John Terry Won’t Captain England Again While Capello is in Charge

March 2nd, 2010 | by: Daryl | Comments Off

This story is a couple days old but still worth sharing, for anyone that didn’t see it. Capello didn’t say too much about John Terry when stripping him of the captaincy last month, but expanded on that a little this weekend, making clear Terry will never again wear the armband while he’s in charge:

“Until the World Cup, John Terry will not be the captain again,” said Capello. “After the World Cup? If I remain as England manager? I think not.

“I asked for the captain to set an example for the young people; for the children and the fans. What he did was not good. I told him this and he understood.

“But I took the decision only because of what happened with Wayne Bridge, nothing else. I didn’t ever consider taking John Terry out of the squad, just as I didn’t decide to take Wayne Bridge out.

“And I don’t believe the other players will have lost respect for him because they know his leadership qualities.”

I initially dismissed this as unimportant. But it does answer a question a few people have raised about the captaincy: What if we get into a situation where Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, David Beckham and any other potential captains aren’t on the field? Will Terry take the armband temporarily in that case? Capello says no.

But it’s not all bad news for Terry. Capello did go on to say that – football wise at least – on field leadership is more important than ceremonial captaincy, and that Terry still had a leadership role to play:

“In Spain or Italy, the captain is the oldest player or the one with the most caps,” said Capello. “Here it is different. You look at the captain in a different way.

“To me, being a leader is more important than being the captain. John Terry is a leader. I have asked him to be the same. He will be the same. He will be a leader without wearing the armband.”

So there you have it. No armband for Terry, but we can still expect to see him shouting at teammates in South Africa.