'The Golden Generation was nonsense' - Frank Lampard busts England failure mythology and lifts lid on Paul Scholes competition after 'upsetting the apple cart'

It's widely accepted that England's 'Golden Generation' failed by not winning at least one of the 2002, 2006 or 2010 World Cups, or claiming victory at Euro 2004. However, as he explained on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet, Lampard doesn't agree.

The former Chelsea and England midfielder said: "I think at times, we [the Golden Generation] were too rigid. I talk from my own personal experience of playing at World Cups against teams that were not at our level. I’m not talking about France and Italy, more teams like Ecuador, who were keeping the ball in midfield because they were outnumbering us in the centre of the park. The things that maybe me and Stevie [Steven Gerrard] were used to doing where we had numbers, now we are just trying to cover space and you get a bit mentally done with it in the game wondering why this is happening.

"The Golden Generation tag was nonsense anyway – no one proclaimed us as a Golden Generation, there’s some good players in that squad but so did Italy and France, who had Andrea Pirlo and Zinedine Zidane. International football is always a challenge to win, and that’s an old story now."

Lampard also spoke about his competition for minutes with Manchester United legend Paul Scholes, who retired from international football after Euro 2004 at the age of 29.

"Paul Scholes is an incredible player, and when I first got into the England squad, I probably upset the apple cart a little bit because I was another attacking midfielder, so we had three of them," he said. "We had a decent Euros that year [2004], but we got knocked out. Then Scholesy retired from the national football team for his own reasons, then went into that deeper role at Manchester United and became a quarterback and was unreal.

"You can look back and say ‘Why didn’t you [England] play Scholesy there’, but at that point he wasn’t playing there, he was arriving into the box. I remember him scoring those two goals against Scotland – he was an incredible player throughout his whole career, but the circumstances had changed."

The topic of the 'Golden Generation' has resurfaced recently due to the managerial struggles of Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney. Lampard has been out of a job since he left Chelsea last year, while Rooney was sacked by Birmingham City earlier this month after just 83 days in charge. Gerrard has just signed a new contract with Al-Ettifaq, but his side have already fallen 28 points behind league leaders Al-Hilal.

Lampard has no immediate plans to return to management, and admitted that he has enjoyed spending time at home with his young children and watching football as a fan. He will likely be watching on as a fan when Gareth Southgate's current crop of England stars bid for glory at the European Championship in Germany this summer.