Captaincy chaos has left senior England players with grave doubts over Capello

By Steve Anglesey in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 12:03 22/03/11

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If they were expecting a lengthy, Churchillian explanation - and surely none of them were - they were disappointed.

Instead, Fabio Capello waited until half an hour after arriving at London Colney to spend a whole 170 seconds talking to his England squad.

Capello being Capello, of course, we still do not know if he touched on the issue that has been the subject of the national debate over the past 10 days.

Indeed, it is all too likely that he ignored the subject altogether.

As we do know, the Italian has never been one to feel he has to justify his decisions.

John Terry was clearly top dog again, closest to Capello as he spoke to the players, after leading the squad onto the training pitch where Capello and his entourage were waiting.

But even if we all are aware who will lead England into Saturday's Euro 2012 clash with Wales, Capello appears fundamentally weakened by the crisis he so stupidly created.

That Capello has a task on his hands after initiating an utterly needless furore is evident.

More than a few of the players who arrived at the squad's Hertfordshire base last night - including senior stars - are now harbouring grave doubts over the Italian and his management style.

The England players were willing to accept the distance - at times, the arrogance - of the relationship with the manager when they were winning.

But they have not been winning - not regularly - for too long now.

It has allowed all the doubts that assailed England under Capello's predecessors, the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Kevin Keegan, Sven Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren, to creep back into the minds of the men called up for national service.

And taking responsibility for a manager who shows little or no willingness to stand up for them is not something that will go on for much longer.

Irrespective of the merits or otherwise of the captaincy decision - even Rio Ferdinand himself would have accepted the call as the manager's prerogative, especially given the manner in which he'd got the armband in the first place - what followed was plain wrong and utterly disrespectful.

Clear signals and on the record comments from Capello were followed by contradictory steers and briefings by his chief lieutenant, Franco Baldini, with Ferdinand informed that no decision over the permanent captaincy had been taken.

That was, as if now evident, completely untrue and Ferdinand's anger increased when Capello accused the United defender of deliberately ducking a summit meeting that was never scheduled.

Beyond poor. Hard to understand. Impossible to justify.

No wonder Ferdinand has the hump, although there was never any realistic chance of him turning his back on England in a fit of high dudgeon.

Most managers who had upset the majority of their players would have considered holding a clear-the-air meeting when the squad arrived at their hotel base on Monday night.

Under Capello, though, that does not happen.

He did greet his players at dinner last night, but the first group discussion came when they walked onto the training pitches at London Colney.

The absence of Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard through injury will make it easier for Terry - in many ways the unwitting victim here, in that he was not the driving force behind a contretemps that risks a huge schism within the England camp.

Terry, of course, is not a shrinking violent. After all, he was accused of trying to be Fletcher Christian to Capello's Captain Bligh in what was painted as Mutiny on the Rustenburg Bounty last summer.

That was more than slightly unfair.

Even if Terry did go too far, he genuinely believed he was speaking on behalf of the players.

Now, as the captain chosen twice over, the Chelsea skipper will believe he has more authority to be a vocal conduit between the rest of the squad and the management team.

And while he might be unlikely to exercise that authority immediately - that would be an act of sheer folly - it is hard to believe Terry will not feel he has a duty and obligation to put his point forward when the time arrives.

The next few days will be box-office stuff for people watchers, a whole new dynamic created by Capello's lack of the sort of determined surefootedness we were all told he epitomised when he took over from McClaren more than three years ago.

That image of the Italian seems increasingly hard to square with the reality.

If he cannot show true control now, getting the focus back to ensure the required victory in Cardiff on Saturday, the clock will start to tick very loudly indeed.

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