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Manchester United's rapidly rising star Phil Jones has reiterated his honour at being compared to Old Trafford icon Duncan Edwards and admits talk of him being a potential England captain in the making is a hugely flattering.
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Jones has a made remarkable rise to prominence in the last six-months following his decision to swap Blackburn Rovers for Manchester United on June 13th.
The defender reportedly rejected offers from their Premier League counterparts Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham in favour of a £17 million transfer to Old Trafford, and it has certainly paid dividends for the most talked about young English footballer of his generation.
The 19-year-old cemented his reputation as one of the country's most impressively gifted young players for some time with two assured displays during the recent international break.
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Fabio Capello played the Manchester United starlet in a relatively unfamiliar midfield role for both games against Spain and Sweden, and although the first was underwhelming but no less assured, the second displayed all the qualities that have prompted many well-informed critics to tip him as a future England captain.
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The authority, power, discipline and composure showcased by the Preston born Manchester United star, in a role that is not his preferred, led to Fabio Capello comparing him to Franco Baresi and Fernando Hierro, the towering defenders from AC Milan and Real Madrid respectively, who were both equally adept as defensive midfielders.
Others have heralded the former Blackburn Rovers prodigy as a future England captain, a pertinent observation given the latest debacle surrounding the country's current incumbent, and Jones admits were that to be bestowed on him it would "be the pinnacle" of his fledgling career.
"It's nice to hear people talking about me being England captain one day," Jones told Manutd.com on Thursday. "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."
Jones also reiterated the huge honour of being compared to one of Manchester United's most unique and lavishly gifted players in their rich history, Duncan Edwards.
"It's incredible to be compared with Duncan Edwards," he 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. It makes me want to work even harder in training."
The comparison between Jones and perhaps the most vaunted of Matt Busby's Babes was drawn by Edwards' teammate Sir Bobby Charlton.
Paddy Crerand, an Old Trafford colleague of Charlton's during the 1960s and most notably in 1968 when Busby's Red Devils won the European Cup, revealed just how highly Jones was thought of by one of the club's most significant luminaries.
