Chris Sutton

Decision to snub Sinclair uncalled for and arrogant

CELTIC LEGEND WRITESEXCLUSIVELYFORYOU EVERY WEEK probably because he plays north of the border.

What makes it even more bizarre to dismiss the Celtic winger’s abilities are some of the comments that have been made by the England manager over the past week or so.

His admission last week that there are players in his current squad who “do not deserve to be there”, with injuries having opened the door to some who have barely figured his season was even more incredible.

What sort of message does that send to the players who are involved for this weekend’s matches? I’d be wondering if he was talking about me.

I actually don’t mind Gareth. I find him quite a decent fella but the comments about Sinclair not being up to the levels when he’s talking at the same time about picking guys who shouldn’t be there is weird.

Fabian Delph is in the squad. I know it’s a different position but he’s played 20 minutes of Premier League football for Manchester City this season. Jake Livermore was rested by West Brom because he was out of form and low on confidence, yet he’s back in the fold while Sinclair is stuck at Lennoxtown.

It smacks of the situation I saw at first-hand when Alan Thompson was constantly cold-shouldered by Sven-Goran Eriksson during the time we played together at Celtic under Martin O’Neill.

Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not suggesting for a second Sinclair should be in the England starting line-up. He’s not as good as Raheem Sterling or Marcus Rashford, who both play in the wider areas.

Sterling has had a big impact at Liverpool and Man City and Rashford is doing superbly well for Jose Mourinho at United and has also slotted excellently into the national-team set-up.

Those are the first picks. But