England Legend Stuart Pearce Believes Choosing Luke Shaw Over Ashley Cole Was A Mistake

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‘Psycho’ claims Three Lions won’t see the benefit of leaving veteran behind.

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England hero Stuart Pearce has said that he believes Roy Hodgson’s decision to take Luke Shaw to the World Cup at the expense of Ashley Cole is a huge mistake, according to the Independent.

Pearce, who is England’s most capped left-back and a former manager of the under-21 side believes Shaw is in line for a “wasted” competition as the 18-year-old is not expected to feature ahead of Leighton Baines.

Pearce complained throughout his six years with the Under-21s that young players needed experience of playing competitive matches in tournaments and that England had to take their strongest squad.

“Luke should have been playing in the Under-21 qualifier against Wales and then going on to the [Under-20] Toulon tournament,” he said.

“You’d be giving a young player tournament experience. If he comes back from Brazil having not featured, it’s a wasted tournament for him. I would have taken Ashley Cole to fight out the left-back position with Leighton Baines.”

Cole was left out of the squad after missing a significant chunk of the campaign with the Blues, but Jose Mourinho denied that he cost the player his place in the squad.

“I don’t have regrets because I don’t work for the national team, I work for Chelsea,” said Mourinho. “My decisions I make are thinking about the club. When [Cole] he had the injury in the ribs, and he was out [Cesar] Azpilicueta starts playing, and starts playing so well he gave [Cole] no chance [of playing].”


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