13 November 2007
John Terry, Your Time Is Up
Of all the mistakes the current England manager has made, making John Terry captain of his country was probably the worst. It is fair to say that there were few alternatives but to give the captaincy to a player who is barely worth his place in the team undermined not only the team but the player’s innate sense of command over his team mates was disastrous.
At Chelsea there is no doubting the galvanising effect Terry’s presence has on his team mates - just look at their defensive record without him - but part of that is due to his being the longest serving Chelsea player, having come up through the youth setup and being paid more than any other player. His team mates assume he is a great player and follow that lead accordingly.
Being given such role in a team has an equally valuable effect on the player himself - not only is he seen as a leader but it is a role that he is happy to adopt.
In the national team however, Terry gained his place not from Sol Campbell but from Ledley King after the 2-1 loss to France in the European Championships. At the time, it was widely accepted that King would step aside and it is this widely-held assumption of the value of Champions League experience that led to that. As mentioned in previous articles, this assumption undermines selection by merit and in this case King, who has to this date had only one less than brilliant performance for his country (playing out of position) should never have lost his place.
By the time the new manager was installed and Terry was announced as captain - a full two years later - Terry had still not had a single performance of worth in an England shirt displaying only his lack of pace and uncertainty on the ground.
While there is precedent for the captaincy enhancing a players ability (David Beckham), as a captain Terry is as quiet as a door mouse; his great captaincy ability is a myth at International level and it is no surprise that England have failed to reverse every momentum change against them within a match.
His attributes as a player cost the team - no pace, poor ball playing, a traditional deep-lying defender (like Carragher) rather than the cerebral, quick, ball-player (Ferdinand, King) and there really is no compelling argument to play him ahead of Sol Campbell or Jamie Carragher let along Ledley King (who admittedly is a player more in the style of Ferdinand).
At the time, the obvious choices were Terry or Steven Gerrard. Gerrard himself is incredibly inconsistent for his country normally contributing as much to the turnover of possession by misplaced passes as to his tackling. But he is at least an established played whose captaincy ability is beyond reproach.
No one mentioned Rio Ferdinand though. A guaranteed starter, huge experience, well-respected within the team and a grounded, personality. Surely he could have been no worse than John Terry?
Time will tell whether the national team will have a new manager. If so, we have to hope that a new captain will follow too.
