Does the armband fit?

I don’t think that’s quite fair on the Australia manager, as I’m sure he’s not advising Neill where to go or how much money he should be holding out for, but the question should be asked: Has Verbeek’s very public support for Neill perhaps aggravated the situation?

It’s no secret that there’s a bit of mutual appreciation society going on between coach and captain, which is a quite reasonable situation in any team, but at what point does the fact that Neill is without a club become a determining factor in whether he plays?

Verbeek has not, to my knowledge, made a comment regarding this matter though it is surely going to be raised in the weeks ahead before the September 5 friendly with Korea Republic in Seoul.

Can Verbeek justify not just playing Neill but giving him the captain’s armband when he hasn’t played in the Premier League this season or any pre-season matches?

His fitness would have to suspect and, apart from anything else, as I first raised back in July is it really setting a good example to his teammates?

Surely ten months out from the World Cup it is incumbent upon the man entrusted with such responsibility to be playing week-in, week-out, the very same necessity that is encouraging other players in the team to swap clubs, leagues, even continents, in search of regular first-team football?

In Neill’s defence, Paul Okon managed to play for and captain the Socceroos for a good chunk of his international career when he wasn’t getting any game time with his various clubs in Europe and oftentimes despite that inertia was inspirational not just in his duties but in his deeds.

There is no conceivable reason, then, that Neill cannot replicate that performance so long as he is training as he would were he still employed by a club.

But that was a different era. It used to be a given that there would be a clutch of Socceroos without clubs or not getting game time. It’s a credit to Terry Venables and Frank Farina that they achieved such good results with so many players fitting that description.

This, however, is 2009. We are going to our second World Cup in succession, with a national team blessed with resources and support hitherto unknown in the annals of Australian football history. There are superstars among them. We should expect more of our national-team captain in 2009 than we did in 2001. So is a bloke without a club really the best choice to lead it?

I don’t think there’s any question Neill will have found somewhere to play by the time June 2010 rolls around, and then he should be entitled to have the job of captain should Verbeek choose to entrust him with it, but until he finds a club I believe it would be beneficial for the team to experiment with a number of captains before South Africa, starting with Harry Kewell.

Neill needs to be given the message that no player has a mortgage on the blue armband on reputation alone. That you are rewarded with it when you play football and not by the size of your contract..

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