Rooney retains England captaincy under Allardyce

Marcus Rashford wasn’t included by Allardyce, despite going on as a substitute to score United’s injury-time victor against Hull in the Premier League on Saturday in his first appearance of the season.

Rooney is England’s record goal scorer and took on the armband from Steven Gerrard previous year.

“Marcus is a fantastic player, one of the brightest talents in European football”. The impact he had at the end of last season and the start of this, his attacking flair, his quality for final-third delivery, and his goal record from a wide position.

“He’s a young lad and it’s important not to get too carried away”.

“Let him go and have a feel and hopefully he’s a star for them”. He did brilliantly when he came on and got his goal.

“We want to have two players in each position and not leave ourselves short”.

Jose Mourinho has said that he still wants Marcus Rashford to join up with England under-21s rather than the senior squad after the striker’s latest heroics.

He lined up in the England midfield during Euro 2016 and was listed in that position when the squad for Slovakia was announced.

Rashford will instead play for England under-21s this week to get some game time. “Wayne’s position’s changed at Manchester United and that’s the sort of position I’d be looking to play him”. We won’t go into details on that, but the Manchester United and England skipper is once again in hot water after – we hope it was accidental – a Twitter gaffe.

Allardyce admitted that he has had to make a special case for Chris Smalling who has, like Rashford, barely featured for United this season but is included because there is a dearth of central defenders, which also led to a recall for 34-year-old Phil Jagielka.

“It is time for Rooney to be selfish and start thinking just about himself”.

Although reports earlier in the week had suggested Wayne Rooney would continue in the role, there is a growing sense that the Manchester United forward (midfielder?) may be replaced. “We’ve got players on the bench who were starting every game last season and some players haven’t even travelled”.