Wayne Rooney can't handle the truth when it comes to Steven Gerrard's comments

The irony might well be lost on Wayne Rooney. But in the process of disagreeing with Steven Gerrard, all he has done is prove his former England team-mate right.

Gerrard put the cat amongst the pigeons when he labelled England's former golden generation as 'egotistical losers'. The Liverpool legend blamed England's failure to compete for major trophies in the Noughties and early 2010s, on a divided culture. One spawned from whichever club the biggest names of that time just happened to represent.

It's an opinion Rooney doesn't agree with. One he has described as being 'disrespectful'. Almost like his ego has been pricked, even.

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"Obviously we didn't win anything", said Rooney, "I wouldn't quite put it that (Gerrard's) way, but I know what he's saying. There was a lot of big characters in the dressing room. I wouldn't say (England squads now have) a better attitude. That's disrespectful to us as players, because we worked hard."

Rooney went on to say it was difficult to have that relationship between Manchester United and Liverpool players, before admitting David Beckham, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes were never going to be close to team-mates from Merseyside.

Hence Gerrard's point. Sometimes the truth can hurt, however dated it might be. And Gerrard's comments have stung Rooney.

But let's not forget Rooney is the footballer who spoke the immortal words 'the big man is back in town', upon returning to England's base in Baden-Baden during the 2006 World Cup, having flown back to England for scans on an injury.

If this isn't egotistical, then what is?

And just imagine what the likes of Gerrard, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard made of such comments?

A couple of weeks later, Rooney got himself sent off as England crashed out of the tournament to Portugal. A team including the talents of Beckham, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand and Cole, one of the best left backs of all time, which never made it past the quarter finals of a major tournament.

There has to be a genuine reason for this - other than bad luck. Gerrard has explained what it was - and Rooney needs to accept it.

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