Gareth Southgate brands England a ‘strange country’ after Wayne Rooney criticism

Gareth Southgate has said that England is a “strange country” for producing disagreement with his decision to bring Wayne Rooney back from international retirement to play in the final minutes of next Thursday’s friendly against the USA.

The game has been denoted the ‘Wayne Rooney Foundation International’ and the former captain is expected to appear from the bench for the final minutes. The Football Association hope that the game will pay tribute to Rooney’s international career – he is England’s all-time record goalscorer – as well as raising awareness for the Wayne Rooney Foundation, his charity. The FA’s decision, however, has seen widespread criticism for “devaluing” what it means to win an international cap.

Speaking at his squad announcement press conference at Wembley this afternoon, Southgate stood by the decision to recall Rooney. And he said that there was a double standard at play in people who say that England should achieve more, before failing to pay tribute to one of their highest-achieving players of all time.

“We are a strange country in that we bemoan the fact we haven’t achieved as much as we’d like,” Southgate said. “And then we have a player who should be held in the highest regard and we are spending a lot of time justifying giving him that tribute. “I think there would be numerous examples of people that have earned caps in different circumstances. The fact is it is an opportunity to pay tribute to what he has achieved.”

Southgate’s press conference was dominated by questions about Rooney and he insisted that he did not think the cap was devalued by Rooney getting one in these circumstances. He said that he had been impressed by how other countries have honoured their own legendary players.

“We went to Germany when they honoured Lukas Podolski,” he said. “We were all struck by the fact that was a really great way to recognise somebody who was fantastic for their country. I don’t think we’ve always been great at that over the years. I think it’s important the former players feel part of what we are doing with England.”

Southgate pointed to the different circumstances players win caps under, suggesting that people should not be so puritanical about the “worth” of a cap.

“In terms of the value of caps, it’s difficult to be precise on that,” he said. “You can come on in a game with two minutes to go. I played in games where we changed the whole team at half time. I hope that come the night, and I’m sure, although you are saying a lot of people are not happy about it, that a lot of people are also recognising what Wayne’s done. I hope for him he gets the appropriate response because I think he deserves that.”