Phil Clement has ditched Todd Cantwell into the reserve side rather than use the former Norwich starlet in today’s glamour friendly against Manchester United.
The Murrayfield friendly, with the Espanyolification Trophy up for grabs, would have been the ideal photo opportunity for Cantwell to get some additions to his Gallery.
Last Saturday Clement was given the opportunity to say that Cantwell was suffering from an injury but probed about his absence from the defeat against Ajax the Belgian Beale replied that Cantwell wasn’t picked due to ‘small things’.
Watching Clement on the club TV channel last night, The Sun reports the Belgian Beale saying:
James Tavernier is getting better, he is close to training with the team, and Todd [Cantwell] is training with the team but is not ready to play with the first team so he will play with the second team on Saturday.
With John Lundstram and Ryan Jack walking away at the end of last season the last thing that Clement needed was a six week injury to Nicky Raskin with the Begian ace leaving the friendly with Ajax wearing a moonboot.
Manchester United don’t start their EPL campaign until August 17 but rather than give Tok Tok minutes against the FA Cup winners, putting the midfielder out of sight and out of mind.
No details are available about today’s B team friendly.
Clement is in an impossible position.
Yes, he can drop first team players he doesn’t rate.
But with no buyers and no transfer budget…
Cantplaywell will be back in the first team eventually this season.
Oh dear! :).
Very strange. You’d think this Man Utd game would be the perfect opportunity to help get shot of him. A glamour friendly, with no one over-exerting themselves, or going in with serious challenges, should let the one trick pony showcase his step overs against a big name side – but one which is probably a week or two behind in its pre-season preparations, missing players that were away at the Euros or Copa America and likely to be fielding a lot of youth team players. Even a half-decent showing could probably dupe some poor team into taking him on, with Rangers probable easy to deal with, in terms of the transfer fee etc.
I would’ve thot playing Dik Dok would have resulted in a 50 Gazillion bid fur Barbie tabled strait after the game lol!
He’ll always get a job selling mops!