Tuesday 15 March 2011

Terry reinstatement a no-brainer

There has been a lot of furore over Fabio Capello's decision to seemingly hand the England captaincy back to John Terry.

But for me, he should never have lost it in the first place.

Whatever he did or didn't do with Wayne Bridge's ex-partner is irrelevant in the wider scheme of things.

Even more so now, with Bridge well down the pecking order of left-backs and not wishing to be considered for England squads.

The removal of Terry as captain did more harm than good to England's World Cup campaign.

Everyone can see he is a born leader and any side with him in it would be better for him captaining it.

As for Rio Ferdinand, what a waste of time giving him the captaincy was.

How many games has he played since becoming captain? Four. That is simply not enough, and in truth Ferdinand is probably not even among England's top two centre backs now.

Terry and Michael Dawson should be first-choices, with Gary Cahill as an able deputy and Ferdinand there for any emergencies.

He is injury-prone, very rarely available for England squads and is not getting any younger.

To keep him in the role would be damaging for the team, having to make do with stand-in skippers every time they come together.

Even Manchester United gave his captaincy to Nemanja Vidic, due largely to Ferdinand's injury struggles.

The England captain simply has to be the captain of his club and also be available for the majority of squads.

If Capello wanted to remove Ferdinand from the role, of course he could have appointed Steven Gerrard.

But for me, to appoint Gerrard captain would also do a lot of harm, particularly to Frank Lampard. I just don't think you can appoint Gerrard without Lampard.

So who else, Wayne Rooney? Still too hot-headed for the role and hardly Mr Popular in the public himself.

So Terry is the only choice.

Even when he was not officially captain, it always seemed he was. He has natural instincts for leading his team and other players in the squad surely look up to his competitiveness, bravery and devotion to his country.

The situation in England's friendly with Denmark was simply embarrassing.

The armband was passed from pillar to post during the game as subs were made, with Gareth Barry and Ashley Cole both having it during the second half. They aren't even in their clubs' top two choices as captain, never mind their country.

Capello doesn't understand why the captaincy is such a big deal in England and another option would be to give the armband permanently to Cole, surely a first-choice for years to come.

But that too would draw criticism, with Cole holding possibly an even worse public reputation than Terry.

Terry should be captain until at least after EURO 2012, possibly even World Cup 2014, and then the role should be passed on eventually to Jack Wilshere.

He will be 22 in 2014, and not even near the prime of his career. He may not be ready for the role at that age but is surely an England captain of the future.

He seems to be a leader and, similarly to Terry, sets an example with his bravery, doggedness and never-say-die attitude.

He should be a fixture in the side for the next decade, possibly even decade and a half, and should be groomed for the role now.

A lot have said Capello has placed a 'ticking time-bomb' under the England squad with his reinstatement of Terry, but I completely disagree with that.

Terry should have the players' backing because, whatever they think of him off the field, you can't argue with his commitment on it.

Capello has been criticised for this decision but the only thing he should be criticised for on this is his decision to strip Terry of the captaincy in the first place.

It derailed England's World Cup campaign and now Capello has risked public humiliation by reversing his decision.

But this shows bravery and that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get his England team back on track.

At least he is not just counting down the days until the end of his contract.

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