23 June 2024 , 21:30
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Harry Kane admits that even he has found it impossible to block out the outside noise.
TV presenter Gary Lineker went viral with his “s***” comment after England’s disappointing draw with Denmark. But there is a whole queue of ex-England players offering their opinions from Alan Shearer to David Seaman, Chris Waddle and Teddy Sheringham.
Then there is another raft of former players who were not good enough to play for England offering their view on radio, TV, podcasts, social media and sponsored betting columns. This tournament has seen the volume turned up and it became deafening after Denmark and, while many make great points, they would have hated it back in their own playing days.
It has ramped up the pressure ahead of England’s final group game with Slovenia on Tuesday and Kane has hit back with a clear message to urge the fans and pundits alike to trust them to get it right. England captain Kane said: “We live in a world now where you look at your phone and everything pops up. It's hard to switch off from everything.
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“People are going to have their opinions – I’m not saying to not talk about it or for the pundits to say ‘this could be better, that could be better’. That’s part of being a fan, all I would say is trust is. As players we’ve been here before and done it a lot of us, trust us as much as possible, get behind us and help us achieve what we want to achieve and that’s to be successful.
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“With podcasts and things like that people are trying to promote their own channels and sometimes the headline, because you want the most views, isn’t always what people want to see. People will do things for their own gain, that’s just life but first and foremost we try to ignore.
“But we should try to back the English players as much as possible because we are doing all we can to make everyone proud, the fans and pundits proud. I know they would love nothing more if we are all celebrating after the Euros.”
Kane is used to the criticism and says none of the young players have actually mentioned it to him but there is a clear undercurrent that the older players do think it has become too much. Bayern Munich star Kane was even asked whether he would reach out to any of England’s big-name critics to tell them to button it.
(The FA via Getty Images)
“It depends on the situation I guess, I don’t think there’s a need for it at the moment,” said Kane. “Its a tricky one, I’m sure they would love to have my opinion but when you are a player you are more focused on the team and more focused on the environment.
“I’m not telling people not to do their job, it's their job to analyse game and players. There will be games where I get stick or other players will get stick.”
Kane is still convinced England will come good in the Euros, insisting they made a slow start the last time and they can draw on that experience - they beat Croatia and then drew with Scotland - to ensure they do not panic this time. England started with a win against Serbia, drew against Denmark but will go through as winners if they beat Slovenia on Tuesday night.
Kane said: “We absolutely believe we can win it. It’s always a hard one, you can win the first two games, 3-0, 3-0, and get carried away – everyone is saying you are going to win it and then you come up against some adversity in the first knockout game and you’re out.
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Kane played darts with representatives from the media on Sunday (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
“I don’t think it is a bad thing to go through a bit of a tough time to begin with, it widens the focus and makes you realise you can be a bad game away from being out of the tournament. We’ve coped with that well in past tournaments, it’s always a different journey for different teams.
"Whether we are classed as favourites or not we’ve always had belief we can win it and it’s down to us to go out there and try and achieve that. We can be honest with ourselves that we haven't played the way we want.
"But it’s not a time to panic and feel like we need to change everything that we’ve built over all these years. You find what needs improving and then try to implement it in the next game plan.”