MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Steven Gerrard has told Joey Barton he will be welcomed into the England squad for Wednesday´s Old Trafford friendly against Spain - despite his recent criticisms of the Liverpool midfielder and Chelsea star Frank Lampard.

Manchester City midfielder Barton, 24, has earned his first call-up into the senior squad after a series of impressive performances for Stuart Pearce´s team.

But the Liverpudlian is a controversial selection due to stinging comments about Gerrard and Lampard in a recent interview, when he criticised the pair for their decision to write World Cup diaries following England´s disastrous showing at Germany 2006.

Lampard quickly hit back at Barton in a similar interview, but Gerrard, 26, has remained tight-lipped about the comments and he insists that there will be no recriminations between the three players this week.

Gerrard said: "I know Joey very well because we come from neighbouring council estates in Liverpool and I regard him as a friend.

"I smiled to myself when I heard his comments, though, and I will welcome him into the England squad when I see him. There are no hard feelings on my part.

"Joey is similar to myself in that he likes to be honest, however, and that is a good quality. He only says what he feels, but sometimes you can say things that you regret and you learn from experience.

"I think he is a great player, though, and he deserved his call-up into the squad in my opinion. There have been incidents off the pitch that have involved Joey, but he has definitely matured and he is playing really well for Manchester City at the moment. He is my type of player."

England face Spain having drawn with Macedonia and lost to Croatia in their last two games in their Euro 2008 qualifying group.

And Gerrard, set to captain Steve McClaren´s team with John Terry not rated as fully match-fit, admits that it is important to produce an impressive performance ahead of next month´s testing qualifier in Israel.

He said: "Every game for England is a must-win game and our next qualifier against Israel is definitely in that bracket.

"We have got to show the fans and country on Wednesday that we really want to top our group, so it is important to get a good win and a decent performance against Spain.

"England versus Spain is definitely a massive game from my point of view because I have a lot of Spanish team-mates at Liverpool and I don´t want to return to my club on Thursday having just been beaten by them!

"When we last played Spain a couple of years ago, they gave us a lesson how to play because they were very good technically.

"Recent results haven´t been what we would have liked, so the challenge ahead of us is to put that right."