The trend of asking football players to pick their dream five-a-side or even full XI often offers up more talking points than it really should.
You'll regular get some good training ground stories, or learn of an admiration from one player to another that you didn't know existed, and more often than not you'll find that the player in question is too embarrassed to include himself in the discussion.
That was the case for Phil Jones, but not for his fellow England defender Chris Smalling as the two picked their all-time Man Utd XI from a selection of predetermined players.
The video is a good laugh, and when it comes to the defence you can see Phil Jones laugh as he discards his own player card, but Smalling's self-belief is something to be admired. Maybe.
This one [Jones] needs to go first. He's a good player, but...
Gaz [Neville] is not gonna be happy, he's gonna be tweeting about it. I think I need to stay, because I think you've got to back yourself, and I've played with both [Ferdinand and Vidic] so I know their strengths and weaknesses.
The fact that Denis Irwin wasn't even considered is nothing short of a disgrace. I did make for a decent video though.
That was not the end of Smalling's unusual choices.
Somehow, he managed to leave Roy Keane out of the side, as he opted for Michael Carrick and Bryan Robson instead.
As for Phil Jones, his side does indeed look a lot more respectable.
He opted to bring Eric Cantona in to the side rather than go with Van Nistelrooy as Smalling did, but more importantly Keane takes his rightful place anchoring the midfield.
The fact that Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, and George Best seemingly weren't even an option renders them both ultimately pointless, but given what they were given Jones did a respectable job, and Chris Smalling would have too were it not for his impressive and, it must be said, delusional self-confidence.
Both players were using the 'Utd By You' tool to pick their all-time Man Utd XI's, and you can too by visiting Utd-By-You.co.uk.
