This could also have been titled ‘No Bottle No Boss’ or ‘No Guts No Gaffer’ after the departure of Fabio Capello from his position as England manager yesterday. Getting rid of Glenn Hoddle a decade or so back because he believed in reincarnation (try sacking somebody for their religious beliefs nowadays!!) was one thing but forcing a man respected throughout the football world to resign because he stated publicly that he believes in innocent until proven guilty is incredibly low even by the standards of the FA.
It all stems from the complete lack of bravery by the FA to take any sort of stand over John Terry, God knows how strong the fence must be that they’re all sitting on over the allegations facing the former captain. The FA must have access to numerous statements and videos relating to the Terry – Ferdinand incident, surely private dialogue with Capello to establish their own opinion of innocence or guilt would have been the only way forward, stand by their man if they believed him to be innocent, relieve him of the captaincy with Capello’s blessing if as a group they felt he had a case to answer. Simply saying he cannot be skipper anymore without speaking to the manager first is a pathetic way of dealing with things and shows a total lack of bottle to face the situation head on. In my opinion the likelihood is the FA feel there is enough evidence against John Terry to suggest he will be found guilty in court otherwise they wouldn’t have taken away the armband, but to not involve the team manager in this process is basically not right and how can they be surprised that Capello didn’t help them present a united front when they didn’t reach the decision as a united unit?
Joey Barton has come under scrutiny for his Tweets related to the case and there was talk he may be found in contempt of court as a result. He has been cleared of any wrongdoing and will face no action but I found the definition of contempt of court to be interesting – any actions that could prejudice a jury and influence their verdict before or during a trial are considered contempt of court. Any juror with two brain cells to rub together will work out that in order to strip the England captaincy from a player they must have evidence of the player being guilty of something inappropriate and therefore go into the trial already suspecting a guilty verdict. Surely the FA taking the position away from Terry falls into the definition of contempt of court, let’s see if any legal action follows.
As for Capello’s successor, I hate to go along with the crowd but the obvious choice is Harry Redknapp, though the idea that he could do the job part time while still managing Spurs is ridiculous. So expect it to happen. I don’t think it is right for somebody to manage a Premier League club and England at the same time, imagine if you’re a manager under pressure such as Alex McLeish at Villa and you have a game against Tottenham at the weekend but three days before the game the Tottenham manager has Darren Bent with him for England and can decide whether or not he plays 90 minutes, 45 minutes or not at all in an international friendly. I’m not saying Redknapp would abuse his position if he had the chance but he would always be open to accusations of unfairness and the temptation must surely be there to rest players like Scott Parker or Aaron Lennon whilst away with England. Part time is not an option but hopefully Harry will take the job on full time and lead England to success.
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