Can John Terry be One of the Best England Captains of all Time?

John Terry once again stepped up to lead England to a superb victory over Germany in Berlin with what was essentially a second string side. Despite much of the usual first team squad pulling out through injury, the Chelsea captain played the entire match culminating in his late winner.

There were doubts as to whether Terry would captain the side when Fabio Capello took over with Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard both tipped to replace him but once again the Chelsea man proved his leadership qualities in an historic win.

Football Pools pundit Tony Cascarino has no doubts that Capello made the right choice when he gave Terry the captaincy. Speaking to footballpools.com, he said, “Once again John Terry proved himself to be the perfect England captain with yet another heroic performance in Germany on Wednesday evening.”

“I’ve met John a number of times and he is one of the most inspirational figures in the game today. Not only was he by far the best candidate to captain the England side but he’s also a very decent man which has earnt him the respect of his peers”, he added.

Cascarino argues that JT was already the ideal man to lead his country, “Prior to Fabio Capello installing him as captain I’ve always felt he was head and shoulders above all of his fellow England players to lead the country on and off the field. He has proved himself a great captain for his club side Chelsea and will prove himself to be one of the very best England captains of all time if he can lead the country to a major tournament win”.

This begs the question whether John Terry should be regarded potentially as one of our best England captains of all time. The former Republic of Ireland international goes on to compare him with arguably the finest England captain. He said, “international captains can only be judged on results so a trophy win would definitely put him right up there amongst the very best, such as Bobby Moore”.

“In his club career John has already far surpassed the achievements of Bobby as a player and he will continue to win far more silverware. If he can do the same on the international stage then you’d have to put him above Moore not as a player but as a captain.”

Cascarino sums up why he rates JT so highly as a captain, “John is one of those players that knows how to defend instinctively and will have no hesitation in putting his body on the line for the cause much in the same way as Bryan Robson did in his time as England captain. He’s a very intelligent defender, you rarely see strikers out run him and much like Steve Bruce at Manchester United he has the ability to score vital goals”.

“He is an inspirational player, a natural leader, brave as a lion and is by far the best candidate to captain England. In my opinion, as a leader, there are very few players who can match him in modern day football”.

Do you agree with Tony Cascarino’s views on JT? Can he be regarded as one of England’s finest captains or has he the potential to be judged so? Vote and let’s hear your views.

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Tags: Bobby Moore, England captain, John Terry, Tony Cascarino

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 14:39 and is filed under Features, Home Features, Polls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.