John Terry reinstated as captain of England

Will Fabio Capello's decision to reinstate John Terry as the permanent England captain have a negative affect on the rest of the squad?

I’m sure a lot of you will have woken up this morning to the expected news that John Terry has been reinstated as the captain of England. This decision by Fabio Capello has been met with a wide range of criticism, not only from the media, but football fans across the country. John Terry undoubtedly has great leadership skills and is a very good choice for England captain, this obviously isn’t the issue, the problem is the way in which Fabio Capello has handled the situation.

On the 5^th of February 2010 John Terry was dismissed as permanent England captain for his affair with current England, and former Chelsea teammate Wayne Bridges ex girlfriend. At the time of the affair, Wayne Bridge and Vanessa Perroncel were together. Fabio Capello regarded this as a bad example to young people everywhere, young people that would have aspirations to become professional footballers with the hope of captaining their country one day. Fabio Capello decided that this may encourage bad behaviour from younger footballers, so decided that, for this reason, John Terry was no longer his man to captain England.

At the time when the incident came about, nearly 14 months ago now, there was two arguments regarding this decision, one of which was Capello’s stance on the situation, the other was that the incident had nothing to do with football, so the action to take away John Terry’s armband was uncalled for. I was for the second argument at the time, I didn’t agree with Capello’s decision, but what’s done is done.

So 14 months on, I appear to be disagreeing with Fabio Capello once again. How on earth can you reinstate someone as a captain when you’ve made the decision to sack him for setting a bad example to young footballers across the country? To me this is saying, do what you want, over time you’ll be forgiven, you just have to bide your time and wait out your punishment. I believe there will be massive repercussions in the England dressing room from this decision.

First of all the obvious one, Rio Ferdinand will be heartbroken by this decision. When he was installed as the England captain after John Terry’s affair came to light, he would have been under the belief it was a permanent role, he definitely wasn’t told that he was filling this role until Terry has earned his punishment. Rio Ferdinand undoubtedly loves pulling on an England shirt but his relationship with Fabio Capello must be rock bottom right now. If what the papers are saying is true, Capello hasn’t directly contacted Rio about the decision, if so; I wouldn’t blame Rio for refusing to play under a man that has shown such disrespect.

Another problem that Capello might face now is the chance that his reputation as a man who commands absolute discipline, may be in tatters. He took very strong action, maybe unnecessarily, last season, and now has gone back on his word. What will the younger England players think of this? Jack Wilshere is undoubtedly a great player for his age, but he has been in the news a couple of times this season, he looks like he could be a bit of a tearaway. Surely if he needs any incentive to behave well off the football pitch, Fabio Capello isn't giving him one. Also, why is it that he feels the need to punish John Terry for having an affair, and not the likes of Peter Crouch and Wayne Rooney for their alleged wrongdoings? I’m not saying I believe they should be punished for off-field behaviour such as this, but surely if he’s going to punish one, he has to punish them all.