SEND IN THE SAS ... former strike duo back England 2018 bid
LAN SHEARER and Teddy Sheringham were England's SAS - the strikers who led the line during our heroic Euro 96 campaign.
They joined forces again yesterday to give SunSport's ANTONY KASTRINAKIS their views on the Three Lions' chances of World Cup glory this summer.
- Q: Will the John Terry scandal affect England's chances in South Africa?
SHEARER: I'm pretty sure it won't. The only thing that will affect us is bad luck and bad play.
One or two things creep up before every major tournament, certainly in England. Obviously the headlines haven't been nice but they've been there.
SHERINGHAM: It's obviously damaging at the moment. There's a lot of publicity on the wrong side of what you want to be thinking about going into the World Cup.
By the time the tournament comes around it will all blow over and we'll be concentrating on football.
- Q: Was Fabio Capello right to strip Terry of the England captaincy?
AS: He is fortunate enough he's got other captains to choose from and I don't think it will affect JT.
TS: It's hard to say until Capello tells us his reasons for doing so. But he's made his decision and I don't think it will harm the team.
- Q: Can Terry and Wayne Bridge still play together in the same team?
AS: I think that will have to be entirely down to the two of them - I don't know the ins and outs. I've only read the same as everyone else.
TS: I think it's workable for them to play together. It's the situation they've got themselves into and you have to deal with it.
They're both professionals so you would like to think they wouldn't take that out on to the pitch when they play again. You'd like to think they don't take anything out on the pitch.
- Q: Who are your favourites to win the World Cup?
AS: Spain and Brazil are the main favourites for me.
I think you have to go that way because Spain are European Champions. Brazil because of who they are and what they are. I think the winners will come from those two - or possibly England if we keep Wayne Rooney fit.
TS: Probably Brazil and Spain. Brazil because they know how to win the World Cup. Spain because they've been on a fantastic run for a few years as a team together.
They know how to win things and they've played football the right way, so they must be favourites.
- Q: Can England beat Brazil or Spain... and how?
AS: What we lack in passing ability compared to Spain and Brazil we can make up for in other areas - with Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, with Terry, with Ashley Cole.
Frank Lampard also, they're all players who can have a massive impact.
Those players are on top of their game. I'm not saying they will win it, but they have a big chance.
TS: Of course we can beat them. We have to play at the top of our game and we need the rub of the green.
Capello will be wanting England to improve. We've been beaten by Spain and Brazil so we need to improve.
But still there's three months or so to go before the World Cup so as long as they're listening to Capello and understand what he wants, they can still do it. You never know where that could take us.
- Q: Spain has Torres, Brazil Kaka, we've got Rooney - is it enough?
AS: Rooney is the key. He's a massive key. Without him I don't think we'll have a chance of winning the World Cup. With him we've got a great chance.
He's rapidly turning into a regular goal-scorer which is great because that was probably the only part of his game that was missing and he's now doing that on a regular basis.
He's just a fantastic footballer.
TS: I wouldn't swap Wayne for any of them. Obviously you love Kaka, Lionel Messi and Fernando Torres. They are all fantastic. But Rooney has the English mentality, he's a leader of men.
I always loved players that did something different to me on a pitch. Someone who was very strong, iron-willed in a tackle.
Rooney leads by example. He inspires people and leads them on to push that bit further and harder.
That's what all great leaders have, they drive themselves and lead people.
When you have a top player like that doing that, you want everybody to follow.
I really believe Rooney is coming into his prime now. I don't think we're going to have to wait until he's 28 or 29. This year or next you're going to see him in his prime.
That's where you want your players to be going into a big competition.
His knowledge and his maturity is coming very early. He's like a boxer who's getting higher and higher and battering everyone else out of the way.
Rooney is performing consistently at the highest level and he's doing it for England. ''Put me up against Spain or Brazil I can beat you all' - that's his mentality. That's why he inspires.
- Q: Who would you pick as Rooney's ideal partner up front?
AS: It's worked with Emile Heskey so far so I can't see Capello changing that. But I think in Jermain Defoe he is a fantastic option if he wants to change that.
I'm a big admirer of Defoe and the way he plays and scores. I'm just second-guessing but I'd assume he'd start with Heskey and Rooney because he's played that way and it's worked for him in the qualifiers.
TS: For me Defoe is the ideal partner. When you play top tournaments you have to have strikers that are going to score if they get half a chance.
Defoe is like that. He's a livewire in and around the box.
Obviously you have his lack of height and long balls going up the pitch are a problem. But long balls up the pitch don't win you games.
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