FERDINAND IS ENGLAND'S NEW CAPTAIN
Why? asks Your English Kaki
By Iain
Macintosh March 27,
2008 
YOU could have heard a pin drop when the news broke.
The silence was broken only by the bleeping and vibrating of my
phone as my friends scrambled for confirmation.
I wanted confirmation myself first. I checked every possible
news source, all the websites and TV stations, but it was true.
Fabio Capello has just appointed Rio Ferdinand as England
captain. The nation is in shock.
We've been told that Capello doesn't really understand the
English fascination with captaincy, but this is fairly emphatic
proof that it's gone straight over his head like a rising
falcon.
Ferdinand is a fine defender, possibly one of the best in
Europe, but a captain, an organiser of men? I'm not so sure.
The last thing he organised was the Manchester United Christmas
Party where he arranged for all the players' wives and girlfriends
to be elsewhere and then bussed in hordes of women from around the
city, and we all know how that turned out.
He is better known for nightclubbing and ostentatious displays
of wealth than he is for leadership, on or off the pitch.
John Terry will be furious that his armband has been taken away,
but after the way he has chased referees around football pitches
for the last few years, it's hardly surprising.
The England captain should be morally sound as well as
passionate and influential.
I would have thought that Steven Gerrard would have been the
obvious choice, though he is no shrinking violet when it comes to
telling referees what to do either.
Is it simply that England is no longer capable of producing a
model professional, able to lead a group of men, as well as
providing an example to the young fans? Quite possibly.
TRANSFORMATION
'Never was such a sudden scholar made,' said Shakespeare's
Archbishop of Canterbury, commenting on the instant transformation
in Henry V from a wild, hard-drinking Prince to a wise and
considered King.
Who knows, perhaps this award of great power will be the making
of Ferdinand.
But then, as the less quoted Spiderman's uncle once said, 'with
great power comes great responsibility'.
Can the party animal handle the pressure?