Shearer: Hodgson's future is uncertain

Alan Shearer believes there is a “big question mark” hanging over the future of England manager Roy Hodgson and feels young English players lack the necessary hunger to succeed at the highest level.

Shearer, who scored 30 goals in 63 appearances for the national team, was highly critical of Hodgson’s side after they bowed out of this summer’s World Cup in the group stages without a single victory.

England play a friendly against Norway on September 3 before opening up their European Championship qualifying campaign against Switzerland five days later.

“We were hopeless at the World Cup weren’t we? Nobody can argue with that,” said Match of the Day pundit Shearer, who was speaking at a celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the BBC programme.

“Nobody can say we were great can they? Roy can’t say we played good football or we were unlucky – we weren’t good enough.”

Shearer continued: “I was one of the few who stuck with Roy after the tournament and said he still should be in charge and I still say that now.

“But on the other hand when you do look at Costa Rica and other teams – who had more ability than us and were better organised than us – there has to be a big question mark.”

England have struggled to produce quality players in recent years while those talented youngsters to have shown early promise have failed to develop.

The likes of Jack Wilshere, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Jack Rodwell have so far failed to live up to expectations and Shearer believes there is a wider issue to be dealt with.

“We keep on throwing young names forward every two years to say ’these are the ones to look out for’ but not many keep coming through,” Shearer said.

“When I first started as a kid, I left home at 15 to go and do what I wanted to do.

“I went into a regime at Southampton where I had to clean the boots, where I had to clean the toilets and the dressing rooms.

“The only time I was allowed in the dressing room was to put the boots out for the first-team players.

“The hunger and desire it gave me to get into the first team – I would dearly love that apprenticeship to come back, I hated it at the time but it didn’t half give me a good grounding and teach me respect.

“Youngsters now get paid too much too soon and that has to have an effect.

“I got paid £27 a week when I was 17 – did I like it? No, but it did me the world of good.”

Shearer retired from football in 2006 and remains the Premier League’s leading goalscorer of all time with 260 goals in 441 games.

The prolific striker took over as manager at Newcastle for the remaining eight games of the 2008-09 season but was unable to save the Magpies from relegation.

Despite receiving offers to return to the dugout, Shearer insists he is happy to continue his role as a television pundit for the BBC.

“The longer you’re out the game the harder it is to get back in and that candle isn’t burning as much as it was when I finished playing so I don’t think I will go into management now,” Shearer said.

“It hasn’t been until the last three or four years that I’ve felt comfortable as a pundit on Match of the Day because if I’m honest I always felt I’d go back into management.

“I was reluctant to sit there and criticise too much so I probably wasn’t saying it as it was.”

Shearer added: “I love what I’m doing, I love analysing the game and working on such a great programme with great people.

“I was really disappointed with what happened at the end with Newcastle.

“I looked at maybe going back into coaching a year or two after that but I realised this was going to be my future.”

— Match of the Day at 50 will air on BBC1 at 10.35pm on Friday, August 22.