Arsène Wenger has warned Stuart Pearce against picking Theo Walcott for the England Under-21 squad should they reach the European Championship next summer, saying a demotion from the senior side could make the teenager feel "rejected".
Pearce said this week that he wants Walcott to play in the tournament, which will be in Sweden next June, and is confident the 19-year-old would seize the opportunity to represent his national team at such a level. England first need to progress past Wales in a play-off, which takes place later this month.
However, Wenger disagrees and instead fears Walcott may react badly to missing out on the two World Cup qualifying matches the senior side plays during that period - England face Kazakhstan on June 6 before playing Andorra at Wembley four days later - and in turn, lose the confidence gained from scoring a hat-trick in England's 4-1 victory over Croatia last month.
"Theo loves his country but sometimes people can feel they are rejected if they have to step backwards, then they do not completely perform," said the Arsenal manager. "If England's first team plays at the same time as the Under-21s then I don't think it will work for him to go with the Under-21s."
Cynics would argue Wenger's principal aim in discouraging Walcott's involvement with the Under-21s is to rest the forward after a season in which he is expected to feature regularly for his club, but he insists this is not the case. "I am not against Walcott playing in the Championship and I would not stand in his way if he wanted to do so," said the Frenchman.
Wenger also joined Harry Redknapp in condemning those Tottenham Hotspur supporters who subjected Sol Campbell to racial and homophobic abuse during their team's 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth on Sunday.
Redknapp described the chanting, which is being investigated by Hampshire police, as "filthy" while his counterpart at Arsenal has gone further by saying that any supporter caught abusing a player should be banned from football for life.
"How can you fight this abuse? By singling out people who do it and not letting them into the ground," said Wenger. "There are groups of people who go to games doing this and you also need to not tolerate them being together because stupidity is contagious and sometimes there is a competition going on in the crowd to see who can be the most stupid."
