NOT THAT IT'LL STOP RIO

Rio Ferdinand has admitted his delight at breaking free from the shackles of the Sven Goran Eriksson regime.

“It's so refreshing. We had five years under Sven and no matter who came in it was going to be refreshing.

“The training has been very, very sharp. I have needed that because I've not been training or playing any games. That needs to be the same now every time England meet up.

“Terry Venables is a fantastic coach — you could see that from the first minute on the training pitch. You could see that the manager made a cute decision in bringing him in as well as the other guys.

“The manager has made the point that friendlies are important and we need to play them as though it is a competitive game. We did against Greece.

“If there are loads of changes the tempo of the game changes as well. But if there is a steady flow of substitutes it makes it easier for the players coming on as well.

“The performance was the most important thing because we have been lacking in that area for a long while.

“We knew it was important to put that right in the manager's first game. It's up to us to maintain it now. We have set high standards and it's up to us to keep them up.

“All the coaching staff have been a massive help but we don't want to get carried away. There will be times when they are up for criticism when we haven't played well.

“For us it's imperative now that we maintain the standards we have set and makes sure it's not an overnight result or performance we get carried away with."

Meanwhile the Sun joined the ‘Emperor's-new-clothes' gushing over Rio's performance:

‘Steve McClaren's debut as national boss saw his new-look side turn in a free-flowing performance in the 4-0 win over Greece. Even centre-back Ferdinand joined in with a host of dummies, runs and marauding charges downfield in the Old Trafford romp.'

But thankfully F365 was on hand to point out:

‘The commentators' gasps of wonder as Rio Ferdinand carried the ball over the half-way line made even a hardened cynic like Mediawatch cringe – especially as he gave the ball away four times out of five.'