Rooney disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday for the first time since his new England manager, Sam Allardyce, confirmed he would keep the 32-year-old as his captain.
Advertisement
“Going into the World Cup – hopefully we qualify! – the time will be right, it will be my 15th season playing for England, and in anyone’s terms it’s a long time, so I just felt the time would be right then”. “Hopefully I can end my time with England on a high”, he said.
“His journey is something that deserves to be in this squad and me to have a look at as a potential player going forward”, Allardyce said.
The player has played 115 matches for England, scoring 53 goals.
“I hope that more and more very hard decisions have to be made by the form of England players in the Premier League all breaking into the first team, playing regularly”, Allardyce added.
“They were a very sound, solid unit that proved very hard to break down, because they weren’t interested in playing any type of attacking football I don’t think”.
“My mind is made up but it is up to Sam Allardyce again over the next two years but, if selected, I will have enjoyed it, some highs, some lows but I’ll be an immensely proud man”. Rooney was deployed in midfield by former coach Roy Hodgson as England recorded draws against Russian Federation and Slovakia in the group stage and beat Wales via a stoppage time goal. We’ve seen a lot of teams overachieve with him as manager.
He said England have not lost a qualifier since 2009, going unbeaten to reach Euro 2012, 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016. A llardyce, 61, was to take his first training session with the players yesterday with several, most notably Manchester City’s goalkeeper Joe Hart, involved in speculation over their club futures ahead of Wednesday’s transfer deadline day.
“It’s the hardest squad I’ve ever picked because it’s England”, he said. It’s widely believed that England’s players have the talent, but are mentally fragile on the big stage – and that’s what Allardyce has set about changing after taking over from Roy Hodgson in July.
Rashford will instead play for England under-21s this week to get some game time. “And that’s a bit of a concern”, Allardyce added, having spent almost six weeks picking the squad for England’s first major match since exiting Euro 2016 in the last 16.
Rooney became England’s all-time top scorer when he converted a penalty against Switzerland last September, and his goal in the loss to Iceland was his 53rd at worldwide level.
England crashed out in the group phase at the last World Cup in Brazil two years ago and, with Rooney as captain, was humiliated by minnows Iceland in the last at Euro 2016. We have bad memories from the last game obviously. This is the move that he wants and I wish him well and I am sure that it can benefit England.
Advertisement
“The tactics will be different when we play them in Slovakia”, he said.
