- Gary Lineker insisted journalists are to blame for his spat with England stars
- The former England star stood by his criticism of Gareth Southgate’s side
- LISTEN to It’s All Kicking Off! on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. New episodes released every day during the Euros
Gary Lineker has insisted journalists are responsible for his spat with Harry Kane over England’s performances at Euro 2024.
Despite maintaining their unbeaten start to the tournament, England came under fire for lacking an attacking impetus in their 1-1 draw with Denmark.
Lineker was one of several prominent media figures to criticise the showing, branding Thursday’s performance ‘s***’ on ‘The Rest is Football’, a podcast he hosts and owns through his Goalhanger production company.
Speaking ahead of England’s final group game against Slovenia, Kane hit back and insisted former England players should think twice before commenting on the team.
The England captain also suggested an ulterior motive behind some of the negative reaction, with members of the media using it to ‘promote their own channels’ because they ‘want the most views’.
Speaking alongside Alan Shearer on his podcast Lineker stood by his criticism of England, and insisted that the journalist who put his comments to the team would have had the same evaluation of their performance.
‘Made the headlines again, haven’t I!’ He said. ‘Journalists being what journalists are.’
‘They can be a bit tricky on these things trying to wind up our footballers. We’ve been obviously critical of England’s performance as has pretty much every journalist.
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‘But you know what happens Alan, it’s happened to you and it’s happened to me over the years. You sit there as a player and it’s your turn to face the press and at some point a journalist says ‘so and so has been critical of you’ and you know they’ve not heard it.’
‘We’ve talked about this on this podcast before about journalists not being brave enough to ask their own questions.
‘I guarantee whoever asked that would have probably have been critical himself. I think they do it A) to stir the pot and B) because they’re too scared to ask the questions themselves.
‘I get it and it puts Harry on the spot, but I thought he answered it fine with one or two bits in there, but it’s not easy answering a question like that.’
Lineker added that he wants nothing more than to see England perform at the highest level possible in Germany.
‘Imagine we had gone on and said they’d played well – we’d be lying! They didn’t play well and Harry knows that.
‘There’s one bit there where I understand, he says: “they have a responsibility as ex-England players, they should know what it’s like and it’s not like they’ve ever won anything” or words to that effect – fine.
‘He’s absolutely right. I will say one thing: The last thing in the world we want to be is downbeat and critical. We want the England team to play well on the pitch and the best punditry of all is when England play well, we’re excited and we’re enthusiastic about them.
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‘We say this performance was great and this performance was great. We don’t want to be critical about them, but we have to be sometimes. We did it balanced as well.’
Shearer added that both England and Kane will have the ‘right to reply on the pitch’ as they prepare to take on Slovenia in Cologne.
‘I think the simplest and easiest thing is, did England play well in that game against Denmark? No. They were terrible.’ Shearer said.
‘So we have to say that. If they’re brilliant, we’ll say they’re brilliant. You know what though, as a player, you always get the right of reply on the pitch.
‘The England team hasn’t played well other than the first 35 minutes of the first game against Serbia.
‘I have no problem with what [Kane] said and I wouldn’t take back anything we said – England were really poor.
‘I think the vast majority of the journalists – well, all of them – and the vast majority of the country, and the boys in the squad will know they were awful against Denmark.
Victory against Slovenia on Tuesday would see England face one of the third-placed teams to progress from their respective groups in the round of 16.
However, a draw against Matjaz Kek’s side could see the Three Lions finish second in Group C, setting up a clash with Germany in the first knockout stage.