Gary Lineker

The longevity of football is much greater now.

You know, obviously through diet and the way players look after themselves, you know, the drinking culture that was around when we were playing.

Well, I think that's a fair criticism of Gareth, but at the same time, I think it's very important...

To look where England were when he took over the job.

We were in a mess.

Real mess.

Not doing very well.

He took over from Roy Hodgson.

That's right.

We'd had a nightmare.

We'd lost to Iceland in the European Championship.

We didn't get through the group stage in the previous World Cup.

I know.

And a lot of geezers.

Well, yeah, it was an embarrassment.

So he took over at a point where we're probably an all-time low or one of the all-time lows.

And everyone was against the England players and they were getting a terrible time and he transformed that.

I understand the criticism, and I said it myself on occasions, that he is cautious, but he was a defender himself.

And his argument would be that most teams that win tournaments play that way.

And you could say that's true, although Spain showed that that very much wasn't the case in that year.