I want to see skill, I want the team to be playing so well that you can get the highlights and keep rewinding to see ‘what he did there’. The lads want to play well and win 3-0 every game, but I would rather win the World Cup.”The ban that Ferdinand has served may not have affected his performance but it certainly appears to have matured his outlook, so much so that during one analysis of Wayne Rooney he checked himself and said that he did not want to “sound like his old man”.Few would argue that Ferdinand’s season has not been overshadowed by the rise of John Terry at Chelsea but it is equally instructive to recognise that there is no clamour whatsoever for Terry to replace him. Ferdinand did not say that he would prefer his side to adopt a more prosaic approach to winning tournaments but he was quite clear that if England were dull but effective then a World Cup winners’ medal would far outweigh any aesthetic imperative.The lesson was learned, he said, while he served out his nine-month ban for missing a drugs test and was forced to watch as a fan as Sven Goran Eriksson’s side battled their way to defeat to Portugal in Euro 2004. Winning any tournament means too much to talk about performances.

Ideally, I would love to play well, for the team to play brilliantly every game, but I would rather have a trophy.”As a fan in the summer, looking at the European Championship, I thought ‘We have a great bunch of players, we should be doing well’ I was cheering the lads on. You won’t be talking in 30 years that England played rubbish You will be saying ‘They won’ I would pay to play rubbish every game to win the World Cup. Greece hit that home: if you are prepared, set your stall out in the right way to suit your players, then you have a good chance to win a tournament.”If I win the World Cup, I don’t care if we play rubbish every game. On holiday in America he said that he became aware that it was success which mattered more than anything to the Englishmen in the bar with him and that if it came at the expense of the occasional 20-pass sequence or clever back-heel, then so be it.”A lot of people are saying this team has great individuals, but you don’t win anything with individuals,” Ferdinand said “We have to make sure we become a great collective team.

The kind of centre-half who regards Row Z as a discreet place to watch a match rather than the area where the ball should be dispatched at the slightest hint of danger.
So it was interesting to hear the most cultured defender of his generation talk about the manner in which England should approach the World Cup finals next summer if they are to be successful. “It is by God’s grace that I moved to Motherwell and then on to Hull City. I have been in good scoring form this season and if I get an opportunity on Saturday I would be confident of taking it.”All the pressure is on England They are supposed to hammer us. It’s going to be a great occasion for the boys and I have never been to Old Trafford so I am looking forward to that I don’t think we will be overawed.”Taylor agrees “Stuart won’t worry about who he is playing against If anything it will inspire him,” he said “He’s that type of player. The bigger the challenge, the more he enjoys it.”¿ George McCartney has pulled out of the Northern Ireland squad to face England with a groin problem.. “He’s been an influential player for us this season and when we haven’t looked like getting a result, he has come up with a vital goal.