Our tweet of the day comes from the Football Editor for Eurosport-Yahoo, Tony Mabert who offered this wry analysis of Stuart Pearce’s squad announcement of the team GB football squad for the Olympics:
With much time given over to analysing the exclusion of any Northern Irish or Scottish players from the squad, Mabert pointed to the age difference between one of the three over-age players in the squad, Ryan Giggs and England’s European Championship third-choice keeper, Jack Butland.
38-year old Giggs has never played in a major tournament before by accident of being born in Wales, while 19-year old Butland was a surprise inclusion in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the Euros.
Even more amazing is that Giggs made his debut in 1991, while Butland was born in 1993. Butland also gets special dispensation to play in this tournament despite the FA previously stating that any player in the squad for the Euros wouldn’t be considered for the Olympics.
All the same, big tournament experience counts and let’s hope the inexperienced Giggs doesn’t let Butland down.
For the record here’s the rest of Team GB’s 18-man panel:
Goalkeepers: Jack Butland, Jason Steele.
Defenders: Micah Richards, Ryan Bertrand, Steve Caulker, Craig Dawson, Neil Taylor, James Tomkins.
Midfielders: Joe Allen, Ryan Giggs, Tom Cleverley, Jack Cork, Aaron Ramsey, Danny Rose.
Strikers: Craig Bellamy, Scott Sinclair, Marvin Sordell, Daniel Sturridge.
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