Beckham: I'm Fit for England

David Beckham yesterday insisted he was fit enough to be awarded his 100th international cap against Switzerland next Wednesday at Wembley in Fabio Capello's first match as England coach.

The former England captain, who has been training with Arsenal for the past month to prove his fitness to Capello, said: "I'm as fit as I can be. I'm fit and sharp and I'm ready to be selected. Hopefully I've worked hard enough this month to get picked in the squad.

"I have been training with one of the fittest teams in Europe, I've done everything possible to be fit and I am without doubt ready for it, but it's out of my hands now." The midfielder has not played a competitive game since coming on in the second half of England's 3-2 defeat by Croatia in November which ended their hopes of reaching Euro 2008. His last game for his club, LA Galaxy, was in October.

Manchester United, Beckham's old club, are preparing to play Portsmouth at Old Trafford tonight and the visiting manager, Harry Redknapp, has admitted he has the uneasy feeling that Sir Alex Ferguson is creating a squad who are close to matching the treble-winners of 1999.

United are still in the race to win the league and have progressed in the FA Cup and Champions League. And Redknapp believes it is a mark of Ferguson's quality that he continues to deliver teams capable of competing at the highest level.

"Alex has done a fantastic job there, hasn't he?" he said. "I was at Bournemouth when I first met him 20-odd years ago and the team he's put together now could be one of his best. He's up there with all the great managers - Cloughie, Shankly, Busby, all the greats.

"Alex is not far from having another team as good as the one which had David Beckham, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs in his prime and won the treble. With Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and the rest it's another fantastic team. You can't write off Chelsea and certainly not Arsenal but, for me, United are favourites to take the title again."

Redknapp expects the trip to Old Trafford to be difficult. "[But] we'll give them a right go," he said. "Lassana Diarra has come here and shown he's world class. We have an outstanding goalkeeper in David James and a top full-back in Glen Johnson and I think both should play for England. We've a terrific loan signing in Milan Baros, who has every chance of making his debut, and Sol Campbell should be fit."