Don't tear us down, captain Kane urges critical Lineker

As Harry Kane was talking about the pressures involved in wearing one shirt, he was offered another.

- RICHARD JOLLY

Playing for England brings pressure, responsibility and criticism. The escape route was offered by an enterprising reporter from local German television, inviting Kane to play for seventh-tier SG

Lauscha/Neuhaus. The offer included free bratwurst, he said, sufficiently confident to bring a shirt with the striker’s name on it while brandishing a contract. “I’ll have to talk to my agent and see what we can do,” smiled Kane.

The harsher words were reserved for the only other Englishman to win the Golden Boot in the World Cup. Gary Lineker had branded England’s performance against Denmark “shit” on a podcast. “The bottom line is we haven’t won anything as a nation for a long, long time and a lot of these players were part of that and they know how tough it is,” countered Kane. “All I would say is remember what it is like to wear the shirt and that their words are listened to. I am sure they want us to win a major tournament and being as helpful as they can and building the lads up with confidence would be a much better way of going about it. I’m not telling people not to do their job, it’s their job to analyse games and players. There will be games where I get stick or other players will get stick. Maybe when I’m 40 or 50, I’ll be on one of those shows trying to dig players out – I hope I’m not.”