Owen prefers England’s Golden Generation to current crop

Matt Stead

Michael Owen has brought England’s current youth crashing back down to Earth – by reminding them that Paul Scholes was better.

England have enjoyed unprecedented success at youth level in 2017, winning all of the tournaments and losing none of the games.

But Owen believes that the crop that included himself, Scholes, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and many others was better.

“We’ve obviously got a lot of good players, just look at our players coming through as well,” Owen told Omnisport.

“We seem to be winning every youth tournament that’s been put on at the moment, which is brilliant.

“I don’t think anyone’s ever questioned the capability or the qualities of our teams. Some of our players, going back to my generation, were winning Champions Leagues and all kinds of big trophies.

“They were some of the best players in the world. Is this generation better? I would probably say not.

“I think the likes of [Paul] Scholes, [Steven] Gerrard, [Wayne] Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, [David] Beckham, myself.

“I don’t think this generation has got as many as those types of players. However, I think they’ve still got players capable of going far in a competition, certainly much further.

“As I say, the quality of player would be the least of my worries, it would be the mentality going into a tournament and looking as if we can play as well in a competition as we do in qualification – we seem unbeatable in that.

“We shall see. I think the question mark all around England is there because we’ve all been really disappointed with the last couple of competitions.”