tell Capello anything that he does not know.

The Italian is a shrewd cookie and he knows that he has a team that are good enough to get him to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2010. What he is looking for is that something extra that is going to get him further. If he thinks that Agbonlahor or Young or Davies or Mancienne can provide that something special, he will have seen it in training this week.

Make no mistake, Capello has called up these young players so he can run the rule over them 24 hours a day. He has been spying on them, seeing how they behave, seeing how they train, seeing how they react to being surrounded by some of the best players in the world. Is Agbonlahor bonding with the group or is he sitting in the corner listening to his iPod? Has Young turned up to breakfast on time and has he remembered to turn off his mobile phone? Has Davies remembered to leave his flip-flops at home?

You have to be more than just a very good player to make it at international level these days. When I was playing for Ireland, you would not believe the number of players who would be called up for one game and then disappear from the international scene. A fair few were Billy Big-Times - players who thought that they were amazing, players who had massive egos, players who are sitting at home with one cap.

I do not know how much faith Capello has in Agbonlahor and Young. Agbonlahor has been stuck on the bench and Young stuck in the under-21s. If an Englishman was in charge, they would already have been given a chance to impress.

My advice to them? Turn off your mobile phones, leave your iPods in your manbags, eat your greens and do not forget to train like demons.