Steven Gerrard and Roy Hodgson have reacted furiously to assertions from Harry Redknapp that players at Tottenham would ask him to withdraw them from senior England duty while he was in charge at White Hart Lane because they did not "need the aggro".
The England manager and his captain urged Redknapp to identify the players to whom he was referring and “embarrass” them in public. Gerrard, who will be rested and replaced as captain by Frank Lampard for tomorrow’s last group game against Costa Rica, has been asked to stay on as skipper by Hodgson going into the qualification campaign for Euro 2016.
Recalled incidents
The Queens Park Rangers manager, who had been a contender to succeed Fabio Capello before the English Football Association chose Hodgson, had recalled incidents at Spurs.
“When full internationals came around, there were two or three players who did not want to play for England,” he told BBC 5 Live. “They say: ‘Gaffer, get me out of that game, I don’t want to play.’ I’d say: ‘You’re playing for your country, you should want to play.’ [They would say]: ‘Nah, my girlfriend is having a baby in four weeks, I don’t want to play’, and that is the truth, so it makes you wonder. You see the stick the England players get, they’re earning fantastic money, they’re all playing in the Champions League. They think: ‘Do we need the aggro?”’
There were 12 England players who worked under Redknapp at Spurs – Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Aaron Lennon, Darren Bent, Scott Parker, David Bentley, Jermaine Jenas, Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone, Jonathan Woodgate, Ledley King and Kyle Walker – though the QPR manager’s reluctance to identify those to whom he was referring riled Gerrard.
"I tell you what, I'd be interested to find out who those players are," he said. "If Harry is making a comment like that, he should name them and embarrass them. Hand on heart, no one in this group wants to go home. If [what Redknapp says is] the case, it's disgusting. For me, if a player doesn't want to be here, he doesn't deserve to be at a World Cup.
“Harry Redknapp is a fantastic coach and a big character in the game, so for him to make a comment like that’s a big question in this room, but we need names or we can’t agree or disagree.”
Hodgson also said Redknapp should name the players involved: “If you are going to make global comments like that, it’s a bit dangerous. You have to be prepared to say: ‘This player came to me and said . . . ’ I could imagine ‘a player’ with an educated guess, but I don’t think I could name many Tottenham players, and certainly [not] among the ones I’ve worked with [to whom Redknapp’s words might apply].” Guardian Service
