Butland: Don’t sack Stu

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JACK BUTLAND is desperate for Stuart Pearce to stay on as England Under-21 boss despite a disastrous Euro 2013 campaign.

Psycho’s Young Lions flopped in Israel, losing all three of their group games.

Despite Pearce laying the blame at the players’ door, the pressure is on for the 51-year-old to keep his job after the horrorshow tournament.

But Butland hopes his manager is given a stay of execution.

The Stoke stopper said: “It says it all how we got here, the way we played, the structure and organisation we had.
JACK BUTLAND is desperate for Stuart Pearce to stay on as England Under-21 boss despite a disastrous Euro 2013 campaign. Psycho’s Young Lions flopped in Israel, losing all three of their group games. Despite Pearce laying the blame at the players’ door, the pressure is on for the 51-year-old to keep his job after the horrorshow tournament. But Butland hopes his manager is given a stay of execution. The Stoke stopper said: “It says it all how we got here, the way we played, the structure and organisation we had. “There is no one else to blame (but the players). It is the same group of players — it us that have not performed. “For a legend of the game like Stuart Pearce, it is difficult to apologise, but there is no one else to blame but the players. “We were on the pitch, I hope he stays in the job. “He works extremely hard and does everything necessary to make sure we are successful and gives us all the right tools. I really do hope he stays.” Butland admitted to the team’s shame at having performed so poorly throughout the youth competition but was at a loss as to how to explain it. He said: “We are embarrassed, we haven’t done ourselves justice. “We are a lot better than this but we can’t keep saying this. We haven’t proved it and we can only wonder why. “We wanted this. It is difficult to understand what went wrong. “We just seemed flat and not ourselves, which is difficult to understand. I don’t know.” He added: “Personally, I think I will learn more from this experience than had we done a lot better and maybe even gone onto win the tournament. “For me, after a very long season and last year, it is definitely about time management, managing my time and making sure I am mentally set. “That is something that I have learned and I am sure there will be a lot to learn from the other lads’ point of view, too. “In the future, people will be able to look back at this and know what has gone wrong and from learn from it.”

“There is no one else to blame (but the players). It is the same group of players — it us that have not performed.

“For a legend of the game like Stuart Pearce, it is difficult to apologise, but there is no one else to blame but the players.

“We were on the pitch, I hope he stays in the job.

“He works extremely hard and does everything necessary to make sure we are successful and gives us all the right tools. I really do hope he stays.”

Butland admitted to the team’s shame at having performed so poorly throughout the youth competition but was at a loss as to how to explain it.

He said: “We are embarrassed, we haven’t done ourselves justice.

“We are a lot better than this but we can’t keep saying this. We haven’t proved it and we can only wonder why.

“We wanted this. It is difficult to understand what went wrong.

“We just seemed flat and not ourselves, which is difficult to understand. I don’t know.”

He added: “Personally, I think I will learn more from this experience than had we done a lot better and maybe even gone onto win the tournament.

“For me, after a very long season and last year, it is definitely about time management, managing my time and making sure I am mentally set.

“That is something that I have learned and I am sure there will be a lot to learn from the other lads’ point of view, too.

“In the future, people will be able to look back at this and know what has gone wrong and from learn from it.”