Paul Gascoigne has claimed the current England team isn’t a patch on either of the teams he played in during international tournaments.
The former Newcastle and Tottenham midfielder has rubbished the idea that reaching the Euro 2012 quarter-finals can be considered a success for Roy Hodgson's squad insisting, as Premier League players, they should be able to perform better on the international stage.
Gascoigne was a key member of the team which made the semi-finals at both Italia 1990 and Euro 1996 before dramatically losing to Germany on penalties each time.
And, despite growing confidence in the capabilities of the current squad following victories against Sweden and Ukraine, he has hit out at what he perceives to be a group of underachievers.
“The 1990 team would have annihilated this team today without a shadow of a doubt,” Gascoigne told Sports Talk magazine.
“You’re talking about Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Bryan Robson, Peter Shilton, Terry Butcher, Stuart Pearce, Gary Lineker and myself. The team we had was just frightening.
“And then in 1996 we had Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham coming into their prime. Paul Ince and David Seaman would be in the same bracket.
“We’ve got a young squad and people say they are young and inexperienced but that’s rubbish because they’re playing in, as we call it, ‘the best league in the world’.
“So if they are playing in the Premier League on £100,000 a week then they should be going out and doing the business.
“They’ve got to go out now and prove their worth. They have every chance but they’re not the Euro 96 team or the World Cup 1990 team.”