New England Captain: Wayne Rooney
Today I heard it announced on one of my podcasts that Wayne Rooney has
been made the new England captain after Gerrard has stepped down.
This is the wrong decision - if you want to develop English football
that is. This is also the wrong decision if you want England to play fresh, inspiring and exciting soccer. It is true that Wayne Rooney is an icon in English football.....
unfortunately though, from the previous era of world football.
A captain
is a leader and a leader needs to have certain personality traits. And the
captain of the England national team needs to have especially elite personality
traits. It is these values if you like, that will inspire the people around him
- sadly, hitting a beautiful volleyed goal from outside the box has only short-term leadership
potentiality. It is not just about being a great football player. A captain's
role is equally important off the pitch. To lead by example in one's daily life
is probably more poignant than the number of goals you score on a Saturday or
Sunday. As a private in the army you are less likely to do what your captain
commands if you know that in his private life he drinks and gets drunk and
beats his wife. So by what values does Wayne Rooney lead his life? I don't
know. I have never met him, so I am reluctant to judge. The impression he gives
from the TV though (newspapers and photos are even less reliable) is not good.
Nasty (a potential bully), stupid, undisciplined and worst of all
unimaginative.
Easy to criticize, I know, I'm sorry and would love to meet the man
myself to be proved wrong. There's also the argument or question rather; if not
Rooney then whom?
If England are going to change. If England are to play football like
Germany, Spain or the Netherlands we have to do things differently. Rooney as
captain was as predictable as the way we play. If we are unable to be guileful
off the pitch where we have time, there is little chance that we can be so on it. We have to me more radical and open-minded in
our approach. The leaders of English football have to set down on paper their
beliefs, dreams, ideas and philosophy and then they have to be brave enough to
stick to it, irrespective of the stick they may get in the media. There ought
to be more than one captain - ALL the players in the squad are leaders in one
way, shape or form (they are by defintion, as players for England, leaders in
their technical fields in any case), so they should all be given a chance. At
present I don't believe that the role of captain on a soccer pitch is that
vital anyway (though this too ought to change). I have never seen any great
effect of any good captain on their team anyway, even in the German squads of
today and the past. So, why not in one game make Lallana the captain. In another game
make Cahill captain, then in a third maybe Wayne Rooney. At best it will
confuse the opposition (whilst giving different players different experiences),
at worst it will match the present status quo; ie no effect. What is important
for the captain is that he is given a clear and concrete role (or set of
objectives) for both on and off the field, for the short term (the next match)
and the long term (qualification or tournaments). Taking the captain's armband
means partly taking responsibility for the development of the team and this
means learning and spreading that learning to his players. If the
role of captain is just about turning up for training and the on day of the
match and shouting some encouragement or criticism when his frustration gets the better of him, then I'm afraid that I've wasted
the last half an hour writing this - we can all do that – shout and screaming I
mean, and the question as to purpose of the captain and who the captain is, is
at best simply honorary and at worst academic.Wayne Rooney - England Captain
