So England captain John Terry had an affair with Wayne Bridge's girlfriend a little while back, and according to the sun many England players are very angry with him, and Bridge is considering quitting international football to avoid being near his then best friend.

Capello is said to be very angry at this destabilising event.The question is, should he loose the captaincy?

I put this poll on a couple of hours ago on the site, and we have already had aound 50 responses:

No, he shouldnt lose captaincy - 55%
Yes, he should lose it - 45%

Interestingly, this goes against The Sun's poll they quote, that says 87% of England fans want him to lose the captaincy - quite a difference!

What do you think?

It doesn't matter. He'll be a villian for a few months, but as soon as he puts on that England shirt and (hopefully) puts in some whole-hearted performances, no-one will even mention this little episode. If anything, this is a positive thing, as Bridge might retire from international duty! Great plan JT!
Seriously tho, we all fell out with Ashley Cole after his "I almost crashed my car when Arsenal only offered me £55,000 a week" episode, but now he's back in form and the best left back in the world, we don't care.
The thing is everyone seems to want Rio or Gerrard to take over the captaincy, but their not exactly clean are they. Punchups and failed (missed) drug tests aren't alot better than some stupid affair.

Many players struggle with fame or bring so much baggage with them or ultimately believe they're unstoppable when they reach a certain point.
The key for England is whether this really will have any effect in the dressing room and amongst the national team players or not?
Otherwise all is irrelevant as such stories make the headlines because the Press and media want to sell. In a short while, this will be forgotten.

I think it will be interesting to see how Cappello deals with this. He's a no nonsense guy so I expect him to be pretty annoyed by this. That said this is old news now and I think Capello trusts his captain. Terry will need to start performing to his best for both his club and country for a long time before the fans and the press get off his back.

Should he resign? - possibly the England captain is surely the ultiamte role model for kids in this country and that just aint JT. Let Becks lead us to glory in South Africa!

thats the line i was thinking about - the captain is the main role model and for many reasons Terry is a bad role model.

He may also be a great leader on the pitch, but that is useless if he is not respected off it, let alone if there becomes a bad atmosphere in the england camp as a result of his antics.

Still, we'll see what capello says at some point i guess

It's not my job to pass judgement on John Terry's decisions, but I think he has to stand down.

You're not just the England captain for the 90 minutes you're out on the pitch. Your the team's, and more importantly, the nation's ambassador to the world. The England captain has so many more responsibilites than just giving a rousing team talk or shouting 'man-on' at the appropriate time. He has to be the ulitmate professional both on and off the pitch, and John Terry clearly isn't that man. And he's been teetering on the edge for ages anyway, with his guided tours round Stamford bridge and all his other scandals.

I couldn't care less what he does for Chelsea. In fact, it's probably fitting that he is the champion of Chelsea Football Club; never has a mascot been so apt for the team he represents.

But for England, no thanks. Just give the armband to Rooney and be done with it.

This sort of (despite being a totally different case) reminds me of the Tiger Woods situation but clearly Woods is on another planet!
I think as many of you pointed out, Terry ought to step down from a moral standpoint.

and yet 53% of our poll say he should keep the captaincy - all chelsea fans then? and why should Chelsea fans defend him, it disrupts their team possibly even more - which of his teammates will trust him...

Terry has always been a bad role model.

Yes he is a leader of the back 4 but everyone in the team should not be afraid to speak up. There are numerous players in the England team that have been captain of their respective clubs at some point.

I don't think we would lose much if he were to step down as captain

It depends on how Capello sees things. Does he view stripping Terry of the captaincy as a destabilising move?
Is he concerned about the defender's morale if he gets demoted from Captain?

No he shouldn't resign, he is the best natural leader in the English ranks. If he was to be stripped of his captancy it would have to be re-assigned. so theres Gerrard the DJ puncher, Ferdinand the drug test absentee, Ashley Cole the drink driver, Lampard the cheat, Rooney the hot-head, is anyone to fit to be England captain?

Again the key is how will England cope with this if Terry is stripped of the armband...
You can check many other leagues and you will find similar stories. Even check non-football league and you will find issues such as this (check tennis, NBA, golf if you consider it a sport...)
The key is many of these players came through hardship or poor backgrounds to suddenly find all the riches and many are not able to cope with the fame and the unlimited funds.
Just check the stories in US sports (Tiger Woods in golf, Gilbert Arenas in NBA...).
At the end the question is if he is stripped, will it affect England and vice versa.

What difference should it make, it shouldn't effect his performances he can still do everything he does now but he won't wear an armband, give as many interveiws etc

It shouldn't make a difference and I don't think Cappello is that fussed - he is a no nosense guy but he doesn't understand the obsession we have with our nations captain.

You should have 11 leaders out on the pitch not just one.

Haha, world class comment on the poll: "Really, i don't see any problem with JT. I understand the incident happened well after Bridge had left the woman. So, JT just provided her with a shoulder to cry on. It should be JT 's wife to complain but not the media. I don't see why Bridge should not be in the same world cup team with JT because Bridge had already dumped the woman and JT just picked what had been throw. No problem at all."

Provided her with a shoulder to cry on, superb.

Anyhow, yes this thing happens all the time, but the media attention and everything surrounding this makes it an easy decision for me. He should not lead England to South Africa. Foreign press will have an absolute field day. We want as little negative attention as possible, we all know how bad press and being wound up gets to our players on the big stage