Rooney says England ‘worked hard’ but fell short

Former England captain Wayne Rooney disagreed with former team-mate Steven Gerrard in his comments this week that his era of players were “arrogant losers”.

Gerrard said of the so-called “golden generation” of the 2000s She was hampered by vanity He refused to deal with players from competing clubs.

But Rooney, whose 53 goals in 120 England caps were at Manchester United, said he had “no problems” with the other players and believed the team still worked hard for each other but were unable to “get over the line” at major tournaments.

“We didn’t win anything. I won’t put it that way, but I know what (Gerrard) is saying, because there were a lot of big personalities in the dressing room and in the team,” he said on his BBC show The Wayne Rooney Show.

“When you look at the players we had, could we have done better, I think we could have done it but it wasn’t the case.

“No, I wouldn’t say better behavior because I think it’s disrespectful to us as players.

“We worked hard, we tried, and we couldn’t quite do it.

“It was difficult to have that relationship with the Liverpool and Manchester United players. I think it’s easier now. I was talking to Steven all the time when we were playing and obviously both are strikers.

“I didn’t see that or feel that. I got along fine with everyone, got along with everyone and had no problems.

“I knew that Becks, Gary Neville and Scholes, you could see they weren’t going to be really close to the Liverpool players.

“But I think one thing is for sure that everyone is going to work hard for each other and try for each other and compete for each other. So I don’t think that’s the problem.

“We couldn’t get over the line, but I didn’t see that. I didn’t see that at all.”