A lot has been made about how Fabio Capello decided to drop Rio Ferdinand as England’s captain, but, in all honesty, the central defender experienced the same fate at Manchester United.
Just eight months ago, Ferdinand was overlooked by Sir Alex Ferguson in favor of his center-back partner, Nemanja Vidic, to don the captain’s armband for the Reds, so it really should not come as much surprise that this unfortunate circumstance arose with England national team.
However, there are some glaring differences to the approach by Ferguson and Capello, which made the England manager’s appalling and disgraceful.
Sir Alex simply made his decision based on having a player that will consistently play in almost every match, which is exactly why Vidic was made the long-term club captain, and Patrice Evra fills in during his absence. What Ferguson did not do was make a mockery of the ordeal, which also relieved Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs from their respective duties with the club.
To be frank, Ferdinand was never the captain of United, because he, like John O’Shea, would fill in on occasion when Giggs missed a match, because Neville missed the best part of two seasons through injury.
Dissimilarity
Capello instilled Rio as the captain of the national team side because of John Terry’s deplorable off-the-field actions involving one of his teammates, but the Italian not only contradicted himself, but he also disrespected the United defender in the process. Club football is much different than playing for your country, which Capello, who has more than 15 years experience as a club manager, should be very aware of that contrariety.
England are about to resume their attempt at qualify for EURO 2012, a tournament they missed out on last time of asking, so Capello is trying to justify that he needs someone that will contribute in each of their next five games.
Ahead of selecting him as the leader of the Three Lions, Capello should have been privy to the common knowledge that Rio has struggled with injuries in the last two years – totaling just 40 appearances for United – three fewer than his 2008/09 total – which was precisely the main reason why Ferguson scratched him off his own list.
Blasphemy
However, Capello, trying the moral Catholic man that he claimed to be, just proved that he is fits the bill of why religion gets such a bad rap. The English boss completely contradicted himself over the way handled the situation by dismissing Terry and inserting Ferdinand because he, like every other average human being, was judgmental in the highest regard.
The problem with his dramatic, unforeseen u-turn was the fact that it came at the expense of someone else’s feelings, which happened to be Ferdinand, who has always been a proud, well-respected leader both on and off the field.
Even though there are obvious comparisons of his status with both Manchester United and with the England national team, Rio Ferdinand has continued to hold his head high and be the ultimate professional.
Submitted by The United Religion
