Roy Hodgson has admitted that Wayne Rooney may not be an automatic starter for England at this summer’s European Championships, but I would go the extra yard and not take him at all.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane and Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy have been on fire this season and occupy first and second position in the English Premier League’s [EPL] top scorers’ chart with 21 and 19 goals respectively.
With that in mind, it would be impossible to look beyond those two as your guaranteed starters, that’s providing England even play two up front.
Then, based on the assumption that each squad of 23 will take four strikers, I would find argument to fill the remaining two slots with one of either Sunderland’s Jermaine Defoe, Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge, and Arsenal’s Danny Welbeck - or even Theo Walcott - ahead of Rooney.
Defoe is the third highest scoring Englishman this season – sixth in the overall table - with 12 goals for the struggling Black Cats. Then you have Watford’s Troy Deeney on nine goals, followed by Everton and Spurs midfielders Ross Barkley on eight goals and Dele Alli, who is level with Manchester United’s Rooney, on seven.
Sturridge and Walcott both have four, while Welbeck has three. Now all three of these players, like Rooney, have struggled with injury this season, but they are on the return and arguably have more potential, and are younger and fitter than 30-year-old Rooney.
I can see why Hodgson might take Rooney as a back-up striker based on his experience to bring off the bench in an emergency, but beyond that he’s just a cheerleader that could be done without.
A young and buoyant squad will raise their own morale, so if the main reason to take Rooney is for his presence in the dressing room, then get him an accreditation as a coach.
Rooney fans will point to the fact that he’s England’s all-time highest scorer with 51 goals in 109 appearances, but let’s not get sentimental.
It’s about what he can do in the here and now, and even with the past in mind, he’s racked up most of his goals from penalties in friendlies and qualifiers against smaller nations, and has never - never - proven himself at the highest level, either internationally or the latter stages of the Champions League.
His performance in the 2009 Champions League semi-final win over Arsenal may be an exception, but even that was in a game against another English side whom he knows inside out.
Otherwise, despite all his promise as a 16-year-old at Everton, Rooney has failed to fulfil his potential. Far from being world class, he’s an overrated, injury-prone, hot-headed liability, who remains frustratingly anonymous in big games.
