I’m not sure what it is about international weeks that brings the cream of the crop of absolutely bonkers people out of the woodwork.

Things I have seen written and heard on the radio this week include:

o Harry Kane should not start for England against Lithuania on Friday because he’s never started a game for England before.

o It’s more important to perform in the friendly against Italy on Tuesday than the qualifier against Lithuania because Italy are good.

o It doesn’t matter if players all walk out on the squad after Friday night’s game because the Italy one is only a friendly.

o We need to test new players in friendly games before we can throw them into competitive action – it’s a qualifier for goodness sake.

o We’ve basically already qualified for Euro 2016 so let’s use the remaining qualifiers to try new players.

o The players come back too late from international breaks so that they can’t possibly prepare for the weekend’s Premier League game and that is obviously much more important.

You see, this is the problem. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what to do, even if they quite clearly don’t deserve one. Yes, yes, I know, free speech, blah blah... however my point remains. It is frightening how differently people view things and why should the people in positions of power within the game be any different?

Who knows? Beloved Roy Hodgson, such a friend to Kent football, might be a crackpot who thinks these things too...for all we know the FA bigwigs are like-minded and wanted someone of a similar mind. More likely, perhaps, is that they rule by committee, made up of people with a variety of viewpoints.

The sensible response – mine – is that Kane is clearly in form and has been facing better defences than Lithuania’s in the past six months. If he starts, he’ll score, at least one. Take that as this week’s tip. I’ve been on a roll of late.

When it comes to Tuesday and the notion of friendlies, it’s slightly more murky. Yes, friendlies are the time to experiment. No, they are not as important as qualifiers, however there’s no point letting your first team go home and watch it on the TV and field a B team, either.

Barring genuine injury, nobody should go home early. Call it team-bonding, call it getting further experience playing with unfamiliar players in unfamiliar environments.

That won’t happen though. The Premier League and its clubs are too big and powerful. Mark my words, a swathe of players from the ‘big’ teams will be released from England on Saturday. They’ll go home, feet up for a couple of days and will be ready and raring to go next weekend when the Premier League returns.

Tuesday’s team will be made up of those without squad standing and/or outspoken club managers and they will not land back in England until the early hours of Wednesday and won’t be able to join their clubs until Thursday. Not fair.

Any player who is too tired, drained, mentally fatigued, whatever, to play in a friendly should miss the next qualifier... no questions asked. It’s the only way to incentivise them at a time when international football, tournaments aside, is becoming increasingly peripheral.