England record-breaker Wayne Rooney should have retired from worldwide football after Euro 2016, says former goalkeeper Peter Shilton.
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Rooney, who has said he will hang up his worldwide boots after the World Cup in Russian Federation in 2018, is still well and truly in the plans of new boss Sam Allardyce.
And after Rooney made his 116th appearance for England in the 1-0 win over Slovakia on Saturday, Shilton has insisted the time for him to step aside has already come and gone.
Allardyce said post-match it was “not for me to say” what Rooney’s position was and he “played wherever he wanted”. “He was brilliant and controlled midfield”. “But more for the players than for me”. I think that the referee waited until Skrtel did a foul.
“Me and Wayne’s relationship, as we grow, will always be to promote him as captain, but first and foremost to make sure he’s playing his best football”, he added.
Shilton, who won 125 caps for England from 1970 to 1990, believes that Rooney should have walked away from the global set-up after the team’s poor showing at the European Championships earlier this summer, rather than having a situation now where Allardyce is trying to shoehorn him into the side. It’s not because he could break my record.
But they’re not only important to fans of the game anymore, the players themselves REALLY care about their numbers.
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Meanwhile, midfielder Eric Dier says England will take some time to recover from their Euro 2016 humiliation despite getting back to winning ways in Trnava.
