Steve McClaren will officially announce his squad for the friendly against Greece on August 16 in a press conference on Friday.
One of his first acts will be to name a new captain – one that will lead England to Euro 2008 and hopefully, to the 2010 World Cup as well.
Stevo has two main choices for naming the England captain – Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard, or Chelsea captain John Terry.
Both are ideal candidates with impeccable credentials:
- The age factor – at 25, both Gerrard and Terry can expect to be in their prime come Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010. Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand, two other options, do not offer England that sort of long-term planning.
- Experience – both are captains of their clubs and have been responsible for the stunning form Liverpool and Chelsea have shown in the last two years.
- Reliability – John Terry and Steven Gerrard are two of England’s most reliable players (that cannot be said for Michael Owen, another candidate for captaincy).
Liverpool and Chelsea players and managers have been pimiping their own captains in the media for the last few weeks, but what it will come down to is McClaren’s vision for England’s future.
As sure as I am that Beckham won’t be appointed captain, I feel that we can easily discard the possibility of Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney from being captains. Gary is too injury prone, Lampard may not even stay in the squad, Owen will be AWOL for quite some time, Rooney is too young and Rio – well, let’s just say that my man Ferdinand is under-appreciated 🙂
But as we wait for McClaren to choose between Chelsea’s Terry and Liverpool’s Gerrard, please vote for who you think should be named as captain on Friday.
Update: Voting is now over. Here are the stats:
Total Votes: 743
Steven Gerrard: 54.24%
John Terry: 45.76%
Verdict? Too close to call, I’m afraid. There are good arguments for and against both players. Gut feeling says that Gerrard is a better captain. We’ll know on Friday for sure.
Thank you to everyone who voted 🙂
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