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Steven Gerrard to consider England future with family over the summer Steven Gerrard to consider England future with family over the summer
(about 1 hour later)
England’s captain, Steven Gerrard, insists he needs time before making a decision over his international future. Steven Gerrard will spend the next few weeks deliberating over whether to retire from international football after the England manager, Roy Hodgson, asked him to remain as captain going into the qualification campaign for Euro 2016.
The Liverpool midfielder, 34, will mull over whether to announce his international retirement after Roy Hodgson’s side crashed out of the World Cup at the group stage. The Liverpool midfielder, who earned his 113th cap in last week’s defeat by Uruguay, will sit out Tuesday’s final group game against Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte, with Hodgson granting game time to those squad players who have not featured in the tournament.
He said: “There’s no truth that I’ll be making any announcement within a week. I think I need more time. Luke Shaw, Ross Barkley and Phil Jones will start, with Frank Lampard to captain the side as he makes his 106th and, most likely, last appearance for his country. The prospect remains of Gerrard, at 34, potentially adding to his haul in the autumn.“The manager has asked me to stay,” said the midfielder.
“I am still hurting very bad, I’m broken from what’s gone on over the last couple of weeks. I need to clear my head before I make that big decision.” “I need more time over the summer to consider my future and I won’t be rushing into a decision. I’m still hurting. I’m broken from what’s gone on over the last couple of weeks and I need to get away on holiday and clear my head before I make that decision. I’ve agreed to speak to the manager in a few weeks’ time. It is a big decision and I’ll make it in due course.
Asked if he had a hunch what his decision would be, Gerrard said: “Not at the moment, I need time. I’ve agreed with the manager I’m going to speak to him in a few weeks’ time.” “It’s a tough moment for myself. In my head I’ve got a mixture of emotions at the moment: frustration, pain. The season for Liverpool ended badly for me and the team. I was coming out of that trying to put that to bed, trying to get some positivity back with the World Cup.
Hodgson has received the backing from Football Association chairman, Greg Dyke. The manager said: “I am very pleased of course that Greg and the board have come out and backed me to continue. “The way things have gone since is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. But I’ve faced adversity before and played through it, stayed strong. I have to try and grieve, get away with the family and away from international football and then make a decision. It would be wrong for me to make that decision now. I need to get away for a while.” Gerrard will speak to his family and his agent, Struan Marshall, as well as to his club manager, Brendan Rodgers, before informing Hodgson of his intentions.
“We are midway through a term, there’s lot of work to be done, but I think we are on a good path. I am very pleased I am going to be the man leading [the team].” Liverpool’s qualification for next season’s Champions League will add significantly to the team’s fixture schedule and place greater demands on the captain as he juggles domestic and European matches with his potential duties with the national side.
He added: “It means a lot because the job means a lot to me. It’s a fantastic job, it’s a privilege to have it. I am very pleased to have had that backing. Scapegoats are always necessary in times of failure, one understands that. But one would like to think the work that you do is judged over a long period of time.” “It’s not a decision I will take lightly,” he said. “I will consider it long and hard, and speak to numerous people who will help guide me the right way. I’m the type of person who puts everyone before myself. I’ve done that all the way through, even before I became a footballer, and I need to make this decision for myself, for what’s best for me. I’ll do it in due course. I won’t keep people hanging for months and months. The first person who’ll know is Roy. I spoke to him this morning and said I’d need at least a few weeks to go over it in my head. And then I’ll speak to Roy again.”
Hodgson said it would be “absolutely the wrong time” to talk about his future after 2016. “I am recovering from a very bitter experience, a very raw experience,” he said. The veteran’s 14-year international career has taken in six major tournaments, the last three as captain, and his downbeat mood is a reflection of this team’s failure to emerge from Group D. Gerrard had flicked in and out of coverage of Costa Rica’s victory over Italy last Friday, when the Central American team condemned England to elimination, but had only ever clung to faint hopes of a reprieve.
England have one game to go, against Costa Rica, who are already through, on Tuesday, and Hodgson said he would make sure those players in the squad yet to feature would get some game time. “I shall be changing the team,” he said. “I never watched it all but was flicking to check the score,” he said. “I had a small, tiny glimmer of hope [that Italy might win and preserve England’s hopes] but that made the pain even worse when the game was gone. It was always a desperate position to be in.
Gerrard said England needed to “toughen up as a group” but claimed they did have talent at their disposal. “I think we have got world-class players here, I agree with the manager when he says there are potential world-class players here as well,” he said. “To me that’s not good enough – to be pinning your hopes on others – when you’ve got the talented players we’ve got in this squad. So the last couple of days have been grim.
“When you’re an England player, captain, fan and you’ve worked so hard to get into this position, for two years to get to a World Cup, and had that belief and confidence you’d get out the group … for it all to backfire over a few days, well, it’s a tough place to be in.
“I’m not going to shirk blame or responsibility, so I’ve got to take it on the chin for the next couple of weeks, months, however long. We have got another game coming up in Belo Horizonte and then, after a holiday but before you know it, I’ll be back at Liverpool and at the start of another qualifying campaign for England. You’ve got to get it out of your system as soon as possible.”