Man Utd’s Phil Jones flattered by England captaincy talk

Manchester United defender Phil Jones admits he is flattered by talk of him one day captaining England.

The 19-year-old sparkled in midfield for England in their two friendly victories over Spain and Sweden at Wembley and he has been widely tipped as a future England skipper.

But for now, Jones insists he is happy to be playing for Manchester United and will continue to work to cement his place in the Fabio Capello’s squad.

“It’s nice to hear people talking about me being England captain one day,” Jones told Manchester United’s website.

“But I need to keep my feet on the ground and firstly play well for Manchester United. If I do that, then I’ll keep getting the chance to play for England.

“If I could captain England one day then I think that would be the pinnacle of my career.”

His rise to prominence from the Blackburn Rovers academy to a Manchester United and England regular in under two seasons has been impressive.

And after the Sweden game, England boss Capello compared Jones to two great defenders, Franco Baresi and Fernando Hierro, who the Italian worked with at AC Milan and Real Madrid.

But it is a comparison to a former Manchester United legend that has flattered Jones most.

“It’s incredible to be compared with Duncan Edwards,” Jones said. “He played for United and England well before my time of course but I knew about him when I was growing up. Even to be mentioned in the same sentence as him is a huge honour.”

“It inspires me to go on and become a better player,” he added. “It makes me want to work even harder in training.”

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