Bentley withdrawal angers Pearce

therecklessone

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/6733569.stm

England Under-21 coach Stuart Pearce has expressed his disappointment at David Bentley's decision to withdraw from the squad with fatigue.

The 22-year-old Blackburn winger was in the squad ahead of the Under-21 European Championship in Holland.

But after Bentley's withdrawal, Pearce said: "I don't agree with it in any way, shape or form.

"I feel as though I've been supportive to him. He wasn't in the side when I took over the job and I put him in."

Bentley was in the senior squad for the game against Brazil on 1 June and the Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia on 6 June, but did not play in either match.

I suppose if I was Pearce I'd be thinking "why did he not pull out of the senior squad?" Is Bentley following in the footsteps of Chris Sutton?

county

bad form imo,this decision will bite him in the arse,ungrateful * some would say.






*not added due to fear of banning

Daemonic

Sounds like a "I've been in the full International team, why should i be bothered with the U-21's" attitude.

zAbbo

Sounds like McClaren should have the balls to say he doesn't want his squad members playing in a development u-21 side.

Bently was man of the match in that B game, and McClaren said he could be the next Becks, so put him into the full squad for Brazil and Estonia.

He's right imo, nothing to be gained by playing in the u21 championships especially after a long season for him.

Guy:Incognito

zabbo wrote:

He's right imo, nothing to be gained by playing in the u21 championships especially after a long season for him.

If it was a bunch of friendly under 21 games I'd agree, but a tournament is different.

Chucky the tree

zabbo wrote:

He's right imo, nothing to be gained by playing in the u21 championships especially after a long season for him.

you'd think every proffessional footballer would want to many as many tournaments as possible, obviously not.


Cant understand him dropping out. Fatigued from what? Sitting on his ass watching brazil and estonia?

Peyton Manning

Strange behaviour to be honest. McClaren call throw all the superlatives at him he wants, he still wont pick him in competitive matches.

zAbbo

Bit of a mess really, I think he's good player, and offers more than Lennon etc.

But he was named in the squad for the EC, and now he can't be replaced.

godtabh

Chucky the tree wrote:

you'd think every proffessional footballer would want to many as many tournaments as possible, obviously not.


Cant understand him dropping out. Fatigued from what? Sitting on his ass watching brazil and estonia?

He has just played a long season. So I think thats what he means when he is fatigued.

I dont get it either. While it may not be the senior team you'd reckon any footballer would want to play for their county no matter what level it was.

godtabh

zabbo wrote:

But he was named in the squad for the EC, and now he can't be replaced.

Didnt realise this bit. I can defo see why Pearce is so pissed

Necronomicon

Apparently Hughes talked to Pearce before the withdrawal as well. I'd say he was concerned with the fact that Blackburn's Intertoto Cup campaign starts in July.

Can definately understand Pearce's frustration, not being able to replace him. Odd timing from Bentley as well, he could have given him more indication towards the end of the Premiership season that he was feeling fatigued. If a player is absolutely knackered I don't think you should criticize him too much, but he's handled it badly enough imo.

zAbbo

Pearse apparently couldn't get in touch with Gabby Agbonglahor, so he's not in the squad either.

It's a mickey mouse tournament

Collie D

zabbo wrote:

Pearse apparently couldn't get in touch with Gabby Agbonglahor, so he's not in the squad either.

It's a mickey mouse tournament

Apparently that's becuase Martin O'Neill told him he was unavailable/on holidays or something and later apologiesd.

Xterminator

Bently has playe dover 50 games this year, his 1st 'real' season as a regular.

And if he played for U21's he could have just 6 days off before blackburns pre-season. Given that he's felling fatigued now, how would he feel in 3 months? How would his form be?

I think he is correct listening to his body, when it tells him he needs a rest.
As for U21's he could have feigned an injury, as others have in the past, but what he's guilty of here is being honest.

Guy:Incognito

Xterminator wrote:

Bently has playe dover 50 games this year, his 1st 'real' season as a regular.

And if he played for U21's he could have just 6 days off before blackburns pre-season. Given that he's felling fatigued now, how would he feel in 3 months? How would his form be?

