CHRIS SUTTON has accused England boss Gareth Southgate of “arrogance” after his decision to overlook Celtic’s in-form attacker Scotty Sinclair in his World Cup squad.
The former Hoops striker, who is now BT Sport pundit, questioned the decisions of his fellow-Englishman and his attitude towards the Scottish game in his newspaper column this morning.
Sinclair has appeared for his nation at every level from Under-17 through to Under-21, but it’s obvious he has not impressed Southgate.
At the weekend, the current English gaffer revealed: “I had a conversation with Brendan Rodgers about Scott Sinclair at the end of last season.
“He’s a good player, but we have good quality in that area of the pitch and at the moment I think he is just below the level of what we have already got.”
But Sutton fired back and insisted Southgate’s snub is a result of a “surefire sign of arrogance towards the Scottish game” while pointing out: “Jonny Hayes gets picked for Ireland and he rarely gets a game at Celtic.”
He said: “If I was Sinclair, I’d be most unhappy. It’s a public slap in the face and it was unnecessary.
”If the Premiership is so poor, it seems unusual Michael O’Neill can fill half of a Northern Ireland squad with players from it and manage to reach major finals.
“Sinclair was voted Celtic’s best player and Scotland’s best player last year.
“There are places up for grabs [in the England set-up]and I find it astounding that Sinclair hasn’t even been called into a squad over the past 12 months to be looked at during training.”
Catch up with this CQN Podcast from last month when we interviewed Celtic star from the Centenary season, full back Chris Morris. It’s a great listen…
