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11th October 2025
01:47pm BST
Wayne Rooney has responded to Steven Gerrard's claim that the England Golden Generation were 'egotistical losers', who blamed a lack of team togetherness as the reason the Three Lions didn't win anything.
In the period between the early Noughties and the early 2010s, The Three Lions had a sensational squad on paper, however never competed for the major trophies like anticipated.
Rooney has since rushed to the defence of the team on the Wayne Rooney Show, stating that they did deserve credit for working hard and brandishing the comments as 'disrespectful':
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"Obviously we didn't win anything", said Rooney, "I wouldn't quite put it that (Gerrard's) way, but I know what he's saying. There was a lot of big characters in the dressing room. I wouldn't say (England squads now have) a better attitude. That's disrespectful to us as players, because we worked hard."
"Even when you look back with the players we had could we have done better? We could have but it wasn't to be."
The United and England icon then went on to say it was difficult to form productive relationships between the players of the Red Devils and Liverpool at the time, in a period where the rivalry was especially bitter.
Rooney also agreed with Gerrard's point that it's easier to have positive relationships off the pitch following retirement:
"I speak to Steven all the time,” Rooney said. “You can have better relationships now because you can have a beer together and relax more.
"I was fine with everyone, I got on with everyone. I was aware Becks [David Beckham] and Gary Neville and Scholesy [Paul Scholes], you could see they weren't going to be close to the Liverpool players.
"But one thing for sure is everyone worked hard for each other. I don't think that was an issue. We just didn't manage to get over the line. I didn't see that at all."
