Wayne Rooney to wear No 10 shirt as Fabian Delph handed England captaincy
Wayne Rooney will wear the number 10 shirt after all when he comes on a substitute for his 120th and final England appearance following a surprise U-turn by manager Gareth Southgate and an appeal by Harry Kane.
The 33-year-old will also be handed the captain’s armband by Fabian Delph, who will lead a young England side from the start of the friendly against the United States. “As soon as he (Rooney) comes on I will be giving him that armband back,” Delph said.
Rooney will be afforded a ‘guard of honour’ from the players, and his four children, prior to kick-off with a special presentation being made by Football Association chairman Greg Clarke.
Brighton defender Lewis Dunk and Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson will be handed their debuts from the start with Southgate hoping to field a different team from the one he has pencilled in for the Nations League fixture at home to Croatia on Sunday. Kane, for example, will be rested.
Jack Butland is expected to start in goal against the US and be replaced at some stage by Southampton’s Alex McCarthy who will also be making his first England appearance. Jadon Sancho is also expected to make his first start. “He's a player who is really adapting brilliantly to a new league, living in a new country. Hugely exciting talent,” Southgate said of the 18-year-old winger. “He should have a lot of confidence working with us and going into the game.”
The three debutants will be given their shirts by Rooney in the dressing room prior to kick-off with the former captain also being asked by Southgate to make a speech to the players. The squad has been shown key messages and landmarks of Rooney’s achievements in an England shirt – from his debut to his first goal and his 50th goal – during this week’s get-together.
It comes as Southgate hailed England’s record-goalscorer as the greatest striker he has ever played with – ahead of the likes of Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham and Ian Wright. In fact the former England defender said that Rooney ranked alongside Paul Gascoigne and Paul Scholes as the three best England players during his career.
“There have been brilliant players I played with across 10 years. It doesn't seem right to leave the Lampards, the Beckhams, the Sheringhams and the Shearers out of the list,” Southgate said. “But for me Gascoigne, Scholes and Rooney were just able to do that little bit more than all of the others, incredible players across that period, they were almost three different moments. I played with Wayne at the beginning for him really, so for him to go on and overtake Sir Bobby Charlton’s (scoring) record and Gary Lineker’s record is incredible.”
Nevertheless Southgate said he has been dismayed by the reaction to Rooney’s remarkable inclusion, two years after he last played for England. “I think that has been clear this week, it has been disappointing to see him almost have to defend his inclusion in the game but that is where we are,” he said.
“The more important thing is that within the England group we value what he has done, when you are in the dressing room and share the dressing room with someone you know.”
That has extended to a change of mind as to the shirt number Rooney will wear with England making the highly unusual departure for them – outside of tournaments when squad numbers are allocated - of allowing a substitute to wear the number 10 shirt. England normally line up 1-11 but, on this occasion, one of the starting players will wearing a higher number shirt – something Southgate and the FA said would not happen when asked about it last week. Rooney made most of his England appearances as number 10.
“He will come on with a number 10. There won't be a number 10 to start. I don't think that would be allowed,” Southgate said. “One of the starters will wear 12-23, and Wayne will wear number 10. The senior players discussed it. Harry came to see me and said: 'Look, we don't think it would be right for him to come on wearing a shirt he hasn't worn.'
“All of our group have huge respect for Wayne and they feel that it is fitting his last game should be his number 10 and when he puts that shirt on his wall somewhere at the end of his career, it is going to be a special night and the 10 is the number he has there.”
Southgate added: “Part of the game is to pay tribute to what he's done. Players always look at how they would like to be treated in that situation. I know last week we said it would be unlikely because he'd be on the bench, but sometimes when you have discussions and are able to think through what we stand for as a group and how we're trying to work, those moments it's good for the players to have an opinion. They're the ones who are playing. And there's no rulebook. Who decides? What did strike a chord with me was one of the comments was: 'We've talked about doing things our own way. We can do things our own way’.”
Interestingly Southgate suggested that Rooney was reluctant to take a penalty should one be awarded when he is on the pitch. “We don't think Wayne is particularly keen to take one,” he said which is, possibly, a sign of Rooney not wanting to be accused of trying to grab the headlines unnecessarily. There will be enough headlines already.
