Eriksson is displaying a new-found boldness

In an unprecedented show In an unprecedented show of rousing World Cup confidence England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has an nounced: “We will win it.”

Not since Sir Alf Ramsey used those words ahead of the 1966 World Cup has any of Eriksson’s predecessors been remotely as bold.

Indeed, the Swede, until answering my question last Thursday, has been a complete fence-sitter. But he could not resist a response when asked if he could be as positive as Sir Alf was before leading England to triumph all those years ago.

“I think we will win it, of course,” he said. “But you know that you have huge opponents as well. We need no more injuries, a little bit of luck and good referees. It says everything about how difficult it is to win the World Cup that we have to go back so far.

“Everything must be in place. Everything must be almost perfect if you should have a chance to do it. You know it is seven games. The expectation is not a burden it is motivation.”

Some people laughed when Ramsey made his prediction and he faced more taunting when the tournament opened with a miserable, goalless draw against Uruguay.

But with a defence that never changed and variations on a “wingless wonders” theme, football came home with the Jules Rimet Trophy.

As the England players trained, relaxed and played golf close to their hotel complex on the Algarve, Eriksson looked towards two important events on Thursday. On that day he will field a team against Belarus in a B international at Reading’s Madejski Stadium, but even more crucially he will receive the results of a second scan on Wayne Rooney’s broken metatarsal. It may determine Rooney’s participation in Germany.

“I have spoken to him and we are agreed that Wayne will remain in Manchester doing everything possible so that when he is football fit he will come to us,” he said. “He has to be 100 per cent? The club will make the decision because he belongs to them. So far our relationship is good and I am extremely happy.

“If Rooney is fit no one in the world can tell him not to go to the World Cup. If he is fit he would be prepared to walk to Germany,” said Eriksson.

What will Eriksson do after the World Cup? “I might try to win it again for another country,” he said, with another example of his new boldness.