GARY LINEKER BELIEVES England can be a contender for glory at the Qatar World Cup and can win a major tournament in the next decade.
Gareth Southgate’s side suffered a loss of form during the last Nations League campaign, denting some of the optimism created by a run to the final of Euro 2020, but Lineker said that would count for nothing come kick off in their opening fixture against Iran a week on Monday.
“England could go all the way,” Lineker told the PA news agency. “They’ve got the players. You need things to go your way and your best players to find their form and steer clear of injuries. It’s knockout football and you’ll end up playing a great team.
We’re now producing seriously good young footballers. Yes there was a dip in form in the last few games but that doesn’t really count…I’d take previous form with a pinch of salt. They’ve got a lot of good players and if they turn it on they can win it… We’re certainly one of the sides in contention. Not the out-and-out favourites but it’s hard to say if there is one.”
Lineker was excited by the 26-man squad named by Southgate on Thursday – particularly the inclusion of Leicester’s James Maddison – but felt AC Milan defender Fikayo Tomori was unlucky to miss out, suggesting England were light in central defence.
With Roma’s Tammy Abraham also overlooked, Lineker questioned whether playing overseas had counted against them.
“I’m only surmising but with players in the Premier League we see them all the time, we talk about them all the time,” the former Barcelona striker said. “Even if only subconsciously (playing abroad) might make a tiny difference which is a shame because it’s really great for players to play abroad, adapt to a different lifestyle and a different style of football.”
The 61-year-old has been reflecting on his own experiences in recent weeks while recording a new podcast, ‘How To Win A World Cup’, with former Spain and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas – a World Cup winner in 2010.
“It’s about his experience of winning it and my experience of not having won it,” joked Lineker, whose dreams were ended by Diego Maradona’s quarter-final ‘Hand of God’ goal in 1986 and a semi-final penalty shoot-out loss to Germany in 1990.
“It brought back so many memories and so many stories from behind the scenes,” Lineker said of recording the 14-episode series. “The two World Cups I played in were personally very successful and fairly successful as a team – we didn’t win it but we did ourselves proud.
“(In the podcast) we got into a lot of stories from the inner sanctum of the dressing room and team meetings.
“There was definitely a lot of emotion around the ‘Hand of God’ goal – the rage at the end from most of the guys in the dressing room, then to the dejection of losing a shoot-out four years later.
“I think the Germany game is the one thing looking back in my career where I think, ‘If only’. I know Bobby Robson felt the same, I did a documentary with him shortly before he passed away.
“There were other things like I could have beaten Bobby Charlton’s scoring record but this was different. If you win the World Cup that’s footballing immortality and we were so close to doing that.”
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Somewhere Phil Kearns is having an absolute meltdown about the unfairness of it all…
Great to see Jaguares win, hope they can follow up next week.
Argentina are 50-1 for the world cup! Insane odds given how well the Jaguares are going. Plus they always underperform in the Rugby Championship cos of the distances they have to travel. Given Ireland are 5-1, this seems pretty long for the Argies.
@Farzad Saadat: Pool C will see a big faller at the 1st. France, England and Argentina will be interesting. You’d think France could be the one to miss out but they’ve been ruthless with their squad selection, brought in O’Gara and you only have to look at 2011 when they had no chance and made the final. England could find themselves in a similar fate to 2015, after a great start under Jones they had an awful run of loses. Argentina always peak at world cup time. Exciting!
@RabidHorizon: Did they bring in O’Gara in the end? I thought that was all just rumours in the end
@Eddie Hekenui: No they didn’t in the end
@Ciaran Twomey: Cheers. Thought I might’ve missed the news he’d taken a role with them.
@Farzad Saadat: Madness considering they have knocked us out of 3 of the last 5 RWCs.
@RabidHorizon: they didn’t bring in O’Gara
@RabidHorizon: France brought in much better coaches than O’Gara, they should get a real boost – Labit and Galthié – they picked the right squad, too. I think England could be the team to miss out..
Brumbies should never have made it to a semi. Awful team but get lucky because of how weak their conference is.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL:
Aussie Rugby is in a bad place right now.
Unreal for the sport!! Makes the competition a whole lot more competitive! Will be interesting to see how far Argentina go at the WC.
@Aaron Tynan: Further than us, I fear.
@Bluepoolroad: draw kinder to them I think than Ireland – SA or NZ is a tough 1/4
The second semi just finished. Cracking game. 30-26 crusaders.
That jaguares kit is lovely
@Eoin Murphy: i wonder where one could buy it?
@Tony Stack: https://www.elverys.ie/elverys/en/search?text=jaguares
Great. When Argentina played in the November series against Ireland. Which i went too. It was the Jaguares team.
Jags play flat and pass wonderfully, it’s great to watch. The crowd was brilliant too.
I think the Crusaders will have too much for them at home, but I’d love to see the Jags win it.
Where’s the final taking place?
@Bluepoolroad: crusaders ground
@Bluepoolroad: Crusaders home stadium in Christchurch, super rugby needs to start playing them in neutral venues, even if it’s in the higher ranked clubs home country. Home stadium advantage is a bit much for a final.
@Con Al: The problem is distances. Say Cape Town was this year’s venue, how many Jaguares and Crusaders supporters are going to make it at a weeks notice? Stadium would be near empty. At least in the current system, one set of supporters see the final and home advantage is based on merit earned during the season. Not perfect, but understandable system