I know Becks has been hit hard by the press and certain fans in the past, saying that he is not fit enough or good enough to lead the England team out as captain. Although I am not a critic of his and I still feel he should be on the team, I don't think he should be the England captain. Personally I would rather see some one like Stevie G (when fit again) given that responsibility. He plays like a captain and certainly fires his team-mates up. Of course the other possibilities are Lampard, Campbell (when fit), Rio or Owen.
While I don't think Beckham is necessarily the most suitable captain, I think that the damage it would do to demote him from the captaincy would not make it a worthwhile exercise.
Sol, with Stevie G as vice captain until after the World Cup, then Stevie to take the full captaincy after.
For me Beckham should stay as captain, but his captaincy should not guarantee his place in the starting XI. If his form or fitness are not good enough, then it should pass to Lampard or Gerrard. Best to have a centre mid as captain imo. Cannot have a goalscoring striker like Owen as a captain, Campbell is not vocal enough. Ferdinand needs to be a fulltime club captain first to prove he can handle it.
I was going to give you some grief, but then I noticed you are from Scotland Of course a Scot will want England to be captained by a pile of shite
Which of course, can be arranged! John Terry for me, currently captain of the best team in Europe, the best centre-half in Europe, a man's man, what more do you want? He can defend, has passion, can attack, score goals - the only thing missing is a bit of pace, but he'll learn to use his timing to overcome that, just as Bobby Moore did! Who in their right mind would want a cvnt like Ferdinand, what a great example! Poshboy doesn't do a bad job, but I prefer Mikey, he doesn't wear his wife's knickers, or at least if he does, he doesn't tell everyone!
He is very vocal, good at organising and could rely instructions to the three separate areas (defense, midfield and attack) though his runs down the right. Worth a shout.
If it aint Beckham than it has to be Gazza Neville .Experienced defender and not afraid to hand out some stick to the team.
The only reason, that this Spunkstain is in the side, is because there are no other right backs, in England - he's a fcukin mong, not a leader, I sometimes despair of you people
Michael Owen, give him the pk's and I doubt he will choke like Becks. He has scored in big games for England in the WC, recall Argentina in 98', and had it not been for him, Becks would never have scored his only goal in the 02' WC, a penalty against Argentina. And of course the first/ and only goal for England against eventual champs, Brazil. And not to mention the current goal scoring path he is on, in the qualifying stages. Gerrard is a possibility, but I would take a defender over him, not Neville though, or Terry(not enough experience) for that matter.
Don't be picky - the thread is about who should be captain, not who is or will be and as such is very subjective! It's such a shame we've got an embarrassment of riches in that department
That makes no sense. It's not "picky" to suggest that the captain of England should actually be a starting member of the side, it's bog-standard common sense. Saying "he should be captain" about a player that can't even make it into the side is just daft. You might as well make Chris Kirkland captain. Terry is a fine player and a good captain for Chelsea, but there's no way he gets a starting role for England ahead of Ferdinand or Campbell, who are both individually better and a superior partnership. So saying "what else could you want?" about Terry as captain of England rather invites the point about him not actually being on the field if we have our strongest side out. The captain should be drawn from a regular name on the strongest team-sheet we have. Further, he should have a significant England record - be a proven international, as the saying goes. So that narrows it down within our strongest eleven, never mind the squad at large. Realistically, only Neville, Campbell, Ferdinand, Beckham, Owen and arguably Gerrard meet all the criteria. Of those, I would discount Ferdinand on the basis of being too scatty (give him some more time with the United armband on first), Neville because whilst he is a commanding figure, his judgement is suspect (as proven by his role in the Ferdinand mess as player's representative) and Campbell because he is not the dominant personality that the role demands. Which leaves Beckham, Owen and Gerrard. Now, if we are talking about replacing Beckham (which I do not currently feel is necessary in any case) then I would have to go with Gerrard above all others.
And of course missing one match, suggests he's finished does it? Agreed! Complete bollox IMHO. He was captain of the under 21's, has played 14 times at full international, and only been on the losing side twice. He is currently captain of a team of International stars, including England stars, Lampard, Bridge, Cole, Parker and Johnson. There is no need to replace him at the moment, no - but should it become necessary, then an experienced captain at club level, would be my first choice and none of the people you've mentioned (other than Stevie) are!
Terry is a top player and his captaincy of Chelsea proves he can lead a big team. But there's no way for England that I could see him start ahead of a fully fit Ferdinand or Campbell. Ferdinand and Campbell balance each other with Campbell's physical strength and Ferdinand's skill on the ball, not to mention they're both proven individually to be world class defenders. Can't get much better than that. The only shame is that they haven't had more games together over the past couple of years due to injuries and Rio's ban.
Funny how a Liverpool fan, from Liverpool, manages to narrow the choices down to two Liverpool favourites... Note: apologies for "duplicate" post above
Until Terry starts regularly for the National Side, he can't captain it. That's obvious. So in 2 years, once Sol likely retires at 32 after Germany, then we can talk about it, although I have a feeling it would go to Gerrard, if he can stay healthy. Since Beckham won't be leaving the NT for another two years, it also remains to be seen who plays well in the England shirt. If, say, Lampard continues to play well, he'd have a good case.