World Cup 2018: England cliques made national duty challenging - Winterburn

Former England defender Nigel Winterburn revealed playing for his country was mentally challenging at times.

Winterburn, now 54, only made two appearances for the Three Lions – with those appearances coming against Italy (1989) and Germany (1993).

But after Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard spoke out about the difficulties of dealing with club cliques in the national squad, Winterburn agreed it proved to be a problem.

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Talking to Yahoo Sport’s The 32, the former Arsenal legend said: “Yeah, I absolutely hated it (cliques). First England squad I got into – and I only got into a few England squads so let’s not think I played for England a lot, I only made 2 substitute appearances – I felt exactly that.

“It is quite difficult that you have got big club rivalries and then you have got a manager who has to bring you together for a few days, to unite a team to play for your country. It shouldn’t be a problem, but I have got to admit I hated it. I felt it was very clique, I was not comfortable in the surroundings I was in.

“Towards the end when I knew there was always going to be players getting in ahead of me, it was a little bit of a relief.

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“It was a disappointment that I hadn’t played more for England, the one thing I wanted to do was start a game, so that I could prove whether I was good enough or not.

“But in the end because I was not getting picked it was like I sort of said, oh well, I did not want to be in that environment anyway, I did not feel comfortable in it. Maybe I was better off not being selected.

“And that is pretty sad because everyone wants to play for their country, you should be so so proud.”