Taylor upset by Capello´s FA joust

PFA chairman Gordon Taylor is disappointed at Fabio Capello’s criticism of the decision to remove John Terry as England captain.

The FA made the move in the light of the Chelsea defender’ ongoing trial for allegedly racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

However, Capello later told Italian reporters that he would pick Terry regardless of whether he was captain or not and insisted the FA were wrong to strip him of the captaincy, comments which disheartened Taylor.

“If the captain was forever going to be put under questioning as to whether he should be captain with that charge against him, that would take away the issue from football,” Taylor said.

“This was an elephant in the room that wasn’t going to go away and I felt the FA tried to negotiate through that moral maze by deciding to say he wouldn’t be captain.”

“In order to take the pressure off that particular issue and concentrate on football, from that point of view, we respected that decision.”

“It is just unfortunate the manager doesn’t seem to be on board and understand the reasons why that was done.”

“I can’t see what Capello’s agenda is – all it does is disturb everything even more.”

“It may be that he wants the FA to take a decision on this job. It depends really on how strongly he feels about it.”

“To come out in this public fashion actually, in one respect, gives England an even bigger problem for the selection and harmony of the squad for the European Championships.”

“Whoever he makes as captain knows that he is not the manager’s choice. That in itself doesn’t help the dressing room.”

“The FA apparently told Capello in private what they were going to do and why they were going to do it. He disagreed with it and it was noted.”

“The best thing would have been for that to stay there, and not come out in such a public fashion.”

A former player of Capello’s, Ruud Gullit, felt the move by the FA was something the Italian would not appreciate, claiming the former AC Milan boss just wants to get on with his job without being told what to do.

Gullit said: “I didn’ get the feeling that he was concerned about anything.”

“I think he just wanted to put his opinion straight away and do the things he think is best for the national team.”

“He is a guy who doesn’t like people telling him what to do and with some justification – his record speaks for itself. Let him do his job. He wants to do the European Championship.”