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Who is Capello kidding?

By Osama Rahman

It took Fabio Capello 12 minutes to shatter a life-long dream, one which was held on to for four years. In only 720 seconds, 29-year's of hard work was brushed aside for a brief moment of erroneous judgment. Was the iron-fisted Italian right in stripping the 'Icon' John Terry of his captaincy? Or will this decision come back to haunt him come June? Though it remains to be seen, let us analyse the situation from an impartial point of view.

John Terry gives his 100 percent every time he comes to the field, of that there is no doubt. The fact that he is a born leader is pretty clear as well. In fact, he is up there with the greatest captain's of all time. Even when the scandals of his affair with Wayne Bridge's ex-girlfriend was in the headlines, John Terry put aside all those personal problems to clinch the game against Burnley, by scoring the goal himself. That showed real character and that is something that should be appreciated. In an instant, John Terry's years of undying service to the game has been forgotten, and Captain Charisma's image has been replaced by some sort of Don Juan Figurine. This is unfair, to say the least. Now that John Terry is not captain anymore, will this be reason enough for the team to stand united? Realists would think not.

If all or most of England players are offended by John Terry's disloyalty, the dressing room will be divided regardless of whether Terry is captain or not. The division will lead to certain factions and the team will be pitted against itself in the dressing room, so disaster will await further on the field. The only option now is to drop John Terry altogether, if Capello is to salvage anything positive from this situation. For a man who was caught up in his own match-fixing scandal, he knows the price of controversy. Yes, some may rightfully consider John Terry's exclusion as ridiculous, but it is mandatory if England are to perform. Plus, without Terry leading the team they don't have a chance anyway, so they might as well just drop Terry and get the humiliation over with. John Terry has accepted the decision graciously and promised to give his 100 percent but Fabio must realize that Terry will now epitomize the lone wolf every time he plays. The idea of dropping Wayne Bridge, the symbol of mediocrity, will only cause more uproar.

The fact that Rio Ferdinand has replaced him, adds insult to the injury. So Capello would rather have a drunk-driving, injury-prone, drug-test missing and violent individual to lead the team instead of someone who happened to be attracted towards a lingerie model? Of course barroom brawler Steven Gerrard is a natural vice-captain too then. Capello has clearly lost the plot and since USA went through the same thing in 1998, England should prepare for a German shellacking. Capello's choices are simple at the moment. Stick to his iron-fisted rule, re-instate Terry as captain and go on to win the World Cup or at least reach the Finals (where Germany wins, FYI) OR he can carry on with this charade and bring Role-Model player Joey Barton to join his other perfect role-modelly selections and go on to be humiliated in the worst possible way. Team Bridge is certainly not the way to go. Who is Capello kidding?