It would be a national disgrace for young England stars to drop out of the Under-21 European Championships this summer according to England goalscoring hero Gary Lineker, reported by BBC Sport.
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The under-21 side recently recorded an impressive 3-2 win against Germany, renowned for having a fantastic youth set-up, without the likes of Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling due to their senior commitments.
Former Leicester and Everton striker Lineker took to Twitter to give his views saying, “If clubs try to pull their players out it would be a national disgrace.
“England beat Germany. Add a few from the seniors and they could win Euros.”
In-form Tottenham striker Harry Kane made his senior England bow over the weekend, scoring his first goal only 80 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
England manager Roy Hodgson has said he will start Kane against Italy, though has told England U21s manager Gareth Southgate that he should go to Tottenham’s 29 goal man youth tournament.
Southgate said, “Roy and I know that the seniors are in a good group position and he feels that the experience of going to the Czech Republic in the summer will be more beneficial to Harry than the two games the senior team have got.”
“That is absolutely the case regardless of his displays between now and then.
“We still feel we can give the players the best possible preparation to go into the seniors and achieve success if they have got the experience of the European Under-21 Championship behind them. That is still the case with Harry.”
On the other hand, Southgate seems resigned to being without flying Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling, “Realistically, Raheem has become a very important player for the senior team and for Liverpool.
“I’m not convinced another tournament in the summer would be right for him.”
Everton manager Roberto Martinez also recently stated that their prodigy Ross Barkley was in need of a proper break this summer, hinting that he would be happier if he didn’t play in the competition.
An angry Lineker finished by saying, “The Premier League clubs’ misunderstanding of the massively positive impact a successful national side would have on the Premier League has always baffled me.”