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Many in English football may look at Gary Lineker's statements as pure blasphemy, but thoroughly analyzing what he just said about Wayne Rooney not being so important for England, one can understand where he is coming from. In the past 50 years, England hadn't really had a generation of players with this much talent on their roster like it does today. This brings everyone to think and be confident, that a player like Wayne Rooney may not be as needed as he has been for the past decade.
Authorized English football voice Gary Lineker, spoke about this exact topic this Wednesday at his television program Match of the Day. In it he discussed his reasoning for saying that having Wayne Rooney in today's English National Team is not of vital importance and they can actually afford to not use him with the Three Lions in the upcoming European Championship in France this summer. For Gary, the young players that are coming out now such as Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge, are more than enough to believe they can win a title.
Lineker said this: “I don’t think Rooney is crucial now. I don’t want that to be taken in the wrong way, but I think there are all sorts of options up front for Roy now. He has got Harry Kane — it would be hard not to pick Harry, he is probably the best centre forward we have got right now. And then alongside that you have got Vardy, who has been flying, you have got Sterling. Sturridge never seems to keep himself fit but if he did he would be another option.
"So all of a sudden we have got different options up front and we are not so dependent on Wayne. Obviously we would like him to be fit and part of the squad but it is not like before when he has been injured and it was the end of the world. It is a far cry from that now.”
About the young talen, he said this: “I am getting more optimistic because I have not seen us have a chance in the last few tournaments, we saw the golden generation never quite live up to expectation and fade off and become too old and behind that we never had anything behind that apart from Wayne. In his prime, he was our only genuine world class player. Now I can see a group of youngsters coming through, all different ages, that actually look like they have the potential to go on and become world beaters.
"Right through the side there are players — decent full-backs, John Stones coming through, Delle Ali looks fantastic, Dier at Tottenham as well and Kane. You have a big list of these young and talented players. It is really encouraging. For the first time in at least a decade we have got the makings of a side going forward.”
“I think we have a great batch of youngsters coming through. This summer might be a tad early for some of them but I think we will do alright and be respectable and play some nice football. We have got a promising bunch of youngsters and we can give them their wings and give them some experience and they will be better for it. Come two years time in Russia [for the next World Cup finals] we can really be competitive. I think we can do well this summer, but in terms of winning the thing I don’t think we are ready for that yet. But quarter-finals I think — possibly the semis.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
