England Will Only Be Remembered For The Semifinal – Rooney

Wayne Rooney has said that England will find more international success if foreign Premier League coaches have “a little bit more faith in young English players.”

England’s longtime captain and all-time top scorer never reached the semifinals of a major tournament with the Three Lions before his international retirement in 2016, and he was succinct when asked to name the biggest obstacle facing up-and-coming English players.

“Playing. Just to continue playing in their clubs,” Rooney said on Thursday. “I think there’s more homegrown players, well not more, but homegrown players get a chance and they stay in the team, in particularly [in] Germany, Italy.

“In England they have a lot of foreign coaches who buy players in, players that they maybe know and play them all the time.

“I think only because of performances — for Manchester United, Jesse Lingard got the opportunity to go and play in every game at the World Cup for England. So I think a little bit more faith in young English players will help the national team.”

“Well I think if you rewind and go back two years I remember I was captain, I come out to the media and I said, ‘Be patient with these players, these players are a very talented group of players, and will be successful for England if we allow them to be and give them time,'” Rooney said.

“It may be a little bit sooner than I thought, I thought maybe 2020, but I think the players since then in the two years have progessed along at club level. Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane continuing, Dele Alli, they’ve all progressed a lot in two years and brought a lot to the national team and Jesse Lingard as well, [Marcus] Rashford coming in. I wasn’t surprised, no.”

“Success in football is to win titles,” he said. “It’s like, England in 1990 got to the semifinal, England 2018 got to the semifinal, but you’ll be remembered for the semifinal, not for winning the title.

“You have to win titles. If you want to be remembered, you want to create history, you want to be known as a successful team, you have to win titles.”