Spoiler

John Terry’s fate should be decided by Sunday

“He’s been a very naughty boy.”

In metaphorical playground terms, John Terry is now sitting outside the headmaster’s office with someone else’s blood caked to his swollen knuckles, frantically attempting to concoct a tale about one of the nerdier schoolboys running down a corridor and accidentally bumping into his closed fist. Two or three times. He was just standing there.

Yes, the England captain has a lot of explaining to do when he meets with Capello in the next couple of days, and the word from all of the meatier morning pamphlets – The Telegraph, The Independent, The, ahem, Mirror - is that the FA feel that Terry should go, if only to retain England’s famous “dressing room harmony”.

Dressing room harmony that would surely be completely buggered up every time someone momentarily recalls that their beautiful captain used to wile away long afternoons dripping in baby oil whilst rogering Wayne Bridge’s “baby mama”.

It’s a big decision for Capello. On the one hand, the FA are pressuring him to drag the team from under Terry’s looming shadow, whilst there is also a growing whisper that at least three potential replacement skippers – Stevie G, Lamp-Lamp, and the Waz-Man – would much rather carry on as usual.

A lot will depend on how far Max Clifford and his goons can take the inevitable weekend muck-raking, which could threaten to turn the Chelsea man into football’s Tiger Woods – not a good look.

Either way, Capello will most likely see this as an opportunity to cement his position as England’s autocrat, begging the question – does he defy the FA – a grand gesture that suggests that his hand can’t be forced by “the man”?

Or show his players that horsing around with someone else’s woman won’t be tolerated? Not on his watch.

Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the form of a comment…

• England
• Fabio Capello
• John Terry
• Wayne Bridge