For a man who arrived so baffled by the fuss surrounding the England captaincy, Fabio Capello has succeeded only in  transforming the fuss into farce.

It has been a case of armband on the run ever since the Italian launched his bizarre trial (bad word) for his first skipper.

In Italy, il capitano is the player with the most caps, noted Capello, as he passed the honour to four different players in four friendlies across five months.

Steven Gerrard against Switzerland - Rio Ferdinand against France - John Terry against the USA - David Beckham against Trinidad and Tobago. It was a clue to the merry dance about to ensue...

JOHN TERRY

Having won the beauty contest, Terry retained the privilege bestowed upon him by Steve McClaren. He had done little wrong other than suffer the  misfortune of injury, missing key games towards the end of the Euro 2008  qualifying campaign.

Ferdinand was his deputy, stepping in when Terry missed World Cup qualifiers against  Kazakhstan and Belarus. Wayne Rooney had his moment too, captaining his country against Brazil in Qatar in November 2009, when virtually the entire team had withdrawn.

Then came the Wayne Bridge/Vanessa Perroncel complications and Terry was summoned to Wembley to be stripped of his title in February 2010.

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