It’s time to shut up and leave Raheem alone

Roy Hodgson hung Raheem Sterling out to dry by revealing he claimed he was too tired to play for England.

The Liverpool teenager has been slaughtered over the last few days there has been a queue a mile long waiting to have a pop at the kid.

It’s been a while since I’ve witnessed such a clamour from the footballing world to launch an attack on a player. In my opinion, the man to blame for that is the England manager. And I’m struggling to understand his motives for doing so.

My understanding of the situation was, when asked how he was feeling by assistant manager Gary Neville, Sterling was honest in his reply by saying he was feeling tired.

Now he didn’t say he didn’t want to play. He didn’t say anything of the sort. He was asked a question by a member of the coaching staff and gave an honest answer.

Rather than try to pull the wool over his manager’s eyes, he provided him with a true assessment of his physical condition ahead of a European Championship qualifier with Estonia.

Listen, football has changed since the days when I pulled on the boots. If we were asked back then how we were feeling the answer would always have been we were ready and raring to go. Nowadays the players are pampered more and maybe if put in the same position again Sterling would have said he was fine.

But what I find puzzling is why Hodgson came out and said what he did. Why repeat what was a private conversation between a player and a coach? He didn’t have to let everyone know the exact details of that conversation.

There are a million reasons he could have given for Sterling not starting. The most sensible one for me would have been to say he wasn’t looking tip-top in training and looked heavy-legged. I’m sure no-one would have criticised Hodgson for not starting him if that was the case.

And on a more serious point you’ve got to wonder how this will impact on the relationship of the manager and the most-promising young player in the country.

I don’t think I’d trust a manager again if he put me in the firing line. And there is a part of me thinking Sterling is the innocent victim of a more sinister feud between Hodgson and Liverpool.

We all know there was a difference of opinion between both camps in terms of Daniel Sturridge’s fitness recently. And remember, Roy didn’t exactly have the best of times during his spell in the Anfield hot-seat.

I know Brendan Rodgers is meeting Hodgson to try and sort this out and he has every right to be furious at what has happened.

It’s time for Sterling’s critics to shut up and leave the lad alone.