Monday 6 October 2014

Pearce: "If I was England boss..." - Well, you're not!

Ex-England U21 boss gives his tuppence worth on Shelvey's England recall, but should probably be concentrating on Nottingham Forest


Things Stuart Pearce are famous for:
  • Missing a penalty.
  • Scoring a penalty and enjoying it.
  • Being a pants U21 manager for England

This is why, when I saw this (link) article on the Telegraph website, my initial reaction was "why on earth does he care about Jonjo Shelvey's international career? What business of his is it?" 

Personally, I think he should stick to his own affairs and pipe down. Given England's performance at the 2013 U21 Championship, after which he was sacked, I find it remarkable that he thinks his opinion on the U21 and the national side is worth something. This is a man who had Scott Sinclair on the bench but started with Marvin Sordell instead, and when Sordell tired he brought on Chalobah. Good work, Psycho! 

It can't be ignored that his Forest side are currently joint top of the Championship, but it's a long season. One of the things that made me smile wryly in the interview with Pearce was the following quote:

"Personally if I was in charge and was the senior manager I’d turn round and say to the under-21s manager “you pick everyone age appropriate you want, we’re playing San Marino and Estonia and we’ve also beaten Switzerland away, I’ll take anyone you don’t want after that. 
“That’s what I would do personally for the benefit of the country
My response to that would simply be that you're not England manager. You're in charge of Nottingham Forest, and until you're playing the Swans and you have a reason to discuss our players you should stay out of it.