If Gary Lineker was worried he went too far when criticising the United Kingdom government’s asylum policy by comparing it to Germany in the 1930s, well, he’s really gone and done it now.
Suella Braverman, then the UK home secretary, was “disappointed”. But Harry Kane? England’s captain and centre-forward feels disrespected. That’s much worse. Oh, Gary… speak the truth, but not too much!
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Lineker, for the uninitiated, occupies a unique space in the English football firmament. A prolific goalscorer for England as a player, he has been the face of the country’s football coverage on the state broadcaster, the BBC, for 25 years, with occasional sojourns into advertising crisps. And while he has become increasingly emboldened in terms of his political views in recent years, he has tended not to offer strident commentary on football.
Until now, anyway.
On Thursday, as the presenter of BBC television’s England vs Denmark coverage during this European Championship, the former striker took a couple of minutes after the drab 1-1 draw to break down Kane’s performance.
“In all honesty, Harry Kane needs to do a lot better,” Lineker said. “His movement was minimal. He’s just drifting short very kind of lethargically, he’s plodding short, and that’s not going to help.
“I think he needs his manager to say, ‘Look, I need a little bit more from you, Harry’. I’d have expected that if I’d had that kind of performance.”
Lineker went on to describe how Kane could create more space for himself and needed to stretch Denmark’s back three during that middle group game of their tournament, albeit that, in the Bayern Munich striker’s defence, the midfield behind him wasn’t advanced enough.
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Pretty accurate, no? And an interesting opinion from a genuine expert, one of the best to ever pull on an England shirt in Kane’s position.
Then, in the rather more informal and profanity-friendly setting of his The Rest Is Football podcast, Lineker put it rather more succinctly, labelling the team’s performance “s**t”.
Pretty accurate, no? And an interesting opinion from a genuine…
OK, you get the idea.
Anyway, Kane didn’t like it and he used Sunday’s England press conference before the group finale tomorrow (Tuesday) against Slovenia as an opportunity not necessarily to talk through the nuances of his performance, which would have been fascinating to hear, but more to say that the pundits back home should be nicer to England.
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Kane was eloquent, putting his argument succinctly and carefully. It wasn’t a ‘head’s gone’ rant. There was a dig at Lineker et al for not winning anything with England either in their own playing days, but it was subtle. No bridges burned.
“With podcasts and things like that, people are trying to promote their own channels, people will do things for their own gain, but we try to ignore it,” Kane said, after not ignoring it. “What ex-players have to realise is that it is very hard not to listen to it now, especially for some players who are new to the environment.
“I always feel like they have a responsibility. I know they have got to be honest and give their opinion but they also have a responsibility as an ex‑England player that a lot of players looked up to.”
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There is an element of responsibility, but isn’t it kind of the whole point that someone such as Lineker has been there and done it? OK, he never won a tournament, but hardly anyone is better qualified to critique and explain why he/they came up short and where Kane/England can improve.
When you have the likes of, with the greatest of respect, Jay Bothroyd and Jamie O’Hara giving their opinions on England’s displays at the Euros as former players, Lineker’s expertise carries great weight. Perhaps Kane would prefer a private phone call to Lineker broadcasting his thoughts to millions but that’s, as one leading UK TV pundit would say, his job. Even if he is a presenter not an analyst, his opinions generally seem to be welcomed and respected by viewers.
“Being as helpful as they can and building the lads up with confidence would be a much better way of going about it,” suggested Kane.
It’s an interesting point and you sort of get where he’s coming from; Kane has played below his best, his goal against Denmark notwithstanding, and so have the team, and then everyone has piled on to describe in forensic detail why they were so bad.
So why can’t pundits just be kind to the England team? Why can’t they wear the national team’s shirt on TV the way 2014 World Cup final matchwinner Mario Gotze has been doing in Germany? Why can’t they wear an Al Nassr top with Cristiano Ronaldo’s name on the back like someone in the press box did at the Portugal vs Czech Republic last week?
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Well, partly because this isn’t North Korea, but mostly because it’s not the role of pundits, media, journalists, presenters, commentators or co-commentators to cheer on England teams. Praise where it’s due, yes, but also critique where it’s necessary, as long as it is honest, fair, unspiteful and balanced. It’s not like it is in America, for example, where Alexi Lalas and Carli Lloyd have taken critical punditry to the nth degree with their analysis of the USMNT.
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‘Honesty’ is the key word. If Lineker, Alan Shearer and company had watched England labour to that draw against Denmark and had merely looked for positives, while countries across Europe were slating the performance and millions at home in the UK were sending WhatApps containing phrases including “headless chickens” and “it’s like watching a League One game” (these are just The Athletic staff’s ones, but insert your own), well, the BBC would rightly have been pilloried for being biased.
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And you’d actually be hard-pressed to find a stauncher supporter of the national team than Lineker.
If England win the final on July 14 in Berlin and Kane lifts the trophy while shouting, “F**k you, crisp man”, no one will be happier than Gary.
Kane is also blissfully ignoring the fact that he is likely to be in Lineker’s present position himself one day.
| Group C | MP | W | D | L | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
England | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Denmark | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Slovenia | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Serbia | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1 | 2 |
“Maybe when I’m 40 or 50, I’ll be on one of those shows trying to dig players out — I hope I’m not,” Kane said on Sunday.
It is absolutely inevitable, Harry.
The bloodline of England’s foremost striker turned TV personality (a word doing a lot of heavy lifting in a couple of cases here) goes Lineker, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Kane.
Come the 2038 World Cup, played at a yet-to-be-formed state in the Gulf (working title, FIFA Corp), Netflix pundit Kane will berate England’s Kai Rooney for not tracking back enough during a 1-1 draw against Turkmenistan in the third group stage of the newly-expanded 64-team tournament.
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It is folly for Kane to ignore his fate, despite his protestations.
Lineker, for his part, was not backing down on his criticisms in the latest edition of The Rest Is Football.
After some jibes at journalists for asking Kane about his comments in the first place, Lineker doubled down, saying: “Can you imagine if we had gone on and said they’d played well? We’d be lying! They didn’t play well and Harry knows they didn’t play well. We’ve always balanced it by saying they could do better, it’s never personal.”
In a way, it gives you a warm feeling inside to hear England’s players blaming the media for their sub-par performances. This is what it always used to be like, kids: that time, pre-Gareth Southgate and pre-2018, before England went on a charm offensive with the media, eradicating dividing lines and opening up the camp for chummy interviews and a focus on transparency and fun.
And perhaps that’s part of the issue here.
England have, due to their vastly improved performances and results at tournaments under Southgate compared to previously horrendous displays in the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016, had it pretty good with the media. They earned a glass-half-full mentality from broadcasters and the written press (Twitter doesn’t count). But with the strongest team/squad at England’s disposal for 20 years, they’ve been really poor in Germany so far, four points or not.
Their combined expected goals (xG) from two matches is 1.39. They’ve looked lethargic. We can all see what’s coming, probably in the quarter-finals.
So, take it on the chin, Harry. Cut the noise out (yes, this is still possible in 2024) or use Lineker as motivation, stick it on the dressing room wall show his clip on the big screen in the dressing room. Siege mentality. Great. The team clearly need something to get them going, so let this be it.
Sorry. What I mean is it’s coming home, England are amazing at everything and they’re going to win the Euros. Huzzah.
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(Top photo: Tom Dulat/Getty Images for Premier League)