I think he is correct listening to his body, when it tells him he needs a rest.
As for U21's he could have feigned an injury, as others have in the past, but what he's guilty of here is being honest.

Nobody would have a problem if he had said before the squad was finalised that he didnt want in. It's not a difficult thing to do. He's had the last month off anyway and I doubt he hit a wall (metaphorical wall ) in the last week or so and collapsed of exhaustion.

zAbbo

Collie D wrote:

Apparently that's becuase Martin O'Neill told him he was unavailable/on holidays or something and later apologiesd.

Possibly, but doesn't it seem slightly trivial ?

Another twist in this side story, is that Scotland are after Agbonglohor, who is also eligible for Nigeria.

astrofool

Xterminator wrote:

Bently has playe dover 50 games this year, his 1st 'real' season as a regular.

And if he played for U21's he could have just 6 days off before blackburns pre-season. Given that he's felling fatigued now, how would he feel in 3 months? How would his form be?

I think he is correct listening to his body, when it tells him he needs a rest.
As for U21's he could have feigned an injury, as others have in the past, but what he's guilty of here is being honest.

If he'd "feigned" injury, they could have got a replacement for him.

Energizer

As a Blackburn Fan i can say i'm proud of Bentley for being honest.

In these cases most players just fake injury to get out but he was honest and withdrew due to fatigue and the prospect of having a bad start to the season due to playing in a unimportant tournament.

He discussed his decision with senior england players and staff who told him that if he played in the tournament he probably would hit a brick wall from fatigue come the start of the season.

Pearce is being stupid with his reaction to this. If he's angry with bentley then keep it quiet and don't disrupt the squad with this problem.

Bentley's decision knowing englands setup will probably end his international career even though by form he was the best english right midfielder last season.

Guy:Incognito

Energizer wrote:

As a Blackburn Fan i can say i'm proud of Bentley for being honest.

In these cases most players just fake injury to get out but he was honest and withdrew due to fatigue and the prospect of having a bad start to the season due to playing in a unimportant tournament.

He discussed his decision with senior england players and staff who told him that if he played in the tournament he probably would hit a brick wall from fatigue come the start of the season.

Pearce is being stupid with his reaction to this. If he's angry with bentley then keep it quiet and don't disrupt the squad with this problem.

Bentley's decision knowing englands setup will probably end his international career even though by form he was the best english right midfielder last season.

Pearce has every right to be annoyed. Why did Bentley wait till th esquad was finalised to decide he couldnt paly. Plus, as I said already, the season ended a month ago. How much rest does he need. How likely are ENgland to win it? So theres a good chance he wont be there to the end anyway. He could be rested when not needed. Theres plenty of ways around it.

Energizer

Stekelly wrote:

Pearce has every right to be annoyed. Why did Bentley wait till th esquad was finalised to decide he couldnt paly. Plus, as I said already, the season ended a month ago. How much rest does he need. How likely are ENgland to win it? So theres a good chance he wont be there to the end anyway. He could be rested when not needed. Theres plenty of ways around it.

Yes he has a right to be angry but he was stupid to publicly announce it as it disrupts the team.

Yes there is a number of ways round it but none are guaranteed. He may have ended up playing every minutes of all england games in the tournament and if they reached the final he would had 6 days rest to the new season. He has probably had some reset over the last month but also he has been involved in england squads over that month so would have been still in full training.

Most professional footballers today have a grueling season and intense training plus for the lucky few they also have internationals during that season and pre-season starts earlier with every season so most footballers seem to only get about 3 weeks of actual holiday and then they are back into the full training.
Bentley with the international involvement over the last month would probably have not got anywhere near that 3 weeks and that would have left him exausted.

We can all say that they get paid to a lot of money for their job but their bodies can only take so much.

I think he made the proper choice.

Guy:Incognito

Plus the fact that when the inter toto kicks off it'll be a couple of games a month before the season kicks off. TBH he turned somethign small into something big.

While the pro Bentley people keep going on about how many games he'd have to play and the fact he'd have six days rest if England got to the final (how often does that happen?) none are edressing the question of why he didnt pull out sooner so he could be replaced. Thats not a lot to ask.

Energizer

Ye, he probably should have left before the squad was announced but i don't think he escalated it. Pearce did that.