Petit queries England absentees
World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit says John Terry and Ashley Cole should have played in England's crucial Euro 2008 game against Croatia at Wembley.
The ex-France and Chelsea midfielder said leading players were "thinking only of themselves" as England failed to qualify following their 3-2 defeat.
Terry and Cole were deemed not fit to start but both played three days later in Chelsea's 2-0 win at Derby.
"I'm talking about very important defenders," Petit told SSB.
"Can you imagine me not playing a big game for my country and then three days later I play for my club?"
The loss at Wembley ended England's hopes of reaching Euro 2008 and signalled the end of coach Steve McClaren's reign.
England captain Terry had been out of action with a knee injury since 16 October and did not make the match-day squad against Croatia, while Cole was on the bench but was not used by McClaren.
"It was very interesting last Saturday to see players like John Terry - who is the leader of Chelsea and England - wasn't part of the Wednesday game and he was playing on Saturday," said Petit, a 1998 World Cup winner with France.
"It was very interesting to see also Ashley Cole playing against Derby and he wasn't featuring last Wednesday as well.
"They were not in the national team and they were playing for their clubs three days later.
"So before looking for excuses somewhere else, putting the trouble on foreign players or managers, people have to be honest.
"That's what fans want to hear from players: 'We failed and we are responsible for that.' We are not looking for excuses.
"I think people are thinking only of themselves, not for football and not for the fans," said the 37-year-old, who was speaking at a Ford Feelfootball event.
Chelsea boss Avram Grant hit back at the comments by the former Blues player.
"I know my players did everything to play in the England game," he said.
"This is not the right thing to say, especially not from Petit."
Terry echoed his coach's comments, saying the England match had come just too soon after his recent operation.
"I had long conversations with Steve McClaren and wanted to be part of it. I was very close," he said.
"But I had only done a bit of running on my own at the (Chelsea) training ground, trained with the youth team and then went over to England, so it was probably about a day's full training.
"I would always play if asked, but you have to think of the bigger picture, and if I'd had to come off after 50 or 60 minutes because of the injury then I would have been no good to anybody."
