The New England Captain Is...
...To be decided. But not anytime soon.
Nobody really expected David Beckham to stand down as England captain after their rather unceremonious dumping out of the World Cup at the hands of Portugal, but that's exactly what he did at the England press conference on Sunday.
Holding back tears, he said that his reign as captain had wonderfully fulfilled a childhood dream, but that unfortunately his reign of five and a half years must come to an end (Becks was first picked as captain by caretaker manager Peter Taylor for a friendly against Italy, way back in November 2000). His announcement will no doubt be taken with a good dollop of relief by many; with the prospect of a new captain, a new manager and an excellent crop of young players, English football may well be entering somewhat of a renaissance. Let's not say any more about that though - we know what usually happens when we hype the team up (any of you remember the 2006 World Cup in Germany? Horrible, wasn't it?!).
So, anyway, onto the search for the new captain. Peter Taylor, the current Crystal Palace manager, is placing his money on John Terry. But let's not forget that Mr Taylor is the guy who originally picked Beckham as captain, and I'm sure that the beloved new boy, Steve McLaren, will be mindful of not making such a blatant gaff. So my money's with Terry Butcher, on the venerable Stevie Gerrard. He's the current Liverpool captain, so some say that he's perfectly suited to the role of figurehead of the national team. However, some international journalists may well have considerable trouble trying to understand his lovable Scouse drawl. Other players being touted are Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville, but I'll leave it upto you as to whether they're potential candidates - after all, they do both play for Manchester United...
So, as I hope you now realise, we're further away from knowing who will be the next England manager than we were before this article was written. Great stuff.
Holding back tears, he said that his reign as captain had wonderfully fulfilled a childhood dream, but that unfortunately his reign of five and a half years must come to an end (Becks was first picked as captain by caretaker manager Peter Taylor for a friendly against Italy, way back in November 2000). His announcement will no doubt be taken with a good dollop of relief by many; with the prospect of a new captain, a new manager and an excellent crop of young players, English football may well be entering somewhat of a renaissance. Let's not say any more about that though - we know what usually happens when we hype the team up (any of you remember the 2006 World Cup in Germany? Horrible, wasn't it?!).
So, anyway, onto the search for the new captain. Peter Taylor, the current Crystal Palace manager, is placing his money on John Terry. But let's not forget that Mr Taylor is the guy who originally picked Beckham as captain, and I'm sure that the beloved new boy, Steve McLaren, will be mindful of not making such a blatant gaff. So my money's with Terry Butcher, on the venerable Stevie Gerrard. He's the current Liverpool captain, so some say that he's perfectly suited to the role of figurehead of the national team. However, some international journalists may well have considerable trouble trying to understand his lovable Scouse drawl. Other players being touted are Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville, but I'll leave it upto you as to whether they're potential candidates - after all, they do both play for Manchester United...
So, as I hope you now realise, we're further away from knowing who will be the next England manager than we were before this article was written. Great stuff.