England Under 21 boss Stuart Pearce believes he is well within his rights to take Arsenal winger Theo Walcott to the upcoming Under 21 European Championships despite his involvement with the senior squad.  

The former Manchester City manager told Setanta he had spoken with Wenger personally to air their differences.

He said: “My first conversation was Theo and I told him I wanted him with the Under-21s. But I wouldn’t want to say to Fabio to leave him out of the Seniors so we could have him and he thanked me for that.”

“I spoke with Arsene after that and told him my plans for Theo and he didn’t agree and thought he should play in one age group or the other.”

“I have the utmost respect for Arsene and I understand his point of view, but we beg to differ a little bit.”

“We had a valid case. I need to send my best possible side to this tournament and Theo Walcott is certainly worthy of a place in that squad.”

“He hit the best form of his life just before Christmas and then was injured for four months,”

“In my experience as a player, you never know when that injury is going to come.”

“You never know when you are going to be out for six months or a year. Personally, my advice to anybody is to play as many games as you can if you can. I’m speaking from experience. I wasn’t someone who picked and chose my games.”

“You turn up whether you are injured or not. It is a great honour to play for your country because you’ll bet your bottom dollar that when you are 35 or 40 you’ll wish you could still do it.”