Gareth Southgate is blocking England’s escape route from responsibility, starting with Wayne Rooney’s captaincy

COMMENT
John Dillon11 October 2016

It was at least logical, methodical and well-argued. Far too much fuss is made about the England captaincy.

But to his credit, the interim coach, Gareth Southgate, ensured that his appointment of Jordan Henderson to the role for tonight's match in Slovenia was a strictly business-like affair.

If this catches on, if Southgate continues to simply manage England rather than turn the job into a circus act, the national side will have half a chance of becoming what it should have been for so long; a football team, no more and no less.

Of course, every side has to have a skipper and it is totally in keeping with the perverse nature of our national side that we have now ended up with two of them - with Wayne Rooney continuing in Ljubljana as a sort of overall club captain from the bench.

Southgate again, in his calm and considered way, made this all seem feasible and it showed due respect to Rooney's credentials as an England player, too.

If he gets the coach’s job permanently Southgate should make it his mission to tear down the remains of the bluster, hype and misplaced arrogance which still surround the England team, even now.

Reducing the role of skipper to a sort of extra coach on the training ground, in the dressing room and on the pitch – as Southgate analysed Rooney’s best attributes for the role – must be the way forward from now on.

It is a huge irony that this situation of grandiose over-promotion still exists around this outfit when it has performed so poorly for so long.

One of the issues which make it like this is an unhealthy national fixation upon the captaincy.

Wayne Rooney: England highs and lows

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Rival nations see it as part of an out-dated English notion that frenzied passion, clenched fists and breast- beating can still carry the day at the top level of the game.

There has, of course, been precious little evidence even of those "qualities" in recent tournament performances. But still they are revered too much by many supporters here.

The England team – and the way it is depicted and followed – specialises in finding Blind Alleys like this up which to run aground rather than nailing down serious football ideas and values on the pitch.

This means that there is a whole soap opera of issues and off-field matters which have allowed the players an escape route from responsibility.

Most of the time in Europe, the armband is simply given to the player with the most caps and little more attention is paid to it.

In England’s case, if it were restricted to outfield players, it would have gone to Chelsea’s Gary Cahill, who makes his 50th appearance on Tuesday.

Joe Hart, the most capped player with 65, could quite clearly occupy the role from his goal area. Southgate chose Henderson because of the manner in which he stepped up to take over the captaincy of Liverpool from the iconic Anfield figure of Steven Gerrard.

But let’s leave it at that now, shall we?

The FA are always trying to learn from somewhere else. Why can’t we give the Italians a go as our role models?

Thy don’t over-promote the role of captain because nearly every time they take the field, they have a team which is packed with seasoned, experienced, serious football professionals, who don’t need their hands holding.

With this in mind, one suggestion this week was that John Stones of Manchester City should be given the captaincy and groomed for the future after only 12 caps. Another put forward Eric Dier for the job, also after 12 appearances.

The thinking is sound. It would help them develop responsibility. But the danger in England is that it would heap too much pressure on them too early in their international careers.

The Stones idea prompted the thought that Bobby More was made England skipper in only his 12th game against Czechoslovakia in 1963, also aged 22.

But it was in an emergency after an injury to Jimmy Armfield. The job went back to Armfield afterwards. There was far less scrutiny attached to it then – to the team and the game, in fact - and Moore, also, had already performed with statesmanlike qualities after his surprise inclusion for the 1962 World Cup.

England, of course, don’t have any choice now but to field a young team.

All the senior pros who preceded the current squad like Gerrard and Frank Lampard under-achieved internationally, anyway.

What a tangle it all is – even to the extent that Rooney’s role as captain actually is important with so many younger players around him when, in an ideal world, it shouldn’t matter half so much.

Perhaps, if Southgate continues in his current impressive manner, it won’t. Perhaps we'll have something else to talk about like performing well at a tournament at last.

Remember you can follow tonight’s match LIVE on Standard Sport this evening! Click here for full details.

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