John Terry Replaced As England Captain.

[salty]

The soap opera of the English captaincy continued this morning when the FA replaced Terry as captain. With the court case postponed until after the European Championshipshe FA felt they had to act. Stephen Gerrard is the favourite to be the next captain.

I have to say as a non Englishman the whole affair has its humourous aspect.

[transam]

Who gives a shit. ?

[spongeman]

Yeah watching it now on Sky...although when Rio Ferdinand was said to have frowned on such activities that did raise my eyebrows..........

He did'nt turn up for a drugs test did he, which is the same as failing one.

[StevieH]

soap opera is right. no other country in world football puts as much importance on the captaincy thing, it's a nonsense with england.

curious to know why the FA waited until now though and didn't do it the moment he was arrested and charged with it three months ago.

[StevieH]

terry is now reported to be considering retiring from international football by the way. haha. what a shame, he's had such a glorious international career.

[onionluke]

Could there be an opening for a comeback from poster boy , eh what's is name again ?

[transam]

terry is now reported to be considering retiring from international football by the way. haha. what a shame, he's had such a glorious international career.

Probably his dick is taking total control of things eh.

[smokie36]

Isn't Giggs half English?

Failing that Scholes.

[mrbojangles]

curious to know why the FA waited until now though and didn't do it the moment he was arrested and charged with it three months ago.

Cos they are a total joke. But you already know that Stevie.

[smokie36]

curious to know why the FA waited until now though and didn't do it the moment he was arrested and charged with it three months ago.

Cos they are a total joke. But you already know that Stevie.

curious to know why the FA waited until now though and didn't do it the moment he was arrested and charged with it three months ago.

Cos they are a total joke. But you already know that Stevie.

Engerland...hahaaaaaahaha

[smokie36]

And no I won't stop.

Edit: Time to start the Six Nations Thread.

[mrbojangles]

And no I won't stop.

Edit: Time to start the Six Nations Thread.

Seeing as Scoterland aren't playing and you will be bored over the summer, we might let you start an off topic thread in here. Albeit Caber tossing might not get many responses

[smokie36]

And no I won't stop.

Edit: Time to start the Six Nations Thread.

Seeing as Scoterland aren't playing and you will be bored over the summer, we might let you start an off topic thread in here. Albeit Caber tossing might not get many responses

There are plenty of tossers on one particular thread already. No naming and shaming here though.

[StevieH]

this is good.

John Terry's captaincy is irrelevant – England will be hopeless whatever

The football captaincy is a role less significant than regimental goat. By obsessing over it we keep setting ourselves up for a fall

For possibly only the second time in its history, the England football captaincy has become fleetingly relevant. You'll have guessed the dateline and details of the single other occasion on which it has been worthy of discussion on Moral Maze (Bogotá, 1970, Bobby Moore and the "stolen" bracelet). But back in the present day, John Terry has been stripped of the armband for a second time, with the Football Association board taking the decision to stand him down until his trial on charges of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand is over.

The first thing to say to anyone remotely disquieted by the loss is: don't worry. England will be just as hopelessly flawed without Captain Fantastic.

The second is to acknowledge that the FA board were placed in a position that even competent people would find difficult, so you can only imagine what a brain-melt it must have been for the likes of them. The blazers were required to balance two grave but conflicting moral issues: the presumption of innocence, and the need to treat allegations of racism with the utmost gravity. Alas, the fact that Terry had been stripped of the captaincy once before, over his apparent affair with Wayne Bridge's former girlfriend, muddied the waters in the most unfortunate of ways. The Bridge situation was a pathetic bros-before-hos farce which would have been funny had it not been taken so excruciatingly seriously by much of the media and the powers that be – and for some, this latest sacking will imply an equivalence for a public figure between alleged racism and alleged shagging your mate's ex.

At least on this occasion the FA were right, though mostly for the wrong reasons. John Terry shouldn't be captain because these days he almost always shouldn't assume his place in the starting line-up. His myth-making about being a big-game player is bewilderingly successful, particularly given that he didn't seem to even be in shot for a good 75 minutes of England's last major tournament match, when they lost 4-1 to Germany in Bloemfontein in 2010.

But the most wrong thing about the FA's right decision is the part of their statement that says it all. "This decision has been taken due to the higher profile nature of the England captaincy, on and off the pitch," it runs, "and the additional demands and requirements expected of the captain leading into and during a tournament."

Thus they set themselves up for the next fall, which will be the same as all the other falls.

Forgive the return to a wearingly familiar furrow, but nothing ever changes. The England cricket captaincy is of immense importance, given the operational nature of the role. The England football captaincy is a position marginally less significant than that of regimental goat. Actual responsibilities include wearing a dress harness – the armband – and not making any malodorous deposits while on parade.

Other, more successful, footballing nations realise this. The last time Terry lost the captaincy, there was a Newsnight discussion about it all – obviously – in which the wise former Chelsea player Pat Nevin pointed out that club football is very different from international football, and in the latter there should be plenty of leaders on the field. But, as he lamented: "We've got this extreme thing about the captaincy."

Can't we just give it to the oldest player on the pitch? When Italy won the 1982 World Cup, the captain was the 40-year-old goalkeeper, Dino Zoff. How much invaluable influence Zoff could have had on upfield play is a matter for your own judgment, but somehow the Italians managed to muddle their way through to holding the Jules Rimet trophy aloft for that third time, when England have spent almost half a century failing to come close.

Since 1870, England's ratio of trophies-won to man-hours-expended-on-discussions-about-who-would-technically-be-the-bloke-to-receive-said-trophy is approximately 1:eleventy million. It is sport's most insane displacement activity, and the self-regarding refusal to realise that is one of England's many systemic problems.

