FA's decision strips surprised Capello of his authority

IT IS not just John Terry who has been demoted with the loss of the captaincy. Fabio Capello, too, has been stripped of his powers. The manager had no qualms about the centre-half retaining the armband at Euro 2012 while preparing to stand trial in July over allegations that he had racially abused the Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand.

Others took a different view and reminded themselves that Capello is their employee rather than their overlord. The FA chairman, David Bernstein, canvassed his board members and found a majority in favour of taking action.

Capello is understood to have been annoyed that no one consulted him, but he realises that Bernstein and the board felt obliged to act. Having been taken by surprise he has yet to decide who will next captain the team.

More broadly, Capello suffers from the routine difficulty of any manager whose leaving date is known. The thoughts of players and employers turn to the identity of his successor. Capello has no great sanctions any more. If he ditches someone, the footballer will realise he can soon return under the next regime.

In former times, the board, in common with the public, would have trembled with awe in his presence. Capello, after all, initially resembled a walking compendium of answers to England’s many troubles. That blaze of hope was then extinguished in the turgid displays at the 2010 World Cup.

Even since, Capello has been striving to convey a sense of renewal although the introduction of fresher faces to the squad does not suffice in itself. He is also unfortunate that injuries have prevented Jack Wilshere from being seen as the epitome of a new and better England that could yet emerge.

If a manager hangs around long enough, people become familiar with the fallibility of a person once believed to embody judgment and knowhow. Not even Capello is safe from that.

He is set on retiring after Euro 2012 and, with each miserable day that goes by he should find solace in the realisation that he will soon be a free man. Time has taken its toll. Every incident seems to carry overtones of some previous event. In Terry’s case this is not the first time that he has been stripped of the England armband. Capello took it from him for more than a year.

The captaincy went then to Rio Ferdinand, but the Manchester United player has said he does not want to be considered. In any event it is far from sure that Ferdinand will even be in shape for Euro 2012. Capello, on practical grounds, would rue his absence, but there has occasionally been a suspicion that the Italian is merely going along with English culture when acting as if the armband is the ultimate prize.

People in England often care deeply about the captaincy. Given that factor, it is most peculiar that the FA have felt that Terry should be subject to summary punishment, with no apparent right of appeal. The FA board will doubtless convince itself that it has acted decisively to resolve an issue that would otherwise have lingered over Euro 2012.

It is in Terry’s nature to persevere, but Capello can ill afford anything that is even potentially unsettling for the squad.

The manager will not be complacent about the resilience of the back four. It is true that England, with Terry left on the bench, kept a clean sheet and beat the world champions, Spain, 1-0 in a friendly at Wembley three months ago, but it was not regarded as a typical fixture.

Capello’s entire line-up appeared to be playing in defence and sheer weight of numbers blocked the opposition’s path before and after Frank Lampard’s goal. The outcome did wonders for morale, but no one pretended this was a style of play England should attempt to repeat.

Gary Cahill was still a Bolton player when he was an unused substitute in that win over Spain. He will have to accumulate experience rapidly in the next few months and learn from Terry at Chelsea.

While juggling with various issues, Capello, to a degree, is acting as his own successor. In the interest of invigorating the squad in advance of Euro 2012, he has blooded youngsters such as Jack Rodwell and Danny Welbeck. Capello is no longer the unquestioned master of all he surveys. His last ambition must be to demonstrate that he can still sway events on the field. It is the one riposte Capello can make before he leaves the England stage.