Roy Keane: England players get away with murder

Roy Keane has launched a scathing attack on England’s World Cup flops and backed Fabio Capello to stay on as manager.

Controversial Keane named names as the England squad returned home this morning with coach Capello an even money bet to be replaced by the time of the August international with Hungary.

While other pundits have lumped the blame collectively on the players the Ipswich boss went in to detail signalling out John Terry, Gareth Barry and Emile Heskey for individual criticism.

Running through the England squad Keane said: “They have to take a long hard look at themselves. They get away with murder.

“John Terry? He had his issues and I don’t think he had a great season. Chelsea may have won the Premiership and FA Cup double but that was more down to some world class attacking players.

“Look at the goalkeepers. David James was relegated with Portsmouth and Robert Green just about stayed up with West Ham. Glen Johnson did okay at Liverpool but they had a poor enough season.

“Matthew Upson didn’t have a great season at West Ham and Ashley Cole, to be fair to the boy, has just come back from injury.

“James Milner had a good season but Gareth Barry was very average for Manchester City. Emile Heskey started the World Cup up front but he only scored three Premiership goals for Aston Villa.”

The immediate blame for England’s campaign will be directed at Capello with his £6m-a-year salary under constant criticism.

Capello’s faltering performance at yesterday’s final media conference in South Africa re-enforced the view that he is unable to communicate effectively with his players.

A month in the spotlight has portrayed Capello in a very different light to the distant Italian godfather that guided England to the finals but Keane believes that the former Real Madrid boss should stay on as England chief.

Keane added: “To keep criticising and questioning the manager is crazy. ‘He didn’t do anything wrong in the qualifying campaign and now, all of a sudden, he’s not the top man any more.

“They should just leave him to get on with the job. He is absolutely brilliant and England are lucky to have him.

“I wasn’t really surprised by the Germany defeat. I keep saying it- good players don’t necessarily make good teams.

“People keep talking about world class players but who are they? There’s probably only Wayne Rooney, who had a brilliant season. And even though he still hasn’t done it on the world stage he has the best chance

“The goals they conceded against Germany, particularly the first couple, had nothing to do with Capello’s choice of system or tactics. It wasn’t a case of getting overrun in midfield. It was just very bad defending.”

Keane has his own problems to deal with at Ipswich after finishing in 15^th place in last season’s Championship.

Celtic’s Stephen McManus is believed to be amongst Keane’s transfer targets but as Ipswich prepare for pre-season training to resume Keane was downbeat about new faces arriving at the club.

He said: “There’s been very little progress in terms of any new signings. I spoke to two players that were keen to come here, but we couldn’t do the deals.

“It’s my job to identify the players and to speak to them, but I then take a back-seat. It’s frustrating and disappointing, but there’s no anger.”

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