Big brother Wayne can look out for Sam’s boys
WAYNE ROONEY should be like an ‘older brother’ to his England team-mates if he wants to be a successful captain, according to Sam Allardyce’s former Bolton skipper Jay-Jay Okocha.
When he was reappointing Rooney as England captain last week, Allardyce described Okocha — who played for him between 2002-06 — as his perfect leader.
‘Sam made me captain because of my experience and profile,’ said Okocha. ‘I understood the importance of the players being in great spirits. You have to respect the individual differences between players who come from a different culture or have a different character. You bring them together to focus on one target.
‘I was more like a senior brother at Bolton and I understood the manager is there to make decisions and we all respect that.
‘I think Wayne has come of age now. He has come through the ranks and played with a lot of great players so he will have learned one or two things.
‘It is not just what he does on the pitch but how he carries himself. I don’t think there was a need for England to start changing much because the spirit already seemed to be there. So it was a clever decision to keep what was there, including the captain.’
Okocha also said he wasn’t surprised to hear Allardyce talking about bringing in comedians to help lighten the atmosphere. At Bolton, players used to go to a nearby go-kart track or to the races.
‘At Bolton, we used to do a lot,’ said Okocha. ‘He [Allardyce] got some of the African players to start playing snooker and darts. We had great team spirit. Players are under a lot of pressure so it’s good to create something to get their minds off it.’
Xbox Fut legend Jay-Jay Okocha took part in the EE Wembley cup final at Wembley Stadium connected by EE. To view the last episode in the Wembley Cup online series and watch footage of the match, go to www.ee.co.uk/ wembleycup