LET’S not beat about the bush, leaving David Beckham out of the Great Britain football team for the Olympics is a massive blunder by Stuart Pearce.
He has gone down the route of saying Beckham was left out because ‘I’m a serious coach and this is a serious competition which we are trying to win.’
But I think he has totally misunderstood what the Olympics are about – an Olympics which we wouldn’t even have had were it not for David Beckham.
Beckham trailed around the world in his Olympic blazer with Lord Seb Coe and sold this country to ensure we got the vote – so if this is the best way we can repay him then it’s a very bad job.
Don’t give me any rubbish about it being a serious competition when one of the players he has picked – Ryan Giggs – is 38 years old and another, Micah Richards, is only just out of the age grouping at 24.
Don’t get me wrong, I would have picked Giggs. And my other two over-age players would have been Beckham and Paul Scholes (if he would have done it).
That’s because great players are like catalysts.
It’s not necessarily what they do, it’s more about the quality they bring to the whole operation.
You only have to look at Andriy Shevchenko in that Ukraine team. Yes, he’s only got 30 minutes in his legs, but what a good 30 minutes it is and he brings the best out of his younger teammates.
Great players also shoulder the burden of expectation so much better, because the eyes of the world are on them rather than the younger ones, and Beckham and Giggs (with Scholes) would have been perfect.
So I think it’s a massive opportunity missed, especially as I think Beckham deserved the honour for all that he’s done.
Having lived in the Far East for 10 years and played over there, I don’t think people here have any idea how respected and loved Beckham is across the globe – and he’s a very decent bloke.
He should have been selected, people would have loved to have seen him involved and I couldn’t be more disappointed in Stuart Pearce.
ANDRE-VILLAS BOAS has got a tough job on his hands at Tottenham.
The fact that Gareth Bale has just signed a new deal suggests that Luca Modric could be allowed to leave – and I think Spurs will struggle to match their fourth place of last season.
I have one abiding memory of AVB’s time at Chelsea. It was when he said: “I don’t need the players on board with me.”
I remember thinking at the time that he wouldn’t have long in the job if he genuinely believed that was the case.
Players can get managers sacked as quickly as they want, and any manager who doesn’t think he needs them on board must be from another planet.
I like listening to AVB and he’s very intelligent, but managers have to be psychologists as well because it’s not all about what happens on the field.
If he doesn’t get the dressing room with him and quickly at Spurs, then it could be a hard season.
