Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville debate their 'Golden Generation' England team and make some controversial choices

Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville have been debating about their ‘Golden Generation’ England teams.

During their careers, both Rooney and Neville played in what was labelled as England’s Golden Generation, alongside the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole.

However, the team full of big Premier League stars failed to impress in major tournaments, with quarter-finals being their best result.

Speaking in the latest episode of The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet, Rooney claimed that no defenders from the current England squad would get into the Golden Generation side.

He said: “For me, none of the defenders would [get into the Golden Generation team].

“If you look back, you had Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Sol Campbell, Ledley King, [Jamie] Carragher, Gaz [Gary Neville], Ashley Cole.”

The former United and Everton striker also selected the likes of Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane and Phil Foden.

Rooney added: “In the attacking areas that’s where a few would get in. Harry Kane 100% would be in, [Phil] Foden would be in, [Jude] Bellingham – for me, Harry Kane’s England’s best-ever player.”

Getty

Neville then said that Declan Rice would get into the midfield ahead of Paul Scholes. He explained: “Our problem position was actually [the] left side – that’s where Paul Scholes ended up, so there’s no doubt that one of the [current England] players would end up on our left side.

“The balance of our midfield obviously with [Frank] Lampard and [Steven] Gerrard, you’d have to think that Declan Rice would come into that – I mean Lampard and Gerrard are amazing players.”

Neville continued: “Michael Owen was a great player, but Harry Kane would start up top with [Wayne Rooney] – with respect.

“You could definitely put Kyle [Walker] at right back in front of me and legitimately say that he would be better than me there.”

Getty

The pair agreed that Jordan Pickford has done well for England, with Neville claiming he gets into the Golden Generation team ahead of David James and Paul Robinson.

Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney were speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet.

SPORTbible are on WhatsApp! We've launched a dedicated transfer news channel to send you the latest deals, rumours and more directly on WhatsApp and all you need to do to sign up is click through to our one-way broadcast channel here for 'SPORTbible News' to appear in the 'Updates' tab on your WhatsApp.