Can anyone imagine Bobby Moore or Nobby Styles going up to Sir Alf Ramsay the day before an England game, and saying that they were "too tired" to play. This 19 year old kid is a disgrace. It comes back to the old problem - many of these lads feel zero affinity to England, and just use the shirt to boost their earning power. It is pitiful to hear good old 'Cautious Colin' Woy half defending the player. Surely our FA will grow a pair of bollox today, and give Sterling a lengthy ban ?
I was expecting this post today. To be fair, both his club and country manager both suggested he was tired and not playing to last seasons standards. SSN did a comparison of his minutes from May-October 2013 to the same time span for 2014 - and he has more than tripled his minutes. It goes back to PL clubs doing these stupid tours in the summer and being under pressure from sponsors to play their best players for maximum minutes. For England, it's worrying that there looked like there were no adequate replacements with Llana coming up massively short.
The Clubs have got too much power - Liverpool in this case. The qualification rules have become too diluted, so that some players feel no real loyalty to the country they play for (England are not alone in this). People wonder why interest in the national side has waned, but how is it surprising when the players are not interested either ?
Sterling is a prime example of what this country spews out when its had a skinful on a Saturday night. Raheem Sterling has it all. Lazy, arrogant, shameless, kiss teething, bluecross, dented tin git.
I don't think the argument stops and ends with players such as Sterling who were born abroad - many players have discussed in their autobiographies that they were never found of traveling away for England games. What the FA should be doing now we have a half full Wembley is giving tickets out to schools (the younger the better) and try and get that generation passionate about the national team again. I don't think things will change in the next 10 years with regards to that. Going by Twitter, you see players like Gomez embrace their call ups to the under 17's, 21's etc. But as soon as they're promoted to the national team that interest gets lost. They need to address the structure of these trips and clubs need to get out of their players ears and also stop using the media as a tool to get club fans on their side. And sort out the corporate area!!! It gives a bad impression of national importance when 20 minutes in to a game the section most visable on TV looks empty.
Hodgson should just have dropped him. No need to share what Sterling said to him. IMO Hodgson has lost a bit of respect by exposing Sterling to all the flak.
The Liverpool supporters - never slow to jump on the persecution bandwagon - are saying the same thing. Apparently Woy went public on it to deflect from the shortcomings in England's performance in Estonia
Or maybe he's trying to get back at Liverpool after Brendan Rodgers' criticism over Sturridge? Whatever his motive, the best managers protect their players from flak, not hang them out to dry.
To be fair to Pieterson he showed nothing but passion during his time for the national team. He even got the 3 lions tattooed on his arm as a rookie with Darren Gough. He made a horrendous error speaking with Smith about Strauss but I really thought he came across as loving nothing better than representing England. Even right now he is desperate to get back in the national team, and isn't content with playing in the IPL or rival leagues where he would make hell of a lot more money.
Whether Woy had ulterior motives about going public seems irrelevant to me, or at least secondary. It is little short of despicable to withdraw from the honour of representing your adopted country citing such frivolous reasons. You can guarantee tiredness won't stop him shagging in the night clubs this week.
Don't be so tough on the lad, he's a role model. Two charges for assaulting women and a kid after a brief relationship and all before he's 20. Isn't this what most kids aspire to?
