Thursday 21 August 2014 11:54, UK
Birmingham City manager Lee Clark has explained his decision to recall Amari'i Bell from his loan spell at Mansfield Town.
The 20-year-old defender joined the League Two outfit on loan from City in July and was scheduled to play for the Stags until January.
However, the English left-back was recalled by his Championship club earlier this week, and Clark has now said that it was done with a view to giving the youngster more exposure to competitive matches.
“It defeated the objective,” he said, quoted by the Birmingham Mail. “But that’s Mansfield’s and Paul Cox’s prerogative. I don’t put any stipulation on what the players have got to do.
“I will just make a decision the way I have. We just felt he wasn’t getting enough game time. He hadn’t got any minutes at all in the competitive stuff so it was defeating the objective.
“We send him out to get experience, to play in must-win games, and he wasn’t doing that. So he has come back to play for us and if there is another possibility out there, we will look at it.
“The thing Amari’i has to realise as well is that just because he gets signed from Birmingham City to a lower league club it doesn’t give him a divine right to play.
“He has got to force his way into the manager’s plans and that goes for all of the youngsters. They are throwing the gauntlet down to them that they have to force their way in and then play in the team.
“Just because they are going on loan from us doesn’t automatically give them a way into the team.”
