England run out of respect for Fabio, Terry made captain
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England run out of respect for Fabio: Squad simply can't believe it as Terry made captain
Feeling the squeeze: Senior players are upset at Fabio Capello's decision to reinstate John Terry
Fabio Capello will gather his players at the luxury hotel in Watford where the England squad convene on Monday night and tell them that John Terry is to be restored as captain until the end of his managerial reign in 2012. But it will be a pointless exercise.
The damage has already been done to team morale and nothing Capello can say seems likely to restore the faith of his squad, some of whom are rapidly losing their last vestiges of respect for the manager.
The overwhelming feeling of certain players, other than incredulity, appears to be weariness.
Weariness at the endless saga of the captaincy, which Capello has turned into a cheap melodrama, and weariness of Capello himself.
As professionals, the players will turn up this week, train and play as well as they can against Wales on Saturday. But for many, the joy of representing England, in short supply anyway throughout Capello’s reign, has now almost entirely disappeared.
Publicly, some will mouth platitudes about it being the ‘manager’s decision’ and how they are supportive. Privately, some are aghast.
‘Why did he need to do this now?’ said one England player last week, echoing the thoughts of the football nation. There was simply no clamour or need to restore Terry and the players are as bewildered as the public.
It is little more than a year since Terry was summoned to Wembley Stadium and stripped of the captaincy in the wake of allegations of an affair — denied by both parties — with the former fiancée of his one-time friend and England team-mate, Wayne Bridge.
Perhaps more pertinently, it is just over eight months since the humiliation of Bloemfontein, where Terry played so badly in the 4-1 defeat against Germany that some, including those close to Capello, questioned whether he should ever represent England again.
But Capello said last week: ‘I have decided that John Terry, after one year of punishment, will be the permanent captain.
‘He made mistakes but it is normal for people to make mistakes. He understood the mistake and he learns from his mistakes. He will be a very important captain for us.’
Many footballers would question that analysis.
One Chelsea player — not an England international — once launched a tirade at Terry after the entire squad had been called to a meeting at which it was made clear that owner Roman Abramovich was furious with the bad behaviour of his players.
The dressing-down came shortly after it was revealed that associates of Terry had been using the access he granted them to charge guests to visit the club’s training ground.
When Terry later attempted to address the team, the player in question pointed out that he had just been lectured like a child as a result of Terry’s poor judgment and the
captain was in no position to speak.Capello, asked last week if he felt the England players would be happy to see Terry restored as captain, said: ‘I think so. They respect John Terry as a leader, absolutely.’
That may be the case for some; for many, it manifestly is not. And either Capello does not know it or he does not care. With 15 months to go to Euro 2012, little hope of winning that tournament and an outside chance of being beaten to top spot in the qualifying group by Montenegro, Capello is now stirring up the tensions in the squad that were evident in South Africa.
Rio Ferdinand’s principal complaint is said to be not the captaincy decision itself, but the manner in which it was reached. Attempting to test public opinion, the issue was first raised in a newspaper eight days ago.
Initially, it was claimed no final decision had been made and the manager wanted to see how the players reacted. There was no need to tell Ferdinand, because he was still the captain. In fact, that is what Ferdinand was told when he contacted Franco Baldini, Capello’s assistant, last week.
Angry at discovering the newspaper reports had substance, Ferdinand texted Baldini
last Sunday, saying he knew Capello was the source of the stories and demanding to know why he had not at least been told first. Yet Baldini telephoned Ferdinand and assured him he was still captain.Less than 24 hours later, that was thrown into doubt again. At a lunch with journalists on Monday, Capello used the word ‘permanent’ to describe Terry’s potential captaincy, prompting further speculation. The official line remained that no decision had been made.
Ferdinand, assuming he was about to be sacked but having received no explanation for that, was bewildered.
When Capello announced that he would seek out Ferdinand during United’s Champions League match with Marseille, Ferdinand ensured that he was not in his usual seat in the Old Trafford directors’ box, where Capello and Baldini would be. Instead, Ferdinand watched from Wayne Rooney’s executive box.
Capello has conceded that he has bungled the announcement of the reappointment. The move was intended to be announced as a temporary measure for the Wales game and was in response to the farce of recent matches, when the armband has been passed to almost anyone but Terry.
However, Capello’s bumbling English means he has been bounced into making a permanent decision now, ahead of the game.
The Italian said: ‘I said in the press conference after the lunch on Monday that I hadn’t decided and I wanted to speak with the players. But after the word permanent, it changes everything.
‘I used the word permanent, (but) I was really focused on the Welsh game and I had thought a lot about this game and the captaincy. I decided John Terry would be the captain for this game because after the game in Copenhagen against Denmark, the way in which the armband was moved around was upsetting for him.
‘After this game I thought about what we really needed to do. I knew that Rio and Steven Gerrard, the vice-captain, were injured. I said my decision would be the day before the game because I wanted to speak with the players but the word permanent decided everything.’
Capello appears to be under the impression that all will be well when he meets Ferdinand to explain. Again, he is either uninformed or not bothered.
‘I tried to meet him at the Marseille game,’ said Capello. ‘He preferred not to meet us. I hope I will meet him in the future to speak with him personally, not by phone. I spoke with Steven Gerrard and it is no problem for him. Another thing that was important for me is that the game against Wales will be a really tough game. The atmosphere, everything, will be incredible, and we need a captain with a big personality, a leader.
John, when he played without the armband, was every time a leader on the pitch, a leader in the dressing room. He was really good every time.’
Undermined: Frank Lampard
Not against Germany in Bloemfontein, he wasn’t. And in talking up Terry, Capello has undermined Gerrard and Frank Lampard, who now find their leadership credentials trashed; Lampard because he is not trusted to captain the team in Wales even though he is fit, and Gerrard because, unlike Ferdinand, he is not a long-term injury worry and yet he is deemed less worthy than Terry to wear the armband.
All this comes less than a year since Capello said Terry would never be captain again under his management. ‘Yes, yes, but I think one year’s punishment is enough,’ said Capello.
His players may well conclude that anything he says is driven by expediency rather than the need for consistency.
Not to be forgotten is Terry’s performance at the World Cup finals, where, at an infamous Press conference after the dire 0-0 draw against Algeria, he announced that he was speaking on behalf of the players and would be having words with Capello that night about what was going wrong.
He never did because Capello was happy to humiliate him, crushing the rebellion at source when it became clear that Terry had misjudged the team’s mood.
But Capello now says that he saw leadership qualities even in Terry’s attempted coup. ‘He is a leader but sometimes the leader can make mistakes,’ said Capello.
The Italian continues to labour under the impression that the England captaincy is a huge issue in this country.