SAM ALLARDYCE believes he would win the World Cup if he was still England boss.
He even named the side he would have picked in Qatar had he not resigned as Three Lions manager in 2017.
England face Iran, USA and Wales in Group B and Allardyce would have gone for a blend of youth and experience at the World Cup.
The former West Brom and England boss appeared on William Hill’s and Footy Accumulators’ No Tippy Tappy Football podcast alongside his former assistant Sammy Lee.
And when asked if he believed he would have won the World Cup, Allardyce said: “Yes, definitely. With this squad, yes.
“We’d go for Jordan Pickford in goal, Reece James, Harry Maguire, Conor Coady and Luke Shaw in defence.
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“Declan Rice in midfield and Jude Bellingham alongside him, along with Mason Mount.
“Harry Kane up front, and we’ll go with Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden. We’d be celebrating with that, this team would win the World Cup.”
Allardyce also claimed the current crop is stronger than the Golden Generation of the noughties and, because of that, he is hopeful Gareth Southgate will lead the team to success.
He added: “The current squad is just as good as the Golden Generation, but stronger in depth, I feel.
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“I think this is why, hopefully, this squad can go all the way this time. They’ve proven they can get there; now they just need to get over the line.
“I think that the Paul Scholes generation with Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard – midfield-wise – are better than England’s current midfield. I don’t think there’s any question about that.
“I think there was a myth that they couldn’t play together which was built up by the media.
“If that were the case, Sven at the time with Sammy, he wouldn’t have been thinking, ‘Well, we can’t pick them if we don’t think they can play together’.”
