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Time for England players to step out of Wayne Rooney's shadow, says Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate has declared it is time for England players to no longer “hide behind” Wayne Rooney and instead take responsibility themselves – while still leaving the door open for the 31-year-old to reverse his decision to retire from international football.
However the England manager also admitted that during his phone conversation with Rooney, he was given no “guarantee” he would be a starter and told him he saw his role as a mentor, like Jermain Defoe.
Southgate also compared Rooney’s impact for England with that of Lionel Messi with Argentina. “We are talking about that level of player,” Southgate said when asked whether Rooney could be described as a “great” without winning anything with his country. “I guess people have that debate about Messi, because he has not won a World Cup.”
Southgate did not rule out a tribute, or even an England match, to honour Rooney, who is retiring from after a 14-year career in which he became England’s record scorer with 53 goals and earned 119 caps. “There should definitely be some kind of recognition and that’s for the FA to decide,” Southgate said.
During Southgate’s announcement of his 28-man squad for the World Cup qualifiers in Malta and at Wembley against Slovakia, he was asked if he felt like the man who had shot Bambi, having dropped Rooney.
“I’ve taken no pleasure from not selecting Wayne,” Southgate said. “So, would I have preferred to have had a relationship with him where he was in the team all the time and playing at a world level? Yes. But unfortunately I was the one who got him when he was making the decision that he’s making.”
Southgate called up goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah, who he said had been England’s best players at the recent Under-21s European Championships, and also Leicester City defender Harry Maguire. There were places also for Danny Welbeck, Jesse Lingard and Daniel Sturridge. It’s believed Nathan Redmond was stunned at his exclusion given his impressive Southampton form.
Understandably, though, the day was dominated by Rooney.
“Wayne’s been somebody it may have been easy to hide behind for people,” Southgate said. “Because he’s the one who has carried that burden. Now everybody has the chance to take the mantle.”
Southgate spoke to Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford to arrange a meeting but after Everton’s 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Monday Stretford told Southgate it would be best if he called Rooney.
“I was going to discuss that, on form, he deserved to be in the squad,” Southgate said. “Could I see him definitely starting? No, I couldn’t give that guarantee. But do I see the value of a senior player and what he may add in terms of experience and developing some of the other players? Definitely. I have seen that with Defoe as well in the squads he has been in.
‘‘I think Rooney has shown with Everton that he is in a different place form-wise in terms of his hunger and desire to get in the box.
“I have to look to the future and look to how we develop over the next 18 months to two years. I also don’t want to dismiss the value of football intelligence, the experience of big matches and what those conversations around the camp add. He has a fantastic football brain.”
Does the door remain open? “I suppose that we have to see where he was at, where the squad was at, where everything else was at. It would be foolish to say no because anything is possible. But I think you’ve also got to respect his decision and the thinking behind that. But have I seen players change their minds? Well, yes, I think we all have.”
Asked to assess Rooney’s status, Southgate added: “I think we are talking about greats within their own country. We cannot compare ourselves to Brazilians or Germans, but Wayne has done pretty much everything else.
“I suppose I go back to the fact I was fortunate enough to play with him. So I saw him come in. I played in his first competitive game, when he came on in Liechtenstein. Then we were saying, ‘Who is this kid, what’s he up to?’ We’d seen the goal against Arsenal. He didn’t really say very much at all.
“Then by the end of the week it was ‘blimey, Sven’s [Goran Eriksson, the then England manager] has got to pick him, he can’t possibly not pick him.’ We were seeing something I hadn’t seen since [Paul] Gascoigne, in terms of all the different attributes that he had.”