BECKHAM SNUB IS A DISGRACE

FOOTBALL


SO STUART Pearce, true to form, tried to prove he is a good football manager by omitting David Beckham from his Olympics squad. That is what you get when you put someone like Pearce in charge of the Great Britain football team.
The man is simply not a natural manager - so he attempts to convince us he is by dropping the one man who could lift spirits in the squad - and sell tickets for it, too.
Pearce's decision is easy to fathom: by dropping Becks he wanted to show us that he is his own man, that he can make difficult choices. He says he dropped Becks 'purely on football reasons'. Well, I don't believe him - I believe he snubbed one of the greatest players of our generation purely to elevate himself as a man who does what he wants and is a strong man.
In actual fact, he is a weak man by doing that. He has exiled Becks to the wilderness - and yet has put together a squad that is unbalanced and, in some cases, frankly bewildering.
While Brazil will have the likes of the wonderful Neymar, Spain will have Mata and Uruguay will have Luis Suarez, Great Britain boasts Southampton's Jack Cork and Bolton's Marvin Sordell. I would be amazed if more than 2 per cent of the readers of this column have heard of either player.
The three premitted over-age players are Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy and Micah Richards. I would not have taken Bellamy - Becks would have been my third choice, although I cannot dispute the inclusion of Giggs or Richards.
Giggsy is the obvious man to lead the side and Richards should certainly have been in the England squad that went to Euro 2012, certainly ahead of Liverpool's Martin Kelly!
Pearce's teams are usually dour and resilient - much like the man himself, who failed spectacularly as a manager at club level. How he ever get so far into the England set-up remains one of life's mysteries. Certainly, I applaud Roy Hodgson for making it one of his first decisions to cast Pearce aside and bring Gary Neville into the full England set-up.
I believe that Neville is a much better long-term candidate for the full England job than Pearce - who fancies himself in the role - would ever be.
With Pearce at the helm, I would be very surprised if Team GB get further than making it out of the group as runners-up - then fall to the first team they meet in the knockout stage.
Team GB's group is a fairly comfortable one - with Senegal, Uruguay and the United Arab Emiratest lying in wait.
Surely we can expect them to beat the UAE and Senegal? But I would imagine Uruguay will prove too tough a test.
So they should get out of the group, but does Pearce have the players or the powers of motivation and inspiration to progress beyond that?
Maybe that will be the point he will privately wish he had chosen Beckham - who has all those qualities.  

FRANK WORRALL

FRANKIE'S FLUTTER

LET'S raise our glasses to a double British celebration this next week.
Yes, I am backing Andy Murray to go on and make it to the final of Wimbledon.
And I also believe Lewis Hamilton can win the British GP at Silverstone on Sunday - with Jenson Button coming home second or third.

HAMILTON CAN WIN AT SILVERSTONE

Motor Racing

I AM backing Lewis Hamilton to get right back on track in the Formula One drivers' title race by winning at Silverstone on Sunday.
Lewis is due a big break after suffering at the recent European GP in Valencia.
The great Briton lost his chance to stay at the top of the rankings after crashing out on the penultimate lap after a smash involving Pastor Maldonado.
There is talk that the young Venezuelan Maldonado will seek 'revenge' on Lewis at Sunday's British GP after the events in Valencia.
Maldonado drove Lewis off the circuit - depriving him of 12 points and the leadership in the drivers' championship.
Stewards blamed Maldonado for the incident and stripped him of his 10th place finish - hence the claim that he will now be looking to wreck Lewis's dream of winning on home territory.
I do not believe for one minute that he will do that - he is a professional driver and will be doing his best to finish as high up the field as he can for Williams. That will be his priority - not sabotaging a fellow driver!
Lewis last won at Silverstone in 2008 and I can see him repeating that feat on Sunday - he certainly sounded confident at a Press conference this week.
He said: 'Winning at Silverstone was the highlight of my career after becoming world champion. I want to get back up there, hear the national ­anthem and see the crowd. Silverstone is one that I look forward to. That’s the one you want to win.
'Winning was just the most incredible feeling – and I always remember leading the race in 2008 and coming through Abbey. Every time I made it as ­everyone else was spinning off everyone would stand up and cheer. It was horrible weather. But they didn’t care.
'And when I got my pole position in 2007, I could feel the roar of the crowd above my engine noise. I hope to do them proud again this year.'
I am sure you will, Lewis. So go win it for all of us Brits who love you.

DON'T BLOW YOUR BIG CHANCE, ANDY MURRAY

Tennis

DON’T BLOW YOUR BIG WIMBLEDON CHANCE, ANDY MURRAY
EVERY year we kid ourselves on that a British bloke CAN win Wimbledon - and every year it fails to materialise.
For years it was Tim Henman and then Andy Murray came to take his place as the swould-be aviour.
But both let us down time after time - although Murray has always had more of a real chance of doing the business. He is a far superior player than ‘Come on Tim’ ever was and it has been his misfortune to be around at a time when there are three other terrific players ahead of him.
Murray has always been No 4, with Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and now Novak Djokovic barring his route to legendary status.
But this year a miracle has happened - Nadal is already out and Murray has a clear run to the final.
OK, it may well be against the formidable Djokovic - but at least the Scottish ace can be there at the climax of the men’s singles.
And who knows...maybe the miracle can take on an extra dimension with Murray finally ending the long wait for a British champ.
So ‘Come on Andy’! We’re all right behind you, mate.