Patrick Bamford was ‘sensible’ to cut short Crystal Palace loan, Stuart Pearce tells talkSPORT

Former England defender Stuart Pearce has praised Patrick Bamford’s ‘sensible’ decision to cut short his loan spell with Crystal Palace.

The Chelsea striker agreed a temporary move to Selhurst Park initally for the entirety of the 2015/16 season in the summer, but wasn’t granted a single Premier League start by Alan Pardew and duly failed to score for the Eagles.

The 22-year-old announced he would return to Chelsea after the 0-0 draw with Swansea yesterday, describing his time at Palace as ‘terrible’, in a bid to seek more regular game time.

Bamford, who scored 19 goals on loan at Middlesbrough the previous season, has come in for scrutiny for his decision but Pearce insists the forward had every right to do what he did.

“I think it’s a sensible decision by him not to stay at Palace for the rest of the season doing what he’s doing,” Pearce told the Colin Murray show.

“This move for him, from what I’m seeing and from the amount of minutes he’s playing, has not been a good move.”

Bamford has expressed his desire to remain in the Premier League but Pearce claims there would be no shortage of suitors lining up for his signature in the Championship too.

He added: “I would think he would be loaned out somewhere else to the Championship and have another six months there again.

“There would be a whole queue of about 16, 18, 20 teams that would take Bamford.”