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England team was "a circus", claims Ferdinand

15/10/2008

Current England vice-captain Rio Ferdinand has branded the England regime before the arrival of Fabio Capello as "like a circus".

The Manchester United centre-back, speaking ahead of this evening's World Cup qualifier against Belarus in Minsk, said the Italian coach has brought more discipline and focus to the squad.

Ferdinand's comments make something of a mockery of life under previous manager Steve McClaren and even his predecessor, Sven Goran Eriksson.

"It seems like there was a big show around the whole England squad," Ferdinand said.

"It was like watching a theatre unfolding and football almost became a secondary element to the main event.

"When you step back and look back at that, you think like it was a circus, in terms of the whole WAG [wives and girlfriends] situation.

"People were worrying more about what other people were wearing and where they were going, rather than the team."

Referring specifically to the atmosphere under the Swede at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, when England reached the quarter-finals and were generally unimpressive throughout, Ferdinand admitted the players had been "a bit too open" around their base in Baden-Baden.

"I'm not going to tell the other players what you should or should not do," the 29-year-old continued.

"But I just think that, as a squad, we were a bit too open, going out in and around Baden-Baden, and probably had too much contact with families.

"You don't get many tournaments in your career. To give yourself the best chance, you have to be focused. That then transposed itself into the team."

In contrast, Ferdinand described the famously harsh Capello's routines as "watertight".

"If I'm honest, it feels as if we're going in the right direction," he concluded.

"I don't want to speak too soon but you can see we're at the start of something and hopefully there will be bigger rewards than what we've had in the past."