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John Terry England Squad Team Captain Permanently

England captain John Terry. A year after being theatrically stripped of the armband in the shemozzle over Wayne Bridge's ex-girlfriend (newspaper allegations, incidentally, that have always been denied by the lady in question and which are also the subject of litigation), it seems likely Terry will once again captain England for the Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales in Cardiff. In Rio Ferdinand's prolonged absence it seems likely that this will be a permanent, or at least rolling, appointment.

What, if anything, are we supposed to think about this? There are perhaps two ways of looking at it. The first is to take a longer view, the approach that suggests the England captaincy is a red herring, that English football would be best served shedding the peeled-eyeball fascination with who gets to wear the armband and do the toss, grounded as it is in the notion that players represent a sub-strata in need of leadership, someone to communicate with the overlings and formulate their thoughts, or simply to yell convincingly in moments of doubt.