Stephen Warnock and Joleon Lescott have alleged that their former colleague Leighton Baines declined to play for England at the 2010 World Cup. The Everton legend, who hung up his boots in 2020, won 30 caps for his country.
England are preparing for this year’s World Cup in North America, but 16 years ago, the Three Lions experienced a tournament that was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Fabio Capello’s team had a tough time in the group stage in South Africa before being knocked out by Germany in the round of 16 under controversial circumstances.
Ex-Liverpool defender Warnock was part of the squad as cover for Ashley Cole, but has confessed he didn’t expect to be picked by Capello. The 44 year old alleges that Baines was ready to go but turned it down as he didn’t want to be away from his family.
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Lescott, who teamed up with Baines for Everton and England, agreed, despite the left-back vehemently denying it and stating he was simply not chosen by Capello, much to his disappointment.
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Speaking on In The Mixer, sponsored by Sky Bet, Warnock said: “I absolutely loved it and a lot of people talk about South Africa and how it was so remote and out of the way. I had a Carlsberg ticket. I was sat in the front row of every game.
“I was sat in the changing room listening to the best players try and work out how to beat a team, watching the players train at the highest level. Who wouldn’t want to be there? It was unbelievable.
“The thing was, I didn’t think I was going to go. We had two warm-up games. One of them we played Japan. I didn’t play in either. Ash [Cole] played in one and Bainsey played in the other.
“I thought, ‘I’m not going. That’s me done.’ Then I got a phone call when he got back…” Lescott chimed in, guessing: “Bainsey didn’t want to go, did he? He said, ‘Nah, that ain’t for me.'” Warnock confirmed: “He didn’t want to be away from home.”
Lescott added: “Bainsey wasn’t on that. He didn’t like it. He was close to going to Bayern Munich. Like really close. They really wanted him. Desperately wanted Leighton Baines.”
Warnock revealed: “There was a point before I went to Villa, I was at Blackburn and Bainsey was going to go to Villa and I was going to go to Everton from Blackburn. But Bainesy was just like, ‘I don’t really fancy it.’ He didn’t want to move. I mean, a lot of Scousers are like that.”
Lescott then disclosed that Baines was nearly involved in a historic swap deal: “That’s a Scouser thing really. We played Spurs and Harry Redknapp wanted to swap Gareth Bale for Baines.
“Because his record was so bad at the start, but David Moyes said no. It was happening, but Bainsey was also on that too, he was on the Spurs one, [he didn’t want to go to] London.”