Even apparently rational foreign managers, hailing from countries where a fraction of the emphasis is placed on the captaincy, find themselves in thrall to it the minute they cross the Channel. David Beckham's England captaincy is forever being eulogised for his Herculean performance in aWorld Cup qualifier against Greece in 2001, when the captains of properly successful teams can draw on heroic tales from rather bigger games than that. Similarly, Terry's Spartacus moment was a bottled mutiny against Fabio Capello in South Africa, which he appeared to trail in a press conference. Players echoing "No, I'm Terricus" were conspicuous by their absence, and within a few hours he was issuing a humiliating apology. It was left to France to show England how to do an absurd mutiny – but then, of course, the French know how to revolt.

Back and back it comes to a question of national character, with attitudes to the England captaincy apparently defined by the weirdo idea that the leader should personify the traits which this septic isle would like to project. Terry's bulldog physiognomy was desirable until it looked like people might think we were racists. Presumably now it'll be the turn of Steven "don't worry Dad, I'll bring the harvest in myself" Gerrard – at least until someone declines to play Phil Collins for him. See you back here then.

Twitter: @marina_hyde

[smokie36]

If England took the kids and played them in the tournament in the way they started in the friendly last year then they can surprise anyone.

That won't happen though because it would upset the senior players.

And their sponsors no doubt.

[StevieH]

If England took the kids and played them in the tournament in the way they started in the friendly last year then they can surprise anyone.

That won't happen though because it would upset the senior players.

And their sponsors no doubt.

always about the money isn't it? and the established hierarchy.

when does capello leave the job? immediately after the euros? what's he got to lose? take a load of kids and leave the tarnished generation of gobshites and self-adorers at home. might at least create a realistic expectation level for a change.

[carmine]

If England took the kids and played them in the tournament in the way they started in the friendly last year then they can surprise anyone.

That won't happen though because it would upset the senior players.

And their sponsors no doubt.

always about the money isn't it? and the established hierarchy.

when does capello leave the job? immediately after the euros? what's he got to lose? take a load of kids and leave the tarnished generation of gobshites and self-adorers at home. might at least create a realistic expectation level for a change.

Totally agree with both of you and i for one can't even muster up the enthusiasm to watch them.

[mrbojangles]

Edit: Time to start the Six Nations Thread.

Are you sure you want to do that

[smokie36]

Edit: Time to start the Six Nations Thread.

Are you sure you want to do that

Edit: Time to start the Six Nations Thread.

Are you sure you want to do that

Any more of this off topic nonsense and I'll have to ask migsy to ban you.

[MrRed]

Hopefully now the correct thing to do is retire from international football Mr Terry.

It would be hugely beneficial to our future prospects to get the youngsters involved in the euro's.....both Terry and Ferdinand are past there best.

Would love to see players who are not living on past glories picked now and the bulk of the next squad should show this.

[StevieH]

Hopefully now the correct thing to do is retire from international football Mr Terry.

It would be hugely beneficial to our future prospects to get the youngsters involved in the euro's.....both Terry and Ferdinand are past there best.

Would love to see players who are not living on past glories picked now and the bulk of the next squad should show this.

thing is with england at international level the players aren't living on past glories even, they're living on past over hyping. worst thing that happened to many of them was when that berk crozier coined the term 'golden generation'.

joey barton summed this lot up best after the 2006 world cup. "i went to the world cup. i played like shit. here's my book".

[MrRed]

Hopefully now the correct thing to do is retire from international football Mr Terry.

It would be hugely beneficial to our future prospects to get the youngsters involved in the euro's.....both Terry and Ferdinand are past there best.

Would love to see players who are not living on past glories picked now and the bulk of the next squad should show this.

thing is with england at international level the players aren't living on past glories even, they're living on past over hyping. worst thing that happened to many of them was when that berk crozier coined the term 'golden generation'.

joey barton summed this lot up best after the 2006 world cup. "i went to the world cup. i played like shit. here's my book".

I suppose being outspoken and a <deleted> brings the same benefits...........

FOOTBALL bad boy Joey Barton is set to pocket £150,000 with an explosive tell-all book.

The controversial QPR skipper is believed to have secured a six-figure advance for his life story.

Barton, 29, famed for being outspoken on Twitter, will lift the lid on his troubled football career.

The former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder will tell about his stint in jail after his conviction for assault and affray.

Other incidents include an assault on former team mate Ousmane Dabo, 34, and a bitter bust-up with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, 46.

Joey is certain to outline his views on modern society and culture, including his hatred of reality TV stars from TOWIE and Desperate Scousewives and forthright opinions on politicians, big name players and celebs.

The star, who has studied philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and is a massive fan of singer Morrissey, 52, will talk about his love for partner Georgia McNeil, 25, who is pregnant with his child.

He is set to detail his working-class Merseyside roots and the sadness he felt at seeing his brother Michael, 23, jailed for life for the racially-motivated murder of Anthony Walker in 2005.

Barton, who has been capped by England, is understood to be looking for a ghost writer from outside football journalism.

His most recent Tweets attacked those reality telly shows.

He wrote: “TOWIE firm don’t mess with big boys, u and ur shallow, fake, pretentious lifestyles. In a year u’ll be opening s***** poundshops if ur lucky.’’

On Desperate Scousewives: “TOWIE have gone up in my estimation after this show, when I say gone up, it was impossible for them to go down.’’

[smokie36]

He's not writing it himself?

That's it I'm taking my name off the waiting list.

[StevieH]

got no problem with barton doing that really, there's plenty other no-marks made money off writing books. plus he's at least had the grace to admit that he has been a <deleted> and has apologised for it.

he's enormously entertaining on twitter. won't be paying money for his book of course like.