Sunday 4 September 2016 14:51, UK
Wayne Rooney's decision to announce his England retirement two years early was "ridiculous", according to the Sunday Supplement panel.
The 30-year-old sat down in front of the media this week to explain that Russia will be his last tournament as an international player, amid speculation that he would be stripped of the captaincy by new boss Sam Allardyce.
Speaking about Rooney's press conference on this week's Sunday Supplement, Patrick Barclay believes the comments were presumptuous: "I think it was a ridiculous thing to say.
"I mean, it took an awful lot for granted. Given the wild form swings that we've seen from him in the last two years, who's to say he'll be in the team? Who's to say England will qualify [for Russia]?
"Of course, we expect them to given the qualifying record, but to come out and imply that England are going to Russia… I don't think you have to say anything. That is a conversation for your wife and for your family. I don't think it's a conversation to chuck out at us. It was careless."
There has been much talk about who will eventually replace Rooney in the No 10 role for England, heightened by the omission of Ross Barkley in Allardyce's first squad.
The Everton man is seen by some as the most likely to take the mantle in years to come, but Barclay does not believe he is ready.
"[Ross Barkley] not good enough, yet," he added. "There is a need to replace Rooney as a No 10, as the creative mainspring of the side, but I've never seen anything in Barkley that suggests he's quite there.
"You get hints, you get dramatic hints sometimes, when he looks a little bit like Rooney or - for us older ones - a little like [Paul] Gascoigne, but he hasn't been consistent enough to get a No 10 role.
"A lot of people like Barkley, but I honestly don't think he's done enough in other positions. You can't just give somebody the No 10 position. If Diego Maradona or Lionel Messi, of course you can give them the No 10 position, but a player like Ross Barkley with the situation he was in two years ago, you have to go wider or deeper and prove yourself there [first].
The Daily Mirror's Andy Dunn was alongside Barclay on the show, and he was of the view that Barkley has been tough to work with in the past.
"I think Sam probably looks at him at the moment and thinks he'd be difficult to coach, difficult to fit into that plan," he said. "There's always been a suspicion with Ross Barkley that he's been a difficult player to coach on the training ground.
"I don't mean coach a particular skill, just actually through to him how to play in a certain system. He's very much a maverick player. He can catch the eye because he can get the ball, beat three players and score a good goal, but in a more disciplined system I'm not sure he's the easiest to fit in.
"That's the feedback I've got from the Everton training ground for quite a while."
Martin Lipton, though, piles the blame on Roberto Martinez - Everton's manager last season, before his move to the international stage with Belgium.
"I feel sorry for Barkley," he said. "I think he's a terrific talent, but let's be honest, on form he didn't deserve to go to the Euros. Hodgson picked him hoping that by picking him he would bring something out of him that he'd not seen for some time and he couldn't see it.
"He and Stones were the only outfield players that didn't get used, for a reason. Because they were both shells, and that comes down to a manager who's currently boss of Belgium, incredibly.
"He destroyed those players over the course of last season. I think they will both come back but it's a long road back from where they are. Barkley has dropped a long way from what he promised to be, and what he was."
