Gerrard goes on the attack…
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Steven Gerrard, the usually mild-mannered and quietly spoken England captain, has responded in shocking fashion to claims made by former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp, reports the Telegraph.
Redknapp, who managed Spurs between 2008 and 2012, claimed following England’s humiliating World Cup exit that during his spell at White Hart Lane, “two or three” Tottenham players told him they didn’t want to play for the national team.
Gerrard, whose personal performances were way below par this summer, reckons that Redknapp should name and shame the Tottenham players in question, brandishing them “disgusting”, if in fact Redknapp is telling the truth.
“Should Harry not name them? If it’s the case, it’s disgusting. For me, if a player doesn’t want to be [with England], he doesn’t deserve to be here at a World Cup,” said Gerrard.
“If Harry is making a comment like that, he should name them and embarrass them. No one in this group wants to go home. No one wants to go home.
“The comment is a comment, like ‘them’. ‘They’ didn’t want to play for England. Who? Name them. Is it Aaron Lennon, Kyle Walker, Andros Townsend? I don’t know who he means. Five years ago? Ten years ago?”
It will be interesting to see whether Redknapp, who famously coveted the England job heavily before Roy Hodgson was appointed, will respond to Gerrard calling him out – although the 67-year-old’s statement, seems, on the surface, fairly damming.
“I can tell you when I was at Tottenham, when full internationals came around, there were two or three players who did not want to play for England,” claimed the current QPR boss.
“They would come to me 10 days before the game and say, ‘Gaffer, get me out of that game. I don’t want to play’. That was how it was.”
Gerrard himself has asked for time to decide his future as an England international, with many fans calling for new stars to be blooded before Euro 2016. Despite Gerrard’s poor tournament, few have the ability to anchor the midfield as he does right now, and Hodgson has stated that he’d like his captain to continue.
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