Disappointingly from a man nicknamed “Psycho”, Stuart Pearce’s response to Neil Warnock’s claims that Middlesbrough lay down for Manchester City last weekend was not filled with expletives and a beating that Warnock wouldn’t soon forget,
“What you find is that any manager in the country has the whole of his squad at his disposal and he uses it as best he can,” he told the club’s official website.
“Middlesbrough wanted to win against us on Saturday – they didn’t lie down. Arsenal change their team on a weekly basis, Chelsea and one or two others do. I did against Wigan last year.”
For Pearce, Warnock spoke out because of the pressures of Sheffield United’s relegation battle, but he does not believe any manager has the right to comment on anyone else’s team selection.
“I think from Neil’s point of view, if you look directly at them, probably two weeks ago they felt as though the points tally they had was reasonably comfortable maybe to stay out of any problems.
“Now, all of a sudden, over the weekend, they’ve lost Hulse – one of their mainline strikers – and also they’re the next team that Charlton have got in their sights at this moment in time, so that’s obviously frustrated him a touch, I would suspect.
“It’s very difficult and very hard to look into other clubs and turn around and say what team they should or shouldn’t select.
“I think it’s very unfair and very, very wrong of anyone to do that.”
We have to agree with Pearce. Warnock is obviously annoyed that squad rotation happened to go against his side this time, but it’s been a part of Premiership culture for a long time now and it’s up to him to deal with it. No doubt Sheffield United have benefited from it at some point this season, whether through their own rotation or their opposition’s.
Stuart Pearce, the voice of calm, collected reason. Whaaa?