Acquittal + Resignation = FArce

 

In less than twenty four hours, the England national football team became a soap opera worthy of a daytime slot on American TV. Fabio Capello, the Italian coach of England resigned following his criticism of his employers (The Football Association) for stripping John Terry of the captaincy.

Meanwhile Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, favored to succeed Capello as manager/coach of the national team, was found not guilty of tax evasion. The man had been under investigation for the last five years and subjected to a two week trial where he successfully emerged battered and bruised but unscathed.

If anyone needs reminding, the John Terry affair which brought all this about involved the Chelsea captain allegedly shouting obscenities at Queen Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand last October. Ironically if the two obscenities had been confined to the two words flanking the emotive word “black” nothing more would have been heard about it.

Instead one alleged word out of place set off a chain of events which has left England without a manager and a captain with the European Championship looming in the summer. Terry’s trial is scheduled for July which falls after the Championship, and the FA held the view it would be inappropriate for the captain of England to be associated with ongoing legal proceedings. What happened to hapeus corpus? Isn’t an individual considered to be innocent until proven guilty? In 1970, days before England’s opening match of the World Cup in Mexico, England captain Bobby Moore was falsely accused but arrested for allegedly stealing a bracelet from a jewelry store in Bogota.  Apparently the mystery men currently in charge of the FA  would have stripped him of the captaincy.

Capello could have avoided this farce had he not returned the captaincy to Terry, having demoted him following allegation of an affair with the left back Wayne Bridge’s former girlfriend.  In my opinion, Terry is a despicable individual who has used the captaincy to promote his commercial interests. More importantly I don’t believe he is good enough to be in the England squad let alone be captain. Surely a man of principles would have shown support for his manager and resigned in protest from the England squad.

Capello is no angel either. England had a wretched World Cup in 2010 when they were regarded as one of the favorites.  However they have lost one match since the World Cup and qualified for the European Championship with ease. Capello was given a king’s ransom to coach England to the tune of 6million a year. He promised to learn the language but only managed “pigeon English” if I was being generous.  He also failed to embrace English culture and often went missing in action enjoying long vacations away from the English climate when he would have been better served assessing the form of English players.

The fact that Capello quit a few hours after the Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was acquitted of tax evasion has appeared almost too convenient to be true. It seems that if Redknapp wants the England job he can have it. Loved by the players, utterly in tune with the nation, he gives the people what they want. Many English pundits claim that the England team should have an English manager, but really the only criteria should be that he speaks fluent English.

Admittedly, Redknapp is currently the most successful English manager in the premiership with Spurs riding high in 3rd position and a place in next season’s Champions League almost assured. They are playing attractive football of the highest quality but could that style be transferred to the England team? Modric pulls the strings in midfield but is a Croatian. Gareth Bale adds another dimension but plays for Wales while another key player Van de Vartt is Dutch.

Tottenham’s Chairman Daniel Levy will not be in a hurry to allow Redknapp to leave for England and may insist he remains with the club until the end of the season. If that is the case, would Harry have sufficient time to mold a team together to make a challenge for the European Championship? Let’s not forget he will be 65 years old next month and by his own admission has just survived a five year legal nightmare. Does he really need the aggravation of being placed under the microscope as England manager?

As a long time Tottenham fan, I sincerely hope he ignores the “Cry God for Harry, England and St George” and remains with the Spurs; at least until we have won the Premiership and Champions League!

 

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