Gary Lineker blames journalists who are “too scared to ask a question from their own selves” for escalating his withering post-match assessment of England by asking captain Harry Kane for his thoughts on the description of their performance as “shit”.
On Sunday afternoon at England’s official press conference, Kane was asked for his response to Lineker’s comments on The Rest Is Football podcast, hosted by the former England strikers Lineker, Alan Shearer and former right-back Micah Richards.
Kane spoke eloquently, saying that former internationals who won nothing during their own England careers should “take a step back” and remember the power their words can carry, particularly towards the younger members of the squad.
On the latest The Rest Is Football episode, released on Monday morning, Lineker blamed journalists for stirring up an issue without providing Kane with the full picture and using the expletive entirely out of tongue-in-cheek context. He also referred to a line from the journalists’ questions – “Should Lineker stick to flogging crisps?” – which was indeed unnecessarily inflammatory.
“Made the headlines again haven’t I, because journalists being what journalists, being a bit tricky in these things and trying to wind up our footballers,” said Lineker to Shearer, this time not joined by Richards on the podcast.
“We’ve been critical of England’s performances, as has pretty much every journalist, but you know how it happens.
“At one point or another it’s your turn to sit in front of the press and one of them says ‘So and so has been critical of you’. I remember that it happened to me. I remember Jimmy Greaves, during Italia ‘90, saying that I was really struggling and had never been the same since recovering from hepatitis two years before.
“Journalists will use that quote and will go ‘Did you know that so and so said this?’ and they have obviously done that to Harry Kane yesterday [Sunday]: ‘Lineker said England were shit, blah blah blah’.
“You know as well as I know that there’s no way that the players will have listened to the entirety of our comments, whether it be on television or here on The Rest Is Football. People tell them that we’re having a pop at them, fine. But they won’t know the nuance or the balance or how we’ve always balanced it by saying that they can do better or that it’s never personal.”
Although Lineker was clearly laying the blame at the journalists who chose to continue the story by directly asking Kane for a response, he made two points on which it is difficult to disagree.
Firstly, that Kane answered the question sensibly. Secondly, that no former England player wants to criticise. They are as desperate for England to play well as anyone.
“We’ve talked about this a few times before, about journalists not being brave enough to ask their own questions. I guarantee whoever that was, was probably critical themselves. They do it a) to stir the pot and b) because they’re too scared to ask a question from their own selves. It puts Harry on the spot. I thought he answered it fine.
“Imagine if we had come and said actually England played really well. We’d be lying for a start, because they didn’t play well. And Harry knows that they didn’t play well. There was one bit there where he says that we have responsibilities as ex-England players, that we should know better and that we never won anything or words to that effect.
“Fine, he’s absolutely right. But I will say one thing: The last thing in the world we want to be is downbeat and critical. We want the England team to perform well on the pitch. The best punditry of all is when England play well and we’re all excited and enthusiastic about them. We don’t want to be critical, but we have to be sometimes.”