England boss Roy Hodgson has defended Tom Cleverley after an online
petition was set up calling for the Manchester United midfielder to be banned
from selection for his World Cup squad.
The petition, which accuses Cleverley of "inept" displays, has
gained over 10,000 signatures since it was posted.
Hodgson, who has included the 24-year-old in Wednesday's squad to face
Denmark, said: "It doesn't impress me.
Well I must say this
petition does impress and greatly amuse me, and just highlights how bad
Cleverley has been this season that 10,000 people have felt the urge to sign a
petition to get him removed from the squad.
I can’t remember that
ever happening before, even when Heskey was in the team nobody went to this length
to show how much they disagreed with a player’s selection.
Hodgson is clearly angry
with this petition and even said Cleverley deserves to be in the squad and has
done a lot of good for England, after reading that I stopped laughing and
became majorly concerned.
Surely Hodgson can’t be
serious about those statements can he, if he is then he obviously hasn’t actually
watched any Man United games this season otherwise he’d be all too aware that
Cleverley simply isn’t good enough and the only reasons he’s fluked his way
into the squad is because he plays for Manchester United, if he played for a
mid-table team and he was performing for them at the same level he is for
United he wouldn’t be anywhere near the squad.
Every time England have a
disappointing result or fail at a tournament, which let’s be honest is far too
often, there’s always an inquisition as to why this has happened and what can
be done to avoid repeating it in future, well perhaps a start would be to pick
players based on the form they're showing for their club not which club they play
for.
Just because an English
player plays for United, City, Chelsea, etc. that shouldn’t mean they have a
guaranteed place in the squad.
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