Was Capello right to give England captaincy back to Terry?

/ Maxliu / 23 March 2011 / 1

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JT realises he might not be everyone's cup of tea

You can back England at [1.48] and Wales at [8.8] in Saturday's Euro 2012 qualifier in Cardiff. But, in mean time, do you think Fabio Capello was right to reappoint John Terry as England captain. Max Liu and James Pacheco argue the toss.

Yes

Fabio Capello was right to re-appoint John Terry as England captain because there are no other strong candidates for the job.

Rio Ferdinand could have been a cool, modern captain but his injury problems make him a liability. Last summer, I hoped Steven Gerrard would rise to the captaincy and take the World Cup by storm but, rather than solve the strange case of Gerrard's international woes, captaincy compounded them. Frank Lampard? Do we really need another public school boy leading the country?

Great teams need continuity. We can't have the armband tossed around the dressing room. Remember when that happened under Sven? Philip Neville ended up leading England for half a match. This country can't afford any more dodgy 45 minute claims.

Speaking of which, a compelling argument has been made, both by Terry and Vanessa Perroncel, that the personal misdemeanors that led to him being stripped of the captaincy, didn't actually happen. Obviously, I can't know either way but I do think that what is more than a shadow of a doubt should be taken into consideration.

Terry might have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice while Vanessa might have a strong case for a defamation case against pretty much every branch of the British media. We may find Terry a dislikable character but justice isn't about what or who we like. It's about, err, justice.

The England team needs winners and, like him or loathe him (and nobody should ever really loathe a footballer), Terry is a winner. He's lead Chelsea to two Premier League titles, three FA Cups and a Champions League final. The remaining candidates for the captaincy -Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, Lampard - don't even captain their club sides.

After the scandal broke last year, a tabloid published pictures of Terry and his wife which captured the couple as what they were: two frightened animals of limited intelligence. This was real exposure. JT looked thoroughly dispossessed, it was like seeing who he would have become had he not been extremely good at playing football.

The haunting photographs proved to me that Terry cares deeply about the England football team and I remembered them four months later when he slid across the turf like an upended penguin to make a goal-saving block in England’s World Cup match against Slovenia. That was the highlight of a miserable campaign and proof that Terry should still have been captain.

No

Since when has a football captaincy been so important? Since when has calling heads or tails, wearing an armband promoting the latest meaningless FA or FIFA campaign or occasionally chatting to the referee become so crucial to a team’s success? This is football after all, not Test Match cricket or rugby.

How many captains in footballing history have really made such a difference by being great captains? I’ll give you Franz Beckenbauer and Diego Maradona and I’ll be really kind and give you Johann Cruyff and Franco Baresi too, but I’m struggling after that.

I hope for Fabio Capello’s sake John Terry goes out and plays an absolute blinder for England over the next year or so and is so brave and inspirational that his team-mates follow suit. Because that’s the only way he will be vindicated.

Vindicated for making Rio Ferdinand consider retiring from international football, upsetting Steven Gerrard (who like the Manchester United defender committed no crime other than being injury-prone) and all the club team-mates of those two who also feature for England.

The move may well split the dressing room in two but perhaps as significantly, it’s shown a side of Fabio Capello we would never have expected up to now. The same man who takes pride in ruling with an iron fist, banning WAGs and mobile phones and insists on punctuality like an Etonian school master, has gone back on his word, and shown himself to be indecisive. There are those who will argue he’s shown strength by making a decision unpopular with players, the Media and fans but I’d argue he’s shown himself to be weak. He’s accepted that perhaps JT has more power in the dressing room than the manager rather than standing up for himself and reminding everyone of who’s in charge.

Is it a case of ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ perhaps? If it is, Terry is an enemy the Italian could do without altogether. At 30 and with a creaking body of his own from numerous ailments he certainly doesn’t represent the future and I’m not even sure he should even make the team on merit as a player. He may be brave and strong in the air but he’s slow and easily turned. Terry’s return to the captaincy is a huge mistake for the short-term future of the England team but the consequences may go far further than that.

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Raincitygirl | 23 March 2011

Vanessa Perroncel has already had apologies and retractions from 2 tabloids: the Daily Mail and the News of the World. Plus, rumour has it, sizable financial settlements. And judging by the number of times in his press conference JT referred to not being about to go into details for "legal reasons", I suspect he has litigation pending himself.