Does the captaincy really matter?

I wonder if the captaincy of a team is really important or not? There has been an awful lot of fuss and talk about the England captaincy, but the players came out yesterday and said that they haven’t even talked about it.

Wrong

As we all know, manager Fabio Capello made the controversial and in my opinion, wrong, decision to reinstate John Terry as captain without, apparently, telling the existing captain and vice-captain Rio Ferdinand and Steve Gerrard.

Leaving aside Capello’s dubious man management skills, does the decision really make much difference to anything?

Peter Crouch was asked about the issue yesterday and suggested that the players really didn’t care much.

Problems

“It’s the manager’s call and there are no problems from anyone. I’m pleased for John and we move on. We’ve not really talked about it. It’s between the manager and the captain, whoever he wants to pick.

There’s a lot of talk of unrest but it’s not an issue. John Terry has always been fantastic on the pitch, leading Chelsea to Doubles, and he’ll be good for us again.

“It is a shame for Rio because he’s a top player and great to have around because he’s a natural leader too. It’s a shame that he’s had so many injuries and that’s probably why the manager decided to make the change rather than have the armband being passed around. The manager wanted to stick with JT and that’s fine with all of us.”

Happy

James Milner also said that the players were perfectly happy.

“It’s business as usual, the manager’s made a decision and everyone’s happy for JT and disappointed for Rio. We have lots of good leaders and you need more than one anyway. It helps to have so much experience around and we’ve got a good combination of that as well as the younger players.

“JT has shown with Chelsea and the times he plays for England, he puts his head in where people wouldn’t go and he leads off the field too. It’s important to have a link between players and management, and players who will say what they think.”

Humble

John Terry himself was quite humble about taking the role back. He also suggested that there were likely to be some players who wouldn’t be too thrilled by his re-appointment,

“I’m not going to be everybody’s cup of tea.”

The media, me included, are making an issue of the captaincy but the players are trying to play it down as being a matter of little importance. I’m just not sure who is right.

What do you think? Does it matter? Is it really possible that the players haven’t even talked about it?