WORLD CUP: SOUTHGATE HAS Steve Rose: After boss BATES dropped Wayne, we all knew he wasn’t a man to be messed with

TUNISIA ENGLAND

IN REPINO, ST PETERSBURG

DANNY ROSE has revealed that Gareth Southgate is a smiling assassin after the brutal way he ended Wayne Rooney’s England career. Three Lions chief Southgate has a nice-guy public image masking an inner steel that makes him as ruthless as any of football’s hard-line bosses, says Tottenham star Rose. And the cold, clinical way he dispatched England’s alltime leading scorer Rooney was the moment Rose and the squad realised Southgate is not to be messed with. It’s his way – or the highway.

Captured

Rose said there was a sharp intake of breath when Southgate – in only his second game in charge as interim boss – dropped Rooney (left) for a World Cup qualifier in Slovenia in October 2016. After recalling him the following month for the 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over Scotland at Wembley, Rooney was captured on camera the worse for wear at England’s Hertfordshire hotel. He never played for his country again. Rose said: “I definitely didn’t expect the manager to drop Wayne. “And as soon as we all saw that we knew the gaffer was not somebody to be messed around with because he’s dropped arguably one of the best England players ever and the all-time top goalscorer.

“From the manager’s first camp, he didn’t choose certain people who had been in before.

“Even dropping people out of camps, you know he has this nice side to him but at the same time he has a side that you don’t want to cross.

“It literally is a case of ‘buy into what me and my coaching staff believe’ – or he won’t choose you.”

Rose has taken a recent rap from Southgate – even though the England boss was hugely supportive after he bravely made his emotional admission about suffering from depression.

Rose said: “I said in an interview before we came out here that I am lucky to be here. The manager spoke to me after he saw that and I don’t think he was too impressed.

“It is not the mentality that he wants – if you are here you deserve to be here and you have to show why you are here.

“I fully understand that but at the same time, considering the minutes I’ve had in the build-up to the World Cup, I do think I am lucky.”

Reaction to Rose’s depression story was farreaching and massively positive, with even Prince William – a patron of the Heads Together mental health charity – thanking him. But the defender admits his mum Angela wasn’t happy he didn’t tell her and, in hindsight, he would have made his revelations after the World Cup.

He said: “My mum was upset, yeah, because she didn’t know but the family are over the moon that I’m fine and I’m about to play at the World Cup.

Emotional

“The reaction I had was overwhelming and has made me ever so grateful for the support I’ve had. But I think the timing – maybe I should have done it after the World Cup.

“I’ve had so many nice messages from people who’ve said it has helped them in a way I’ll never know. That’s been pretty emotional.

“The morning it came out, the manager took me for a walk round the hotel grounds in Leeds and he was really supportive.

“Now I’ve got time to think while I’m here and when I get back from the World Cup how I can go forward and help other people.”