Meanwhile, despite everybody and anybody (including Janet Street-Porter) having their say on the John Terry saga, perhaps the most sensible words so far have come from a former England skipper: Michael Atherton. In Atherton's eyes, England's best hope at a World Cup is to have no captain at all...

Not being close to the football scene, and embarrassed about encroaching upon the patch of Patrick Barclay and Oliver Kay, soundings have been made this week to those who are in the know as to what exactly the England football captain does, apart from shake hands with the opposition at the toss and decide which way to kick off. One said he organises “things”. What, exactly? “Laser shoots, and the like. You know, team spirit things.” Another talked of understanding the game — although one hopes that is a minimum requirement of any international footballer. Another talked of leading by example and of his symbolic importance.

If symbolic is too strong a word, then it gets closer to the point than most. If not a symbol then he is a reflection, mainly upon Fabio Capello, and to a lesser degree on us. This is why “Il Capo” has to act.

As Bobby Moore was for Alf Ramsey, so Terry is Capello’s representative on the field and, in a welcome development, Capello has shown in his short time in charge that he will not put up with the kind of puerile nonsense tolerated by earlier managers; that the normal standards of decency, respect and discipline are as much a part of his regime as you would expect in any professional side.

The England captaincy can never be a popularity contest, and the manager cannot treat it as an audition on Strictly Come Dancing, with the public voting according to every passing whim. But when there is this level of revulsion aimed at a man so obviously lacking in class (of the human, not social, kind) and decency, and devoid, as he clearly is, of any sense of responsibility, then the man in charge must take note of the public mood. Not that it will make one iota of difference, one way or the other, to the team’s chances in South Africa.

Once the axe has swung, Capello can do himself and his team a favour before the tournament by refusing to appoint a permanent replacement, picking simply on a match-by-match basis. A fluid, flexible approach would confer immediate advantages: there would be no single figure for the media to focus on, no single figure trying and failing to live up to the kind of standards demanded by a society that is deluded enough to expect sportsmen to act as “role models”.

In the absence of a permanent captain there would be no one to exploit the honour, as Terry has tried so miserably to do. If the only meaning to the England football captaincy is, as Matt Dickinson beautifully reported on Tuesday, “half a million quid”, then it is time that particular junket was capsized. In the absence of one focal point, England’s footballers may learn that the best teams have not just one leader on the field but many.

If Capello takes this course of action, Terry’s final indiscretion, in the end, may be the best thing that has happened to the England football team.