McClaren backs Rooney

Steve McClaren is convinced Wayne Rooney can have the same impact for England at Euro 2004 as Michael Owen did at the 1998 World Cup.

Owen, then just 18, exploded on to the international stage in France after finally being given his chance and scored a stunning goal in an epic encounter with Argentina.

Still only 24, the Liverpool hitman will carry the challenge for his country once again in Portugal this summer, this time as the senior man and with another precocious teenager rather than the vastly-experienced Alan Shearer at his side.

Rooney, like Owen before him, has been catapulted on to the big stage but has looked accomplished at international level and McClaren, who met up with Sven-Goran Eriksson and his squad for the training camp in Sardinia yesterday, has few doubts that the youngster can produce the goods when called upon.

"I think that's possible," he said. "He's certainly got the ability and the talent. I think he's made that impact in the games that he's played.

"The emergence of Wayne Rooney has been very timely and given Michael Owen a little bit more support, not just relying on the likes of Emile [Heskey] and [Darius] Vassell and other people."

Eriksson and McClaren will begin their preparations in earnest in Sardinia before the final warm-up games and rekindle a relationship which proved so productive at the 2002 World Cup.

The Middlesbrough boss feels he will have even more to offer the Swede after two more years in club management, but is confident that every member of the party will have benefited from their experiences since Japan.

"I would say everybody is two years on," he said. "I would say Sven is better, the staff, the whole structure.

"And I would put myself in that and say, yes, the experience of Japan was fantastic and in the meantime, the experience of managing and coaching in the Premier League has also improved me."

McClaren's relationship with Eriksson is one which blossomed during their time working together, and the Yorkshireman admits he has learned much from the Swede, as well as the other men under whom he has worked to mould his own coaching style.

"You learn everything from everybody, don't you?" he said.

"I think I've learnt a lot from him. He has a different approach to managers I've worked with previously. I've tended to work with very passionate, heart-on-the-sleeve managers before in Alex (Ferguson) and Jim Smith, and with Sven, it's obviously a completely different approach, a more controlled, relaxed approach.

"The contrast is very good and it's worked for him. But the one common denominator - although they're different on the outside, all managers are different on the outside and Sven is completely different to Alex - the common denominator is a fierce competitive drive inside which you only know when you work very closely with people.

"Both have an immense trust in the players and that's the big thing I've learnt from Alex and Sven.

"It doesn't matter on the outside how you get it across, it's trusting your players when they go out. Trusting your players to do the job is the most important quality a manager can have."