I'm so proud of Rio

9:47am Thursday 27th March 2008

IT IS every kids' dream to captain your country and I'm so massively proud of my brother. I'm speaking before the game from Paris, where I will be cheering him on.

When I found out that he was given the armband I was ecstatic. It brought a tear to my eye to be honest - I can't explain the emotions that were going through my body.

It will be a proud moment for Rio and the whole family. We're such a tight-knit group that when something happens to one of us, the whole family feels it.

And it is well deserved in my opinion. He has been England's most consistent performer since the World Cup 2002 - it would be for anyone who has played that consisently in the Champions League, Premier League and on the international stage as he has.

And as Sir Alex Ferguson said, if he wasn't the right man for the job then he would't have been given for it.

Of course, it is something that I can look upto and learn from. People can achieve anything if they really want to, as this shows.

I just know that I have to keep on playing well for West Ham.

We have done really well to bounce back from the mini blip with some positives results.

Against Everton we deserved more than just the point but it wasn't meant to be. The game showed that we can mix it with the best of them. Everton are a club that we are aspiring to - consistently getting into Europe and performing as well as they have. And I think it showed that we can do that.

The game also saw another debut handed to one of the club's promising youngsters. It was a great performance from James Tomkins. To play like that against a player as good as Yakubu says a lot.

He made a minor error for the goal, but in fairness I should have won the first header so I'm just as much to blame. The best thing was, Tomka showed his character by getting on with it and learning from it. Most lads his age would not have come back from it. I've been saying for a while that he is ready for the first team.

And he is just one of the youngsters that fits in well and that is great credit to the coaching staff here who nurture the boys and send them down to the boss.

What it does show is that the future of the club is certainly looking good.

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