ALEX FERGUSON and Arsene Wenger last night told Stuart Pearce: We do not want our players in the Olympics.
GB boss Pearce hopes to call up Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs from Manchester United plus Arsenal's Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott.
But he got short shrift from the Premier League's top managerial duo, who insisted London 2012 was a tournament too far.
"They need their recovery and recuperation from small injuries that they get throughout the season.
"The intensity of the English game is second to none. It is an exhausting, exacting season.
"I don't see how they can possibly get the players up to raise the bar after the season they have had in our game."
Wenger declared: "For me, it is not a real football tournament. The Olympics is for track and field basically.
"If you look at the organisation of the whole summer, it makes life impossible for the clubs and especially the players.
"I would say there is already no real break because of the European Championship and the Olympic tournament."
Wenger then joked: "Why not organise another tournament behind that, so we lose the players again?"
The Olympics is an Under-23 format.
But Pearce can include three over-age stars — possibly Rooney, Giggs and David Beckham, who by next summer will be 37.
For the Olympics, FIFA cannot force clubs to release players. It is up to the stars to seek to play.
Wenger added: "The worst thing is to leave that decision to the players."
The FA have vowed to open 'sensible dialogue' with England's senior clubs and Chelsea chief Andre Villas-Boas and Tottenham's Harry Redknapp appear more sympathetic to Olympic calls.
Villas-Boas said: "Stuart has to decide freely on what he wants."
Redknapp would allow his Wales star Gareth Bale to play for the GB team if the Welsh FA give the OK.
source: Thesun.co.uk, www.bettingexpert.com
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