Fabio Capello, one of the most successful managers in the history of England’s national team, suddenly quit his post running the squad on Wednesday over a row with the Football Association. The reason for the tension: John Terry being stripped of England’s captaincy without Capello being consulted first.
While it’s understandable that Capello was upset about being kept out of the loop over this whole thing, what does it say about him? What would he have done about Terry being the national team captain?
To rewind for a second, Terry, also captain of Chelsea, is facing charges of racial abuse. Even better, the player that he allegedly racially taunted was Anton Ferdinand, the brother of Terry’s fellow starting centre back Rio Ferdinand. That trial has been put on the back-burner as such and won’t be put up for any type of judgement until after Euro 2012 – convenient, no?
So what would Capello have done if given full control? Could he have possibly kept Terry as captain while embroiled in this mess?
It’s not as if he hasn’t stripped Terry of the captaincy before. Prior to the 2010 World Cup, Capello removed Terry as captain under allegations that he had an affair with fellow English national teamer Wayne Bridge’s wife. Quite the upstanding guy Terry is, eh?
So if the precedence is there for Terry to lose the captaincy, was the undermining really that big of a deal? Was it worth giving up a $10-million-plus per year post to take a stand against the FA?
Unless, that is, Capello actually wanted to keep Terry on as captain. That in itself would be almost an admission that he didn’t care about the racism charges when you look at his past moves. If adultery was enough to remove Terry’s armband, wouldn’t this be almost grounds enough to remove him from the team?
Well, if the world of English football was that simple, Capello would have stayed on his lucrative job, made Terry sit out Euro 2012 all together and then somehow brought home Britain’s first major trophy since 1966. Instead, it’s just more drama for the motherland of the world’s most popular game.
Also, I wouldn’t bet against Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp getting the job. If you were betting on it, you wouldn’t get even decent odds: Redknapp sits at 2-7 on one betting site.