Wayne Rooney’s reign as England captain is coming to an end after Gareth Southgate indicated the role of permanent skipper will be phased out.
The manager has not selected Rooney for next week’s games against Germany and Lithuania because of fitness concerns.
And Southgate raised further questions over Rooney’s England future by saying: ‘I guess there’s almost a figurehead position and then I have to make a decision about who’s captain for every game based on who’s playing.
‘We have this thing about an England captain but really the captain is the person who is captain in the next game.
‘I always just assume you pick a team for a game and the captain of that game is the captain. It’s probably something we have to think about.
‘The bloke who pulls the armband on for match day is important, but at Euro 96 it was just as important what Stuart Pearce, Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham and Paul Ince were doing as Tony Adams.
‘In fact, David Platt was captain at the start. Tony took over during the tournament.’
Southgate admitted Rooney, who is expected to be available for Manchester United’s Premier League match at Middlesbrough on Sunday, was unhappy about being left out of the England squad and he will be attend a team meeting at St George’s Park on Monday when the England boss will outline his vision.
Southgate said: ‘I don’t think he expects, if he is not playing every week for his club, to be picked in this sort of situation
We are going to have a meeting with all of the players about what we feel the next 18 months will look like. He will be part of that.’
The England manager had a heated telephone conversation with Arsenal’s Theo Walcott on Thursday after axing him from the squad. Walcott, 28 this week, has scored 17 goals this season and was understandably angered at being dropped.
‘He wasn’t chuffed to bits to get the call and I understand that,’ said Southgate. ‘I don’t expect him to be pleased. He argued his case. Quite rightly, he said, “I’m one of the leading goalscorers in the league”.
Source:Dailymailsport
