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Chelsea's Azpilicueta been reliable 'Dave' for nearly a decade. Why have Spain overlooked him?

"Dave," they called him. Just Dave. Just ... there. Dependable, reliable, unremarkable Dave. It started as a joke, old now and not that funny then, but maybe there's something in it.

The story is well known, and it's probably handy to remember in a London accent: when Cesar Azpilicueta joined Chelsea in 2012, then-captain John Terry decided his name was a bit difficult to say, so he called him Dave instead. (For the uninitiated, the reference comes from an old British comedy series "Only Fools and Horses" -- and yes, Azpilicueta has seen it since -- in which Trigger, named so because he's not the fastest, calls just about everyone Dave for one simple reason: he doesn't know or can't remember what they're actually called.