Farcical Fabio a Fredo?

Emphasising the importance of the football captain is overstated in England. The image of the honourable Bobby Moore ridding his hands of dirt before gracing the Queen’s gloved hand prior to lifting the Jules Rimet trophy in 1966 is enshrined in English culture, and almost half-a-century later that delusional idealism is retained by the majority of the football public. Time and again, an individual will remind them how the armband, once the incorruptible emblem, is now the opposite.

As spine-tingling as it may be for a footballer to pull on an armband up their sleeve, its impact on the pitch is demonstrably inferior to the rugby or cricket captaincy role. In cricket, the buck usually stops with the captain when it comes to selection and tactics while in rugby, England captain Martin Johnson repeatedly reneged on Coach Clive Woodward’s instructions to spearhead England to success. In football, the coach and only the coach is the selector and tactician while the captain is his on-field mouth-piece (or more disparagingly, Yes Man) to bark out reminders to teammates.