Fergie banks on new England skipper

Sir Alex thrilled about Ferdinand's appointment to prime national post

MANCHESTER: Sir Alex Ferguson believes Manchester United can benefit from Fabio Capello's decision to make Rio Ferdinand England captain.

Ferdinand served the second game of his four-match suspension as United returned to the top of the table with a 5-0 victory over Portsmouth.

The defender, 31, was watching from the stands just 24 hours after taking the England skipper's armband from John Terry, who was stripped of the captaincy by Capello on Friday following allegations about his private life.

Ferguson admits he is proud that a United player will captain England at the World Cup in South Africa later this year and hopes the accolade has a positive effect on Ferdinand's performances during the Premier League title run-in.

He said: "We're pleased for him and it's great for Manchester United to have one of our players captaining his country. Over the years we've had, Bobby Charlton and Bryan Robson for 60-odd games or something so we're very proud of that."

Ferguson was happy with the patient display of his team against Avram Grant's strugglers.

United took until the 40th minute to make the breakthrough but Ferguson thinks that his team, which has dropped just two points against bottom-half teams, was rewarded for its calm approach.

He said: "We had a lot of pressure and possession of the ball but we were patient enough and that's important when teams come and sit in the way they did here.

"Portsmouth were there to make it difficult but we got the goal just before halftime and it was a bit fortunate with the second one but that opened the game for us in the second half and it was a good performance."

Ferguson admits he was willing Arsenal to take points off Chelsea when the two London teams meet at Stamford Bridge yesterday.

The United manager said: "I don't know if I'll watch it or not because I'm going up to Glasgow but I'll be thinking about it."

Grant insists Portsmouth, who face a winding up order, will continue to fight despite their position looking more and more precarious.

The club are working under their fourth set of owners of the season and are seven points from safety at the bottom of the Premier League.

But the former Chelsea manager is hoping the Fratton Park club has turned a corner.

He said: "We need to do our job even if it feels like it is going against us.

"I hope that the club will be more stable now. It was almost impossible in the past few matches with all the mess around the club and uncertainty.

"I hope now it will be more stable and it's important for the club. It's a unique club the whole city is behind the club.

"On the pitch we are doing very well and when you look back over the years, the team at the bottom you see a lot of difference from them to other teams but there's not a lot of difference between us and 10th place.

"All we want is stability at the club because it will be very difficult to continue like this.

"Positive thinking is always better than negative thinking and as long as we have the chance we will fight."

United took the lead when Wayne Rooney scored his 23rd goal of the season and Anthony Vanden Borre's own goal gave the champions a two-goal half-time lead.

AFP

(China Daily 02/08/2010 page24)