da bet7k： If Fabio Capello thought that he had bought himself a little respite with the media after a shocking World Cup, then he finds himself back in the firing line following his decision to reappoint John Terry as captain. I am not suggesting that Terry is a bad choice, far from it, but is the armband really going to make a huge difference in his commitment for his country? There is no prouder lion than JT, regardless of whether he is wearing the armband or not.
da marjack bet： Capello has just created a mess where he didn’t need to and the decision has done little more than rub Rio Ferdinand up the wrong way. The way it has been handled is an indictment of the poor communication that appears to have surrounded Capello’s reign and Rio certainly deserved better than to find out he had lost the role within the media.
Rio has been an absolute gentleman about the decision and has wished John Terry well, and it certainly won’t stop him giving 100% the next time he puts on an England shirt. I think that it is the bottom line of all this and while the rest of the squad won’t mind one iota about Capello’s decision, it is that the honour of playing for your country far outweighs your concerns about leading it, therefore that is why I find it strange to alienate not only Rio, but Stevie G as well by making this decision. It was a headache that Fabio didn’t need to create and only serves to throw further pressure on himself.
But let’s be honest, does the captaincy at any level, mean anything now? There was a time when the captain and vice ran the playing side of the football club and were that only bridge between the players and the manager; whereas now the armband is handed around like confetti and you only have to look back to that England friendly where no fewer than eight players were given the armband and now have the personal recognition of claiming they captained their country. It no longer holds the honour it once did and maybe Capello feels that JT holds the England pennant in a better fashion, or has a stronger handshake for the opposition, but the decision certainly does seem a bizarre. John Terry would have run through brick walls for his country anyway, regardless of the band of elastic around his arm, therefore the point of attempting to fix something that wasn’t broken seems like a pointless task by Capello to me.
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Former Tottenham, Liverpool and West Ham defender Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock is one of the great characters of English football. Razor has the same no-nonsense attitude off the pitch as he did on it.
Uncompromising, controversial and outspoken, read more of Razor’s thoughts in his weekly column
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