RIO FERDINAND was a hot topic of discussion among England stars in the international break.
A number of Gareth Southgate’s players are unimpressed over what they see as unfair criticism from the former Manchester United defender, who works for BT Sport but also lets rip on his YouTube channel Vibe with Five.
They have no problems when Gary Neville and Roy Keane criticise after bad performances but the feeling is Ferdinand can be a bit too strong with his views on football — not just England or Manchester United.
Ferdinand has torn into Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw this term.
Earlier this season, he apologised to Phil Jones for comments he made about the player’s lack of availability and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: “I think Rio was a bit out of order.”
And last summer Rio urged Harry Kane to go on strike at Spurs.
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Now, he has left John Stones and Mason Mount out of his World Cup England starting XI, along with Jack Grealish — although many would agree with him.
Equally, the stars, while talking about Ferdinand at St George’s Park, also raised the fact that, unusually, he is not only a pundit but has strong links to a football agency which has players such as Michael Keane.
THE Spanish police numbers will be beefed up in Madrid on Tuesday.
Chelsea face Real Madrid in the Champions League that night, while on the same day Manchester City supporters arrive for their quarter-final clash against Atletico Madrid 24 hours later.
As we have seen countless times before, the problems visiting fans have when they travel to Spain for matches are the actual police, who do seem to love a bit of a ruck.
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EMILE HESKEY was a real star at the Qatar 2022 draw party, staged at Wembley on Friday.
The FA selected 120 lucky members of the England Supporters Travel Club, who watched the draw and then enjoyed a Q&A session with the former international striker.
Heskey did not shirk any answers and was happy to pose for pictures and sign autographs.
There were also lots of prizes up for grabs and free food, although Heskey found it amusing that the fans only had a couple of free beers.
He said: “You’ve only given them two drinks tokens. Serious?!”
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ALAN SHEARER will approve of England’s World Cup base in Qatar.
Gareth Southgate’s squad are to be based at the Souq Al Wakra Hotel in the fishing village of Al Wakrah, ten miles south of Doha.
Around the corner from the complex is a road named Al Shiraa Street.
