Gary Lineker stands by calling an England performance at Euro 2024 ‘s***’, despite causing a stir in the Three Lions camp. Captain Harry Kane responded to the criticism by reminding former players such as Lineker and Alan Shearer that they also struggled to win major international tournaments.
Speaking on the Rest Is Football podcast after England’s 1-1 draw with Denmark in the group stages, Lineker said in June: “I can’t imagine anybody that is English would have enjoyed England’s performance. Because it was lethargic. It was dour. I mean, you can think of all sorts of words and expletives if you like, but it was s***.”
Lineker has now doubled down on the comments and insists some Three Lions players even agreed with his criticism. England went on to reach the final in Germany but were beaten 2-1 by Spain.
“If I’d said the word ‘poor’ it wouldn’t have [been accurate] – and it was s***,” he says. “I mean, people get hung up over a swear word. It’s just four letters in a different order to other words. Like ‘this’,” Lineker told the Telegraph.
“But, yeah, I didn’t feel anything at the time. I’d just said whatever I thought. I mean, God we were awful in those early games. [On a podcast] you can’t pretend. You can’t say, ‘Oh, actually they weren’t that bad’.
“You’ve just got to be honest – and we do it in a fair way. I met many of the players subsequently and they all absolutely agreed.”
At the time, Kane urged England’s ex-players to be careful with their choice of words as younger members of the camp would listen to them.
“What ex-players or ex-players who are pundits now have got to realise is it is very hard not to listen to it now, especially for some players who are not used to it or some players who are new to the environment,” Kane said.
“I always feel like they [pundits] have a responsibility – I know they have got to be honest and give their opinion but also, they have a responsibility of being an ex-England player that a lot of players look up to. People do listen to them and people do care what they say.
“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 as well and they know how tough it is. So it is not digging anyone out.
“It is just the reality that they do know it is tough to play in these major tournaments, and tough to play for England. I would never disrespect any ex-player.”