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A CAPTAIN'S TALE 'Do you want the England captain's job, Alan?' Gleen Hoddle had hardly finished the ord 'job' when I gave him my answer. 'Yes, of course I do,' I replied. 'I would consider it a very great honour even to be offered it.' The conversation took place in the England coach's room at the Burnham Beeches Hotel where we had gathered before our first qualifying game for the 1998 World Cup, against Moldova. The subject of the captaincy had already been debated in the media because the new boss had indicated he wanted to start his era in charge with a new leader out on the pitch. David Platt had been the regular captain under Terry Venables but he had faded from the England scene ater the European Championship finals and Tony Adams took over. The names of Adams, Gareth Southgate, Stuart Pearce, David Seaman and Paul Ince had been thrown into the ring by the pundits and I had not received much of a mention. On the morning before we were due to fly out to Moldova, Glenn Hoddle summoned me to his room. I had no idea in advance what it was about and when he offered the skipper's armband to me, I was flabbergasted-and immensely proud. There was a significant condition attached to the job, however. 'What I am concerned about,' Hoddle explained, 'is that the extra responsibility and your contribution as a goalscorer. So I intend to give you the job for three matches and then decide after that whether you should keep it permanently.' That seemed fine by me even though it meant extra pressure to score goals. Finishing top scorer in Euro '96 was fine because it proved to the critics that could do it at that level but I was under no illusion about the battle being won. I had to continue scoring or the doubts would start to resurface. Now, in addition, I had to keep finding the back of the net to remain England captain but it was something I was quite happy to take on board. I had dreamed of playing for England in our backstreet games, like most kids, but to lead out my country was soething that never even entered my head. I was determined to savour every moment of it-even if it only lasted for three games. I was equally adament that it was not going to change me or my approach to footall. I intended to carry on doing the same things which had earned me the accolade in the first place. I have never been a partcularly vociferous type in the dressing-room. I like to have my say before a match and always try to encourage my colleagues but I've never been one to wave my fist and stir players up like Tony Adams and Struat Pearce do. That's part of their nature and they do it whether or not they are captain of the team. A shiver went down my spine that day, 1 September 1996, when they played the national anthem before the kick-off. There were barely 15,000 people in the stadium in Chisinau and the opposition was not the greatest in the world but I will never forget that special moment when I captained my country for the first time. Once the preliminaries were out of the way, I almost blew it. I had an easy chance to score in the first half but the ball bobbled awkwardly and I skied my shot over the crossbar. My immediate thought was 'Oh ,no. Glenn Hoddle is going to see that and think the captain's job has got to me. 'Fortunately, I was able to make amends in the second half . One of their defenders failed to cut out Gary Neville's through ball and I nipped in to score the goal which wrapped up a 3-0 victory. It was not a good game but, nevertheless, was a great start for Glenn Hoddle as manager and for me as captain. If leading the England team out in Moldova was a memorable moment for me it was nothing compared with the thrill of walking out at Wembley at the head of the team for our next World Cup qualifier against Poland. Lainya and my mum and dad were there too, and the stadium was packed with almost 75,000 fans. I enhanced my claim to keep the captain's job with both goals in he 2-1 victory. I had scored three times in two games so must have been thrining on the responsibility; I was enjoying it, too. |