'I will say one thing' - Gary Lineker responds to Harry Kane criticism of England Euro 2024 rant

Gary Lineker has responded to Harry Kane's reaction to criticism during England's Euro 2024 campaign.

Following last week's 1-1 draw with Denmark, Lineker branded the Three Lions' performance as "s***" and provided an in-depth analysis of Kane's performance, suggesting the striker "needs to do better".

On Sunday, Lineker's comments were put to Kane during a press conference. "I would never disrespect any ex-player," Kane replied, "All I would say is remember what it is like to wear the shirt and that their words are listened to. Some of the lads, I don't know how many, but we do hear it.

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"We all want to win a major tournament and I'm sure they want us to win a major tournament and being as helpful as they can and building the lads up with confidence would be a much better way of going about it."

Lineker delivered a lengthy verdict on Kane's performance at centre-forward during the BBC's broadcast of the match, with Alan Shearer and Micah Richards also sharing their views.

The three former England internationals host on The Rest is Football podcast. On Monday's episode, Lineker responded to Kane's comments, saying: "I get it [comment put to Kane by journalist] and it puts Harry on the spot. But I actually thought he answered it fine with one or two bits in there, but it’s not easy when you’re thrown that kind of thing."

He continued: "Can you imagine if we went on and said ‘well, I thought they played really well’? We’d be lying for a start because they didn’t play well and Harry knows that they didn’t play well.

"And there’s one bit there - which, you know, I understand - where he said ‘they have responsibilities being ex-England players and they should know, they know what it’s like. It’s not like they’ve won anything’ or words to that effect.

"Fine - and he’s absolutely right. But I will say one thing: The last thing in the world we want to be is downbeat and critical. We want the England team to perform well on the pitch, the best punditry of all is when England play well and we’re excited and enthusiastic about them and say ‘this performance was great, that performance was great’.

"We don’t want to be critical. But we have to be sometimes. We have to say - but we did it balanced as well."

Shearer, speaking with Lineker, pointed towards the use of "s***" that may have resulted in a reaction from Kane. "I think it’s important we never get personal," he said. "And that’s the key. I think it might have been that word ‘s***’."

Lineker replied with: "It might have been but it was the way I said it as well, was basically; it was a poor performance, it was kind of lethargy.

"And you know, I think Micah said something like ‘I think we’ve run out of words’, and I said ‘yeah well whatever word you say, or expletive like s***, it was that kind of context. But I understand that."