England boss Gareth Southgate warns Three Lions will never compete against top teams if they keep going out on the lash
New Three Lions manager added that captain Wayne Rooney cannot expect to start every game
GARETH SOUTHGATE has accused Wayne Rooney and England’s bad boys of lacking intelligence after their boozing in the last international break.
And the new Three Lions boss, who has offered Rooney no assurances about his future as England captain, says his players can forget about beating the world’s best teams if they are ill-disciplined during their preparation time.
Rooney apologised after he drank until 5am in the team hotel when Southgate had given his players a day off between the matches against Scotland and Spain last month.
And several others went out partying, including Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson, who visited a strip club.
Asked about the issue, Southgate said: “There is a level of expectation when you are with England.
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“We talk about pressure and spend most of our time trying to relieve it, so if we put ourselves in positions where we are going to increase that pressure it is not intelligent.
“It is important as a playing squad and group of staff we recognise that and we want to be a top team — so if we want that everything we do has to be geared towards improving.
“We need an environment and culture around the team that will enable us to perform at our very best.
“If we think we are good enough to play the best teams in the world and give ourselves a handicap along the way, then good luck with that.”
Southgate has told Rooney he must get used to not starting England games — and that he wants his squad to develop more leaders.
He said: “Wayne Rooney is the England captain — but I’ve only selected him to start in two of the four matches we’ve had.
“So it’s not a case of Wayne expecting to play every game.
“It’s important we develop more leaders in the group. When I played for England, particularly in Euro 96 when we had such a successful team, we had captains throughout the team, captains of their club. We have to develop leadership, that’s one of the key areas.”