Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer have doubled down on their criticism of England’s performances so far at Euro 2024 despite Harry Kane responding negatively to their initial jibes.
Lineker had branded England’s performance against Denmark “s**t” on his Rest Is Football podcast and Kane hit back.
“The bottom line is we haven’t won anything as a nation for a long, long time and a lot of these players were part of that and they know how tough it is,” countered Kane. “All I would say is remember what it is like to wear the shirt and that their words are listened to. I am sure they want us to win a major tournament and being as helpful as they can and building the lads up with confidence would be a much better way of going about it.
“I’m not telling people not to do their job, it’s their job to analyse games and players. There will be games where I get stick or other players will get stick. Maybe when I’m 40 or 50, I’ll be on one of those shows trying to dig players out – I hope I’m not.”
He did suspect an ulterior motive, given Lineker’s most abrasive comments came on the podcast he hosts, run by his production company Goalhanger Podcasts. “People will do things for their own gain, that’s just life,” added Kane. “With podcasts and things like that, people are trying to promote their own channels.”
Lineker and Rest Is Football co-host Shearer then responded to Kane’s criticism on Monday’s edition of the podcast and refused to back down from their initial comments, although acknowledged that they understood the England skipper’s complaints.
Lineker said: “Could you imagine if we went on and said, ‘Well, actually, I thought they played really well’? We’d be lying, for a start, because they didn’t play well. And Harry knows they didn’t play well.
“I understand where he says, ‘But they have responsibilities being ex-England players and they should know, they know what it’s like, it’s not like they’ve ever won anything’, or words to that effect.
“Fine. And he’s absolutely right. But 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 perform well on the pitch. The best punditry of all is when England play well and we’re excited and we’re enthusiastic about them. We don’t want to be critical but we have to be sometimes. We have to say it.”
Shearer later added, “What are we meant to say?”, to which Lineker sarcastically replied, “That they were really good, Alan. They were really good, actually”.
Shearer also admitted: “It might have been that word ’s***’. The simple and easiest thing is, have England played well, or did they play well, in that game against Denmark? No, we were terrible. So, we have to say that. If England are brilliant, we’ll say they’re brilliant. That’s just the way it is.”
Lineker added: “Yes, we were critical and no one’s above criticism, and Harry will know as well,” before stressing: “It’s never personal. We’ve actually said we think, really, it’s come from the top, not the players, because they look a little bit lost on the pitch, tactically. Harry said it himself, cryptically sort of, didn’t he? ‘We don’t really know how we’re pressing as a team’.”