Rooney heads for permanent England exit
WAYNE ROONEY took another step towards the England exit door yesterday after missing Gareth Southgate deliver a rousing vision to his squad.
The Manchester United striker, who is currently recovering from injury, did not attend Southgate’s first team briefing as permanent manager at St George’s Park.
Both the FA and United insisted Rooney required rehabilitation back at his club, but his absence felt significant just days after being told he is no longer full-time captain.
England stars who have been picked in recent squads were invited to listen to their new boss detailing plans for his four-year tenure.
Of those not in contention to face Germany in a friendly in Dortmund tomorrow night and Lithuania at Wembley in a World Cup qualifier on Sunday, only Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland actually turned up.
As well as outlining the future, Southgate seemed to deliver something of a history lesson yesterday. He played a video of himself missing
that penalty against Germany at Euro ’96, using it to explain how he moved on from the nadir of his playing career.
Within the same context, he then ran a clip of England last summer and that morale-sapping 2-1 defeat to Iceland.
It might have been appropriate to add a few segments of Rooney’s darker moments, given that he, too, now feels like part of England’s past.
Rooney might yet prove us wrong and return for his 120th cap, but the last few days have given the impression that time is being called on the England career of the country’s record goalscorer.
If Southgate had not first omitted him from his squad and then said he could no longer consider himself England’s captain — instead explaining he would select his skipper on a match-to-match basis — one wonders if Rooney would have made the effort to be here.
This, after all, was an important day for Southgate. He was delivering his mission statement, the blueprint for England’s future. And it was a measure of what it meant to him that he invited Rooney and other players either injured or on the periphery to attend.
If Rooney was feeling excluded, it did not end there. Yesterday, the FA also launched their new away strip and, in the photographs published online, the 31-year-old was absent.
For those who did attend, the meeting sounded positive, even if a more cynical observer might wince at the thought of Southgate telling his players that, despite losing to Iceland, they can be the ‘best team in the world’.
Only last week, he was stressing the importance of recognising what a great divide has developed between England and the international elite. Even so, Jamie Vardy was glowing in his praise.
‘It was great,’ he said. ‘We were looking forward to the World Cup and beyond and what we want to achieve together.
‘There were highlights and clips from the past, when things haven’t gone right, and how we can use them to benefit us in the future.’
And Southgate’s penalty? A penalty, it should be pointed out, that was saved by Andreas Kopke, who will be on the bench as Germany’s long-serving goalkeeping coach tomorrow night.
‘The penalty was on there, yes,’ said Vardy. ‘He wanted it to show how far he has come, as well. Obviously, him being in that situation, to have that kind of knowledge can benefit us quite a lot.
‘I can just about remember Euro ’96. I lived bang across the road from where Denmark were based. I’m sure that moment hurt the manager a lot, but he will have definitely learnt from it, too.’
The Iceland clip from Euro 2016 was, says Vardy, also brief: ‘We didn’t focus on it too much. We know that game was a let-down for everyone. But you do need to look back on things like that to make sure you improve and learn.’
For Rooney, you wonder what lessons he has learned over the past few days. The weight of expectation has always been heavy upon his shoulders.
But England? That seems to be becoming less of an issue, judging by his omission from the starting line-up in Slovenia last October to his absence this week.
Yesterday, England seemed to be starting on a new journey without him.