John Terry will be England's leader whether he is captain or not, says Slaven Bilic

John Terry's ordeal may only be beginning as he comes to terms with his new status as merely one of Fabio Capello’s foot soldiers.

But while Terry’s reputation off the field may never recover, one of his recent international victims is convinced the Chelsea defender will still be a huge leader for Capello where it really matters.

Slaven Bilic felt the full force of Terry’s determination as England laid their Euro 2008 ghosts in remarkable style, destroying  Croatia’s proud unbeaten home record in Zagreb before sealing their place in South Africa with that outstanding 5-1 Wembley triumph.

And the former West Ham stopper believes that not only will Terry maintain a fundamental part of Capello’s England, but remain a driving force in the side even though he has been forced to cede the captaincy to Rio Ferdinand.

Bilic, who admitted he was delighted to have avoided another meeting with Capello’s side in the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, said: “John Terry is a tiger, he is a lion and always will be for his team.

“There is no doubt about that. He is just a leader.

“Some players need the push of the  armband to be a captain, to be an authority and gain that from the rest of the players and a leader for the rest of the team, but not John Terry.

“He has never needed that. He is a natural leader, anyway.

“I know he can still be that kind of player for England this summer in the World Cup. It will not affect him. That is the kind of man he is.”

Bilic added: “He was the leader on the pitch for Chelsea right from the beginning, long before he became the captain of the club.

“It is the way he plays and he always will show that leadership on the pitch, whether he is the captain or not.

“I have no worries about that and Fabio Capello knows that as well. Nobody in football knows that as well as Capello.”

Capello’s authoritative and decisive treatment of the Terry affair only served to underline the Italian’s status as the right man for the toughest job in football.

The England manager’s terse mood in Warsaw signified his feeling that the past eight days have been an unwanted distraction, even though he claimed: “It has been a normal week for me.”

But that mood was surely only lifted by the sort of qualifying draw that Steve McClaren would have killed for during his ill-fated spell at the England helm.

In addition to the major plus of being bracketed in one of the three five-team groups - giving him real leeway in spreading the matches over the 13 month-qualifying spell that begins in September - Capello could hardly have asked for an easier task.

World Cup qualifiers Switzerland - Capello’s first England opponents at Wembley in February 2008 - are the highest ranked opponents in Group G, 18th in FIFA’s latest tables.

Dimitar Berbatov’s Bulgaria are 30th, newly-independent Montengro - playing in their first European campaign - are 72nd and Wales a lowly 76th.

England have not lost to Wales since 1984 and beat them twice in 2006 World Cup qualifying under Sven Goran Eriksson, while the Swiss were outclassed 3-0 in Coimbra in Euro 2004, a game in which Wayne Rooney briefly became the youngest  scorer in European Finals history and which saw striker Alex Frei banned for spitting at Steve Gerrard.

England’s last meeting with Bulgaria - against whom they have never lost - was a 1-1 European Championship qualifying draw under Kevin Keegan in 1999 while Montenegro are the final and smallest state to emerge from the former Yugoslavia.

Capello did his best to pretend it might be tough but for once was not convincing. “Every game will be really tough,” he claimed.

“It will be interesting and it will be impossible for us to play even one game relaxed.

“I was speaking to John Toshack on the plane to Poland and he was telling me how Wales are a young team. They’re average age is 22-year-old.

“Already I know a lot of Welsh players - they are good, young players. It will interesting. Derbies are never normal games. It will be one of the most important game for me.

“Switzerland will be really tough. My first game was against them but we have moved along since then.

“I remember I was really happy after seeing the players in training, but it was not the same in the match. The players were not the same players out on the pitch that I saw in training.

“But I think, when we play Switzerland again, we will show that we have progressed since my first game in charge.”

The Swiss have too under Ottmar Hitzfeld, but while they qualified for the World Cup as group winners that came after a home defeat to Luxembourg.

Hitzfeld said: “England are the clear favourites. It is a hard group but we have to hope this team is capable of qualifying.”

Yet Hitzfeld was positively bullish compared to Bulgarian coach Stanimir Stoilov, who said: “When you look at the group it is clear that there is one strong favourite, England.

“The rest of us all have ambitions to go for second place and to qualify that way. Every other team including us has the chance to be second.”