Captaincy in football isn’t quite the same as in other sports.
An on-pitch leader can do a lot in terms of motivation, but the role isn’t quite the same as that of a cricket captain, or of the likes of Davis Love III and Darren Clarke in the Ryder Cup.
While they can do a lot off the field, when the starting XI takes to the pitch the buck stops with the manager.
Not too contentious, right?
Well, not quite.
Gary Lineker shared this opinion on Twitter and – as you can surely expect from a man with more than 5m followers – it was met with a fair bit of opposition.
The English obsession with the captaincy is bizarre. It's purely an off the field role. Doesn't make a blind bit of difference in games.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 3, 2016
In football all the decisions are made by the coach/manager. The captain has no say. It's a great honour but has little influence.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 3, 2016
Lineker had the England armband for 18 of his 80 international caps – one fewer than the 19 (and counting) of current captain Wayne Rooney, so he speaks from experience.
But that hasn’t stopped people weighing in, attempting to prove him wrong. And they’ve generally turned to one name in particular when doing so.
https://twitter.com/Barrymccarthy/status/782874635192893440
Wasn't Roy Keane often referred to as the manager on the pitch for United. Fergies general. Disagree, Gary. Can be influential.
— Craig Clark (@cclarky85) October 3, 2016
Roy Keane 99 in Turin v juventus.. Gerrard 05 v Milan champions league. They are the manager on the pitch?
— Anto O Connell (@antooconnell) October 3, 2016
Lineker was prepared for this, of course, and he had answers at the ready for those who questioned his argument.
There was even time for a well-placed cry-laugh emoji, as Lineker took a break from filtering through the inevitable ‘shat on…’ responses to offer some more constructive feedback.
And really, do we think Roy Keane would have been any less of a leader without the captain’s armband?
Captaincy has certainly been associated with vocal presences on the pitch, and there’s an argument that teams need vocal players, plural, not just the one with the letter C around his bicep.
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