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.