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The Captaincy


forameus

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There's now two threads on Scott Brown for everyone to pay their respects, or dance on his grave, but nothing in particular for the captaincy.  There was something I raised in one post in one of the threads, but given it'll be a big question ahead of the Malta game, thought it was worth a thread.

So, we now "need" a new captain.  First question, do we actually need one to be named in the fashion we've always done?  Second question, if we do, then who in the squad do we have that would be a good option?

Let me explain my view on it.  It seems to be quite a British trait that we name a captain of a national team as some kind of ceremonial process.  I just don't think it's really necessary in football these days.  I don't have much of a window into foreign nations, but do they put as much importance on the role as we do?  Obviously they still name captains, and for the most part they'll be consistent, but there doesn't seem to be as much emphasis.

Let's take England as an example.  They named Rooney as captain a couple of years ago, and then over the Summer there was debate about whether he even deserved a place in the squad, let alone the team.  It was obviously never going to get to that, but say his form had dropped even further, would he have been left out, or would he have taken his place purely because he was the captain?

Now take Scotland.  Scott Brown looked like he had regained some level of the form he used to have, so it became less of an issue.  But had he been as bad as he was late last season, I imagine he would have still taken his place if "fit", purely because he's the captain.  That's a horrible position for the team to be in, where we're not putting players in because they're the best option at that time, but instead putting them there because of some anachronistic label we've put on them.  

I think it would work better if we had one player in the team who was always 100% going to be picked because he's that much better than everyone else.  Messi, Ronaldo etc, they're always going to be picked when fit, and they're figureheads for their nation.  Do we have any players that fit that bill?  Is there anyone you can think of that we have available that would be 100% must-picks and had the leadership qualities that the role requires?

How I would do it is not to place emphasis on one guy in the team "just because".  Give it to the guy who is playing that day who has the best qualities for the role.  I just don't see us having that key player who is worth having as a pretty much must-pick.

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That's a really stupid idea though.  It's a role which is about leadership, and winning lots of caps doesn't necessarily make you a leader.  Shaun Maloney has 47 caps (only Fletcher and Hutton have more in the current squad), but he wouldn't be a particularly effective captain regardless of his footballing ability and experience.

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I'd still go for Darren Fletcher. The best player suitable for the role and he's obviously captained the side before. If it's not him, he'll still be a big influence on the squad anyway.

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