The hope for Turner to pull on the England shirt while still on City's books was a genuine one, even though some quiet reflection may conclude that he was a lot further away than we'd presumed. After all, the only time Fabio Capello seemed to notice Turner's existence was when the FA was beseeched with protests by the Hull Daily Mail at the lack of appearances of the head coach at Tigers games.
But where was he, even roughly, in the pecking order?
Well, once you put the regular central defenders to one side - John Terry, Rio Ferdinand - you then look at the other centre backs called up on even a semi-regular basis by Capello. So that's Joleon Lescott, Matthew Upson, the mainly horizontal Ledley King and his Tottenham pal Jonathan Woodgate.
Six so far.
Gary Cahill is in the squad this week to account for injuries elsewhere. Seven.
Then there are the players whom have already toyed with the squad but seem to be getting nowhere fast, yet are at least in Capello's notepad. Zat Knight, Micah Richards, David Wheater, maybe Wes Brown counts here. Eleven.
If Jamie Carragher had declared his willingness to come out of retirement? Twelve.
Until the moment he left for Notts County? Sol Campbell makes it thirteen.
Then there are the under 21 defenders not already mentioned, such as Nedum Onuoha, Steven Taylor, Michael Mancienne. They are at least on Capello's radar whereas there is no evidence Turner was ever so. Sixteen.
And just to throw in a couple of other names purely because they were better known than Turner, try Curtis Davies and Anton Ferdinand. Indeed, put Ryan Shawcross there too. Nineteen.
So then, on this entirely unscientific basis, Turner was twentieth in line for an England call-up, or eighteenth if we fully discount a change of heart by Carragher and the League Two "challenge" undertaken by Campbell. Turner's move to Sunderland, assuming he maintains his stunning level of performance there, may drag him up to tenth or thereabouts. But despite what he has said upon arrival at the Stadium of Light, sadly he can forget the World Cup.
And we return to the question of who really will play for England while also under contract to Hull City. A fistful have left the club and tugged on the national shirt - Stuart Pearson and Brian Marwood being the last two, though both Richard Jobson and Garry Parker later received call-ups - and a fair few former England players have beached themselves here at their career's tail-end, such as Emlyn Hughes, Peter Barnes, David Rocastle, Mark Hateley, Danny Mills, Ray Parlour and a certain Nick Barmby.
However, maybe someone who is both in contention and yet somehow washed up could provide the solution. We all surely recall that in Capello's earlier days, Jimmy Bullard was called into a squad after some delicious displays making Fulham tick. Much was made of the former window cleaner and former non-league artist climbing all the way to the top of the game, even though ultimately he never earned a cap.
Bullard presumably liked that feeling of being in the international reckoning, and will fancy it again. So, once he returns to the squad next month, maybe his aim is to return to that sort of form that caught Capello's bespectacled eye? If so, it will presumably be in a winning City team and will additionally cure us of that remaining millstone about England representation. All boxes ticked, and bi-monthly gnashing of teeth about Turner being ignored will be forgotten forever.
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