England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce: Price tags will not determine my starting XI against Spain

Stuart Pearce, England U21(Getty Images)

Related Links

Teams

Players

England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce insists that he will not let the transfer values of his players cloud his judgement concerning who will make the starting line-up against Spain.

The two sides meet each other on Sunday in their first game in Group B of the Under-21 European Championship tournament in Denmark.

Jordan Henderson recently made a big-money move to Liverpool, while Phil Jones has been heavily linked with a high-price move to Manchester United.

But Pearce insists that price tags have no bearing on what he thinks will be best for the team against the Spaniards.

“It is of no interest to me what they’ve moved for in the transfer window – I treat them all the same,” he told reporters.

“I have to pick a team of 11 – outside of that there will be disappointed people.

“The only way we can get over the line is collectively. We can’t do it individually, or as a team of 11. We have to do it as a squad.

“The boys outside the team will support the ones in it because they know, come Wednesday, they might be in it.

“That is tournament football and we have to learn that.”

The boss also retold the story of Joe Hart as an example to the players who will be left out of the starting line-up, as the goalkeeper was suspended for the final of the tournament back in 2009.

But the shot-stopper has since managed to put in strong performances to make his way into the senior squad.

“Joe Hart played all the qualifiers and the tournament games then got two bookings,” said Pearce.

“He had to watch two goalkeepers and then be humble enough to do interviews after the game when he’s nearly in tears. The focus was the squad, not himself.”

Pearce hinted that even captain Michael Mancienne’s place in the starting line-up is not a guaranteed one, and said: “We have chopped and changed captains over a two-year period.

“It is an irrelevance. The one who captains tomorrow might not be in the team Wednesday.”

He added: “We will play three nations, all vastly different in their styles of their play, in the group stage.

“We have to cope with that and impose our style.”