News came yesterday from Arsene Wenger that Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere will be in this summer’s England U21 squad for the European Championships. There is however a delay in naming the full 23 man squad until Monday. One of the things I know most Liverpool fans will be hoping for is that Andy Carroll is not one of those 23.
Arriving injured in January after his £35million move from Newcastle, he has again missed some recent games with another injury (to his knee this time), and it has been reported that Andy would like to have a summer off to recover his full fitness and get to pre-season training nice and fresh.
The decision will not be down to him however; rather it will be in the hands of England U21 manager Stuart Pearce. The former Manchester City’s manager’s reasoning behind wanting players such as Wilshere and Carroll to play in the U21 Championships is that it will give youngsters experience of a tournament environment. Pearce’s argument is that the best national team’s are those who possess a group of players who have played together for a long time, and have gone to tournaments together and been in each other’s pocket. He believes it develops a good understanding both on and off the pitch, which will hold them in good stead for future senior tournaments.
To some extent this is true, but you can’t put a price on two very talented player’s future. Pearce believes that if players such as Andres Iniesta, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller can cope with such tournaments and then go on to be part of the senior side in quick succession, why should Wilshere and Carroll be any different? Teams like Spain and Germany go to tournaments using every player possible so why shouldn’t we?
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The EPL doesn’t have winter breaks THAT’S WHY!
Glad to see someone with common sense. Pearce obviously does not care about the future of the players he picks. If Carroll and Wilshere have poors seasons next yar due to tiredness and injury and then underperform or even don’t get picked for the European Championships then it will be partly down to Pearce’s decision to take them.
Players who play full seasons followed by tournaments in the summer often have bad or disrupted seasons the following year. Such a shame Pearce refuses to see sense.
Pearce is an incompetent cretin who’s only in the role because he’s one of the FA’s ‘chosen’ lap-dog cretins. The man knows nothing of success but has won every award for gurning when scoring important penalties to exorcise monkeys on his back.
History tells us that too much football before your body has fully developed gives you the situation that Michael Owen is in. However Ryan Giggs is still playing at 39 . Wasn’t it Giggs that was heavily criticised for always missing Wales’ matches when he was younger. A salutary lesson completely missed by Pearce and by Capello who doesn’t care what happens to English football once he is off the gravy train.
pearce MUST be sent to Libya on a one way ticket
Firstly Wenger should take a good look at himself. Earlier in the season, Wenger said that he would only be using Wilshere for handful of games (approx 20) since it’s his first season, he’s young and doesn’t want to overload him before he’s fully developed. But because proved to be so good (and for one reason or another) he ended up playing him in over 40 games!
At the end of the day its about results. Both Wenger and Pearce and guilty of over playing Wilshere.
Errr…Jack played because Fabregas was injured! That is how players usually get to take their chance. He is an ARSENAL player!
@ Andy, Wenger’s got more right than Pearce to select Wilshire being he’s the manager of the club Wilshire plays for.
Furthermore, Jack’s played because the team have needed him; Pearce doesn’t need to pick him and has had and will have absolute foxtrot aplha to do with Jack’s development as a player.
The larger problem with the English youth set-up is the FA; they don’t know how to evolve and have again, absolutely sweet FA involvement and input in to developing youth players at grass-roots level.
The entire system from the Executive needs root and branch pruning. Until the FA develops the balls to accept this fact, the English national team will not win a major trophy this side of 50 years.
It’s good news that Martin Kelly has not been selected by Stuart Pearce so he can have the entire summer to recover from his injury and get back to full fitness. Andy Carroll should also not be involved for the same reason. We need these 2 guys fresh and ready to go at the start of next season.
However, I would like to see Jay Spearing selected. He has never been involved with the England youth teams before and playing in the tournament would be a great experience for him. Surely if he’s selected and plays in the tournament he’d come back a stronger and better player next season.
Daniel Ayala and Dani Pacheco should also be involved to get some experience. Ayala should then be kept as fourth choice centre back to replace Soto while Pacheco should rejoin Norwich on loan to get some Premier League experience.
Whoever’s in charge of England U20s should call up Flanagan, Robinson and Shelvey to take part in the U20 World Cup in Venezuela. Sure the lads will benefit from the experience.