Wayne Rooney disappointed with Gareth Southgate after bizarre England selection for EURO 2024

Wayne Rooney has explained his disappointment with the way that Gareth Southgate has selected his England squad for the 2024 European Championships.

Wayne Rooney had a significant and impactful career with the England national football team. He made his debut in 2003 at the age of 17, becoming their youngest ever player at that time. He played in several major tournaments, including three World Cups and three European Championships.

Rooney‘s performance in Euro 2004 was particularly brilliant, where he scored four goals and was named in the Team of the Tournament.

Read More: “Deserve better…” Manchester United legend gives surprise reaction to Erik ten Hag staying at Old Trafford

Despite his impressive individual performances, his international career was marked by England’s inability to progress beyond the quarter-final stage across major tournaments.

In 2015, Rooney became England’s all-time leading goal scorer, surpassing Bobby Charlton’s long-standing record, something he later replicated at Manchester United, too. Rooney only played a handful of times under current England boss Gareth Southgate before retiring from international duty.

Southgate, when picking his squad for the 2024 European Championships, decided to call up an initial 33-man squad before trimming his team down to the manditory 26 players for the tournament, announcing the list last Thursday.

England then played a frineldy fixture on Friday evening, and Rooney has criticised the rather bizarre choice Southgate made to keep some of the players who had not been selected for the tournament in the squad for the loss against Iceland, using Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah as an example.

“I think Gareth should have sent them all home [after telling them they won’t be picked],” Rooney said on The Overlap.

“He kept Quansah there, and I watched him after the game; I was on the side of the pitch doing TV, and I watched every player walk around the pitch after the game. As soon as the final whistle went, Quansah goes in.

“Straight away you have a split. He has probably seen nobody got injured, and I felt for him, as he was probably in having a shower and leaving and he was the only one there.

“I think Gareth should have said go home, if there is an injury be ready, and give them that 24 or 48 hours, if anyone gets injured I’ll call you, otherwise go on your holidays.”

England will face Serbia on Sunday for their first fixture of the tournament before going up against Denmark four days later. They will round off the group stage with a tie against Slovenia. In order to progress to the knockout stages, they will have to finish in the top two of their group.

Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is released every Thursday at 6 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.