Having tried his hand at management with Wycombe Wanderers, Adams is now youth team coach at Feyenoord in Holland and becoming a real student of the game.

He still follows English football, however, and was back in the country today as guest of England sponsors Nationwide to kick off their World Cup coverage.

Not surprisingly, then, he was asked to run his eye over the current England team ahead of next weekend's friendly against Argentina - and he came up with some very surprising ideas!

For instance, he believes England should try out a new formation in Geneva with Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand taking up a holding role in midfield and Sol Campbell and John Terry behind him in defence.

"Rio's distribution is wonderful and I would love to see him in that holding midfield role," said Adams.

"I think he is technically good enough to do that and I would like to see if it works. He can't do it at Man United because there is too much pressure there at the moment and they haven't got another two centre-halves. But he can do it for England, and I think we could use him in there.

"Ledley King did that job fantastically well at Old Trafford recently but Rio has the requirements to do it too. It gives us another option and if I was a manager I would want to know whether he could do it or not.

"It may be a case of us playing France and Zidane is having a fantastic game and you go "come on, semi-final, get yourself in there Rio and do a job."

Adams is enjoying his new life as a football student and clearly thinks deeply about the game. So working in Holland is an eye-opening experience for him.

He said: "It's good experience, I get a few first team players to work with sometimes and I do individual training, which I really wanted to do after doing my A licence in the summer.

"We've got a couple of defenders, not a lot because the Dutch are not really known for their defenders - they kind of pop them into the midfield and play three at the back a lot of the time, because they are better than the opposition. So that's interesting.

"It's very foreign from the George Graham days. If I got the rope out and tried to show them the back four scenario, they go 'hold on a minute, we don't do this!'"

Adams hopes to return to England as a coach in the future but right now he is happy to work abroad and keep an eye on the Three Lions from afar.

He will certainly be cheering them on in Geneva next weekend and believes we have a real chance of doing well at the World Cup.

He said: "It's a cup competition and I think England have a strong chance. I'd love to see them bring back the trophy but obviously there are a lot of very good teams in there like Brazil and France and Italy. And I wouldn't rule out the hosts, either.

"I think we have a lot of quality in the side, though, and one of the strongest defences in the world. That is a big advantage.

"I would like to see Sven trying out a few things against Argentina so that he is confident in the systems we have to choose from, there is still time to experiment and to learn. And why not give Rio a chance in that midfield role?

"But of course I'm not the boss, so it's easy for me to say! He is already doing a good job and there is no doubt that England have one of the best squads in the tournament. All everybody wants is for us to fulfil our potential."