UnitedNorge – En Manchester United-blogg

Andy Cole hadde sin store United-sesong i 1998-99 da United tok The Treble. I lys av diskusjonen rundt Englands landslagskaptein, hevder Cole at kapteinsbindet er oppskrytt. Den eneste kapteinen som for han har fungert som en Sjef med stor S på banen er Roy Keane. Det kommer fra en mann med 20 år i toppfotballen, i hele 12 klubber.

Andy Cole sier dette i sammenheng med diskusjonen om hvorvidt John Terry skal miste kapteinsbindet.

“The debate over John Terry’s captaincy of England has snowballed into a minefield of moral, practical and sporting issues. I certainly don’t envy Fabio Capello – it’s far from easy to see what should be done next. But what occurs to me, as a professional who played for 12 clubs, and England, over a 20-year career, is that the captaincy issue is a red herring anyway.”

“Some footballing people will say this is blasphemous, but captaincy in football is massively overrated, almost to the point of being irrelevant. Football captains are rarely anywhere near so important.”

“In my whole career I can only cite Roy Keane as being, effectively, a boss on the pitch, dictating play tactically as well as emotionally, and even then Keano was often his master’s voice, for Sir Alex Ferguson.”

“I hate to disappoint those who buy into the notion that every captain gives a Braveheart speech before a game, calling for his troops to die for him and the cause, but it’s a myth. In any given dressing room you can have 11 strong personalities, 11 captains, each capable in their role.”

“Sure, some captains are shouters – Gary Neville – but so are many non-captains. Some captains are quieter and let their feet do the talking – Ryan Giggs. Others wouldn’t dream of telling you how to play, just lead by example by working hard in training and giving their all on a pitch – David Beckham. Does captaincy really require a unique temperament? No.”

“I use Manchester United as an example because I know them best, but in recent memory Rio Ferdinand has been captain, so too Vidic, Evra, Van der Sar. It can be taken as an honour for the man with the armband but the captain’s identity, on its own, is never going to win you a match.”

Videre mener Andy Cole at å ta fra John Terry kapteinsbindet bare er et PR-stunt.

“To my mind, that’s why stripping JT of the captaincy, or not, is cosmetic, quite frankly. He’s upset people, and it would appear nobody has been hurt in this latest episode more than his own wife, which I can only guess he is ashamed of. None of us revel in our mistakes and JT will have cursed himself for his own behaviour.”

“Terry is rightly getting flak, and he’s brought it on himself.  But to argue that he should be stripped of the England captaincy, or the same role at Chelsea, or thrown out of the England camp altogether is too simplistic, and reactionary, and quite possibly pointless. The situation is far too complex to be handled with a PR gesture, even though that would placate the loudest critics.”