‘You’re asking a lot – Rashford’s got to live his life’
Frank Lampard has defended Marcus Rashford and the other young players in the England squad following recent partying controversies.
The former Chelsea midfielder is one of the greatest players England has ever produced. Over a career spanning two decades, Lampard won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and the Champions League.
He sits fourth on the all-time Premier League appearances list (609), sixth on the all-time Premier League goalscorers list (177, a record for a midfielder in the competition) and holds the record for most Premier League goals from outside the box.
Along with being a Premier League legend, Lampard has been one of the national team’s greatest servants as well.
After making his senior England debut in 1999, the midfielder went on to earn 106 caps for the Three Lions – the same number as Bobby Charlton – scoring 29 goals in the process and appearing at three World Cups.
Lampard recently sat down with JOE’s very own Oli Dugmore for the first episode of season two of Unfiltered to discuss his life and glittering career.
During a wide-ranging interview, discussion turned to the Three Lions and Lampard’s international career.
Lad culture, WAGs and the 2006 World Cup
His penultimate major tournament for national side came at the 2006 World Cup, the last chance for England’s ‘golden generation’ to win a major tournament.
At the same time, the mid-noughties was the peak of so-called ‘lad culture’ in the UK – partying, drinking, the WAGs.
Compared to Southgate’s England side today, it feels worlds apart. Lampard opened up about how he thought ‘lad culture’ influenced the England sides he was a part of and whether things are that much different nowadays.
“I don’t think too much has changed,” he said. “They have tried to change the perception of it [the team] and they’ve done a good job in doing that.
“But you’re right, the environment was different. The WAG thing was certainly a bad distraction that could have been dealt with better, looking back.
“The media just lapped it up didn’t they, and it took away from a group that were trying to prepare for a tournament – it just became a distraction.
“In terms of the ‘lad culture’, I think if you broke down the England side of the 26 players, there’s still gonna be a couple who like a few more beers than the others, some who go to nightclubs a bit more than the others, and it would have been like that with us.
“As much as we have social media now, the News of the World would love to create this thing of ‘oh there’s this going on.’ That wasn’t always the case. We were all good lads trying to do well for our country.”
It’s ‘asking a lot’ for Rashford not to ‘live his life’
But he had sympathy for the current crop of England players and highlighted the recent stories in the media surrounding Marcus Rashford’s night out in Belfast. Lampard said it was “asking a lot” for players not to go out and enjoy themselves, because someone like Rashford still wants to “live his life.”
“A few things have changed, because the lads probably can’t go out now, if they do they get photoed – we saw the Rashford stuff recently – then they probably should be more careful.
“But you’re asking a lot – young lad’s got to live his life. But maybe they are more careful nowadays and live their lives a bit differently.”
Lampard was full of praise for Southgate though in how he has changed the culture of the England side.
Mentioning the England manager, he said: “The bigger thing for me is the job he’s done in changing the feel, changing the feel from the outside.
“He’s very good with the media, he’s very very good with the players – it looks like the club feel that we were striving for back in our day.
“It looks like they’re very happy to be there, performances look good off the back of it and that’s probably what gives us our high hopes for this summer.”
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