English Journalists Need to Get Behind Roy Hodgson's Decision to Exclude Rio Ferdinand

There’s a struggle happening on the pitch in England, and it’s not between the footballers. Instead, it’s a battle of words between England manager Roy Hodgson and many of the English tabloid journalists over the exclusion of Manchester United centre-half Rio Ferdinand.

Hodgson has already explained that Ferdinand has been excluded from the squad because of footballing reasons. However, many of the English tabloid journalists won’t accept that for an answer, particularly after Martin Kelly got pulled into the squad due to Gary Cahill’s injury. Plus, the way many of the English tabloid journalists are talking, they sound like they think they have a better idea of who should and shouldn’t be in the squad than Hodgson.

I believe it’s time for the English journos to shut up. Hodgson is the manager, and he’s the one that makes the decisions. The England manager will have his reasons why Ferdinand wasn’t selected. But if the English journalists would like to grill someone with questions, perhaps they should divert their attention to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson who said to MUTV, just a few weeks ago, “You play something like a game every four days. Rio Ferdinand couldn’t do that.”

Why would Hodgson want to recruit a defender who could only play a game or two during the tournament? Ferdinand is an experienced defender, but he’s no good if he’s sitting on the bench recovering from too much playing time.