Capello’s got his Terry timing all wrong, insists Redknapp
TOTTENHAM manager Harry Redknapp has criticised Fabio Capello for his handling of the England captaincy issue.
John Terry was reinstated as the permanent skipper on Saturday night having been stripped of the position last year following his off-field behaviour.
Rio Ferdinand, who will miss Saturday’s Euro 2012 qualifier with Wales due to injury, replaced Terry as captain and Capello opted to hand the armband back to the Chelsea defender on a full-time basis.
And Redknapp, who is the bookies favourite to replace Capello after next summer’s tournament, says the timing of the decision is hardly ideal.
“Maybe the timing and everything else is not perfect,” he said. “It’s made a big fuss over it when we could have left it with whoever. Rio is injured, Steven Gerrard is out, but Frank did a great job in the last game. But maybe with the other two lads missing he felt it was time to give it back to John. Terry had his year’s punishment; he missed captaining us in the World Cup. If he (Capello) thinks he’s the best man for the job then give it back to him.
“I wish him all the best with the job. He is a great captain and he’s a real leader.”
With Ferdinand injured Capello felt the time was right to re-appoint Terry saying he had served his punishment.
But Capello’s failure to speak to Ferdinand before announcing the decision has been roundly criticised, but the Italian has defended his actions saying he tried to speak to the Manchester United centre back at Old Trafford this week.
He said: “I tried to meet Rio at the Manchester United game. I hope I will meet him in the future to speak with him personally and privately, not by phone because I think by phone is not so good.”
TIMELINE | PASS THE ARMBAND
Feb 2010: John Terry sacked as England captain following off-field revelations. Rio Ferdinand replaces Terry as skipper.
June 2010: Ferdinand suffers a freak knee injury in training and is ruled out of the World Cup. Steven Gerrard is named as captain for the tournament.
June 2010: Terry publicly announces that the team are to approach Fabio Capello in a meeting to discuss what is going wrong at the World Cup. Capello denies this, forcing Terry to apologise.
Nov 2010: Terry reveals he does not believe he will ever captain England again.
Feb 2011: Ferdinand picks up a calf injury during the warm up to Manchester United’s defeat to Wolves and has not played since.
Feb 2011: Frank Lampard wears the captain’s armband in England’s 2-1 friendly win over Denmark. Ashely Cole and Gareth Barry both lead the side in the second half despite Terry playing the full 90 minutes000.
Mar 2011: Capello confirms that Terry will return as the full-time England captain for the Euro 2012 qualifier with Wales.