Hartley is entering his fifth season at Franklin's Gardens

Northampton coach Jim Mallinder and captain Dylan Hartley have brushed off criticism from the former England and Lions centre Jeremy Guscott.

In his column in The Rugby Paper Guscott called Hartley a "show pony" and questioned the England hooker's ability to "graft for 80 minutes."

Hartley told BBC Radio Northampton: "I've got the respect of the players and management, and that's all I need."

"It's quite laughable, he obviously doesn't know Dylan," Mallinder added.

"He's clearly not watched Dylan properly through last season because the last thing you'd describe Dylan as is a show pony.

"[Guscott] writes for a magazine and has got to be controversial to sell papers. That is how we treat it," the Saints coach concluded.

Guscott questioned the temperament of the 23-year-old Hartley, who was banned for 26 weeks for eye gouging in 2007, and the decision to make him captain at Franklin's Gardens.

"There is too much of the show pony about Hartley, and there is a suspicion he is not as hard as he would like us to think," he wrote.

"But Jim Mallinder has obviously seen something in him that I cannot. He is more of a hit-and-run player than an 80-minute grafter, and you cannot get any lower than being an eye gouger."

Guscott continued: "My hunch is that to be consistently good a club needs three first-choice England players, and at the moment Northampton don't have them."

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