Alan Shearer sympathises with Harry Kane after recent spat with Gary Lineker over England's Euro 2024 campaign - as ex-Three Lions captain admits he would 'protect my team as much as I could' if roles were reversed

Alan Shearer has sympathised with Harry Kane following his recent spat with Gary Lineker. 

England captain Kane was last week caught in the middle of controversy when Lineker labelled the Three Lions' 1-1 draw with Denmark as 's***'. 

Kane came out fighting as he insisted ex-players like Lineker have a 'responsibility', and pointed out the fact they too had not won an international trophy with England. 

And Lineker's Match of The Day co-host, Shearer, says while he disagrees with Kane, he would have responded in a similar fashion having come under similar scrutiny while playing for England.  

In his column for The Athletic, Shearer wrote: 'On the podcast we do together, Gary described England as “s***” against Denmark, which prompted a few headlines, although it was nothing that won’t have been said — in much fruitier language — in pubs up and down the country. 

'When Harry was then asked about it in a press conference, he suggested former players have a “responsibility” to “remember what it is like to wear the shirt”, but I don’t go along with that. Then again, I also wasn’t his audience.

'Do you know something? Reverse our positions and I’d have probably said the same as Harry. As England captain, I most certainly did feel a responsibility and it was to protect my team as much as I could. 

'I came out with some bulls*** in my time, not that it was untrue, but it was the party line, designed to foster togetherness, to set the tone. I was talking to my team. 

'So it was, “We’ll get better, we stick together, blah, blah blah.” It’s part of who you are and what you’re representing.'

England followed up the draw with Denmark with a 0-0 draw against Slovenia, but managed to top the group and advance to the last-16. 

In a complete sea change from his initial comments, Lineker turned on the praise tap afterwards.

He believes England are 'improving slightly' and showed 'energy' in the second half against Slovenia, he said on the latest episode of his podcast The Rest Is Football.

'I think there were signs in that performance that I quite liked. In the second half, I thought you could see that if this team continue to play a high press, chances will come,' Lineker said.

We may have been playing that way because Slovenia knew that a draw would get them through, so they were cautious and sat back a bit, I understand that.

'But I saw enough to suggest that England are improving slightly. I think there were downsides, but I think there were real positives.

'I thought when Cole Palmer came on - and we've said this many times, we know we've got a lot of talented young players - but this kid might well be the best of the lot.

'We were still unbalanced on the left and it was a little baffling that he [Southgate] waited so long for Anthony Gordon to come on. Foden was playing there and switching with Bellingham and I don't think they helped either of them because they were neither here nor there.

'What I did see in the second half, trying to put a positive spin on it, was energy. I haven't seen energy apart from the first half-hour of the first game in the other performances.'

He added: 'There's enough there in the second half just to make me think for the first time this England team has some energy.' 

England will seek to kickstart their Euro 2024 campaign when they take on Slovakia in the last-16 on Sunday.