World Cup 2014, Brazil.

Correct...who's the 1 other. Clue: He stills plays in the EPL

 

Oh my god it's Wes Brown isn't it.

 

Gareth Barry?

 

You literally just named a time when he scored on a big occasion for England.

 

Against Croatia and Switzerland in the group stage in Euro 2004? That's a big occasion?

 

It is. Scary eh?

 

How has Wes Brown played for England this decade? Christ.

 

No, of course not, it's a tiny tournament. Especially when you're 18 years old and you've already done so much in your career. The World Cup is literally the only big stage.

 

Even if you do count those as big games, which I don't, he hasn't done it for ten years. You can say what you like about how good a player he is, and I wouldn't disagree, but the fact is there are still legitimate questions about his performances for England. Even when he has scored goals he hasn't necessarily played well for the team.

 

In those ten years there have been two World Cups and he was injured in one of them. In those ten years he has risen to be England's fifth top scorer of all time. And if you don't count group stages as big games, then that's the first three games of our World Cup he'll be fine for, even by your logic. Unless conveniently all World Cup games qualify as big but not all Euro games.

 

Course it is. European Championships is a big tournament. Especially for a teenager.

 

In those ten years there have been five international tournaments (not counting the one about to start), and he was present at all of them (excluding the one we didn't qualify for). I don't count group games against second-tier opposition as particularly big in the grand scheme of things no, but I've already addressed that point anyway.

 

Just my view, but once you get to a tournament where you have a minimum of three games and a maximum of seven, every single game is big.

 

This is a tangent which I don't think it would be productive to continue with. My substantive point is that Rooney has a lot to prove in international tournaments. That is inarguable, you would think.

 

For a player that is deemed as being potentially world class, I would agree that he does need to really make an impact at a major tournament. Qualification games are big but its the actual tournament proper that players are remembered for. Gazza in 1990, Shearer 1996, Owen 1998 to name a few.

 

When you're listing Croatia and Switzerland in the top three of quality opponents he's scored against I think you're arguing against your own case.

 

How often do England get to play against teams bigger than that? They're of a similar quality to England at least.

 

Hey, I just gave him the numbers. I saw Heskey with 1 and thought it was worth dropping in there as a joke.

 

How often do England get to play top class opposition?

 

They would more often if they weren't invariably knocked out by the first one they come up against.