Is the double agent looking out for Rio?

Bobby Moore was never a field marshal to become flustered or agitated. Not when Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer's Germans breached England's lines to force the 1966 World Cup Final into extra time.

Not when the almighty Pele was leading a Brazilian charge on his position. The only occasions on which the greatest of all defenders betrayed a hint of impatience was while waiting at home for the envelope embossed with the FA crest to fall through his letter box.

Back in the days before mobile telephones and personal computers, that was the means by which England's footballers used to discover whether they had been selected.

"None of us ever took anything for granted," said Moore. "It was always a relief when the postman called." No longer. Not even when it comes to a place in the team, let alone the squad. Assuming Rio Ferdinand wants to find out whether he has been picked to face Austria in Saturday's World Cup qualifier, the odds are he needs only ask his agent. Such is the mutual relationship between Ferdinand and England head coach Sven Goran Eriksson, via their Mr Fixit, one Pini Zahavi.

Now far be it from me to suggest that commercial liaisons might ever affect the composition of the national football team. Still, it is barely conceivable that Ferdinand does not know already the outcome of the debate around Moore's distinguished old place at the heart of the defence.

Who should be the centre backs to guard England safely past Austria, then Poland four days later and on to Germany next summer?

John Terry and Sol Campbell? Either of those with

Jamie Carragher? Ferdinand and one of the others, most likely. How so, since Terry and Carragher are in form and Campbell is taking up the cudgels once more?

The reasoning goes that our Rio is England's playmaker from the back. My old mate Mooro - the

much lamented master of that craft - may be forgiven a celestial chuckle. Not only does Ferdinand rarely rouse himself to cross the halfway line these days but the defending, as Moore never tired of reminding his lessers, comes first.

Still, never mind that a mob of United fans let Ferdinand know whom they held accountable for the goals which led to a home defeat by Blackburn. Not to worry that fingers were pointing again over the goals with which Fulham made a closer game of it than they should have against United on

Saturday.

When Mr Eriksson talks about the difficulty of perming two from four centre backs, all he really tells us is how hard it might be to drop Terry in favour of Campbell.

So who cares that the redoubtable Chelsea skipper is an England captain in the making? Presumably David Beckham, for one. The incumbent of the hallowed armband has taken to playing for Real Madrid of late in the dynamic way he did against

Greece on that Saturday afternoon in 2001 when he dragged England into the last World Cup Finals.

That he is doing so from wide right in the Bernabeu is a positive indication of where he will play for England. The experiment with Beckham as the anchor in central midfield will end as Eriksson reverts to the 4-4-2 he knows best.

Normal service can be resumed, thanks to the timely reinvigoration of the lucky man in the seven shirt.

That should be enough to see off the Austrians and resist the Poles, assuming it is harnessed to the apparent anger of the team about negative reaction to the humiliating ineptitude of their recent performances.

If so, I trust Eriksson will have the courtesy to thank the critics for applying a scorching poker to their silk-cushioned backsides. If not, I hope that a manager apparently in denial of his waning

command of the dressing room will have the decency to resign.

Beyond that, how far Beckham might lead England will depend on the real reason for his renewed fitness and appetite for the game.

If it is because, as he moves deeper into his 30s, he realises that time is running out for him to win so much as a tin pot with Madrid - not to mention the most glittering prize of all with England - then the omens are encouraging.

If it is because he can feel the full force of Terry bearing down upon his cherished captaincy, then the benefits may be no better than short term.

If it is only because he is currently seeking to extend his contract in Spain - and with it his

lavish and privileged lifestyle - then he will be flattered by his public only for his celebrity to deceive us yet again.

England are enduring quite enough of that already with Rio Ferdinand, thank you very much.

Sven for United, proclaims one giant Sunday newspaper headline. Curses, say Fergie's would-be executioners... if Eriksson is the best alternative they can come up with, Sir Alex must be safe after all.

Top brass at masterclass from Collina

Chelsea and Liverpool, both still festering about the impact of contentious decisions on their Champions League battles this year, are among the leading clubs of the world sending delegates to a master-class in refereeing to be given next month by the world's No 1 whistle-blower.

Pierluigi Collina, the bug-eyed Italian, is to reveal his secrets, explain his methods and demonstrate his techniques at the annual SoccerEx football and business convention in Dubai next month.

FIFA, UEFA, the Premier League and the Football League - in company with most of the world's major soccer authorities - are taking their referee commissars to learn how to achieve consistency in interpretation of the laws.

Gerard Houllier, meanwhile, is expected to tell the conference how he has gone from dismissal as manager of Liverpool to the top of the French league with Lyon, thrashing Real Madrid in the Champions League along the way.

By accepting even the harshest decision and getting on with the game, perhaps?

As 'our' Andrew Murray - you're not just Scottish

now, son, but British, too - continues his meteoric rise up the world rankings, it is timely to remember how much the Lawn Tennis Association had to do with launching the new Tim Henman.

Little or nothing, as with the old Tim Henman.

Murray's mother is convinced that her teenager's ascent from the nether-hundreds to the upper 60s of his game would never have happened had she not

taken him out of the LTA system and begun the job herself.

Henman's parents, you may recall, reared Tim in their own back garden.

Can it be coincidence that when Murray was recruited by the LTA he sank into the shambles of defeat by Switzerland in the Davis Cup - yet in his individual right has been able to give Roger Federer a decent match in his first ATP Final?

Isn't it time that the All England club held the LTA accountable for all the millions of Wimbledon profits they have squandered down the years - and took over the training and development of

youngsters in this country?