Captain Material

            Just woke up to the news that Scott Parker has been named the New England captain and can’t say I’m disappointed or surprised at all. He was not the natural successor to Terry but a sensible one. We have seen time and again that he is England through and through and a model professional both on and off the pitch, never failing to not lead by example despite not previously holding the armband for England or Spurs. As a Newcastle fan I still remember the terrier like performances he would churn out every week without fail. He is not a player with the flair of say Gerrard or Rooney, but one that you can count on to turn up week in week out and put a consistent performance in of guts and guile. This is the sort of person you want as an England captain, who players can always look to for an example of strength and character when things get tough.    

       Zoolander? – No the next England Captain, how could he not be with that lid

I think we could all have agreed that Gerrard was the natural choice to step in with his clear leadership quality been on show for Liverpool since he took over the captaincy from Sami Hyypia. He is the experienced man for the job, but lets be honest we saw all we could have done at the world cup. Anyway I think a move to Gerrard as captain would have been a step back. He embodies all the failures at that world cup in the summer and would have simply represented a step in the wrong direction. He did well for the world cup and was arguably our best player at that tournament; however it would have just been the message that would have been portrayed by sticking him back in the role. One of the same old England old guard clogging up the team with dead wood that we are trying to get rid of.

I think Pearce is sensibly trying to create a New England and who could blame him. He has been given a clean slate, the manager has gone and whether he gets the job for the Euros is irrelevant because he is part of the set up whomever the manager, so is understandably striving for success with England whatever.

Ferdinand is another candidate, however he comes riddled with the same problems as Gerrard and probably portrays them even more severely. As well as representing the old guard and dead wood in the England team I feel strongly that Ferdinand does not have the ability to be an England regular for the next four years or till the next World Cup. Why then is there any point in having players like Terry and Ferdinand in the team?

Yes they bring experience, but we have that in abundance. It is time to let players like Jones and Smalling take up key roles in the England set up which I have no doubt will see them flourish for club and country. They are undoubtedly the future of England, why then is there any point not playing them if they are up to the required standard?

Wayne Rooney represents the next possible candidate. There is a different problem here and that is the simple issue of him being banned for the first three games of the Euros. This makes him ineligible for the whole of the group stages and thus there is no point in my eyes having a captain that is not going to lead on the pitch until the group stages have been concluded.

He has undoubted talent and is by far the most talent of the lot at the moment. Moreover I have no doubt that he will go onto to get close to the achievements of the great Bobby Charlton, however at the moment there seems to be a certain issue with his temperament. People forget how young he actually is and that he made his premier league debut for Manchester United when he was just 19. In addition, he had of course played 67 games for Everton before this. So in terms of experience in premier league games he is up there, however there has always been a question mark over his discipline. The fact that he was, when called up, the youngest ever capped Englishman and England’s youngest ever goal scorer, but at the same time he has been sent off twice for England tells its own story. That makes him the most sent off player along with David Beckham.

This underlines the exact problem with him, the talent is obviously there but he is prone to lapses in concentration that cost him his place on the pitch. When selecting an England captain you cannot have someone who is prone to letting the team down in that way and on such regular occasions. However, on the other hand the fact that he is level with David Beckham shows that there is still time for Rooney to learn to control his anger and undoubtedly become a successful England captain in the future just as Beckham was, not at the moment sadly though.


by Giles Harwood (@gilesharwood001)