The Manchester City club captain, Vincent Kompany, is an example of a true leader. Understated on the field, emotionally in control even in adversity, always leading by example. At all times his contribution has been about “We” not “Me”. Perhaps the so called “giant of a leader”, Chelsea’s John Terry, could take a humble look at Kompany and learn something fundamental. Terry’s “leadership” is, in reality, nothing of the sort and one should ignore the much vaunted hype about his leadership credentials. Much of what he does and says is really about “John Terry” and not his teammates or the collective good. One need look no further than his personal ill discipline at a crucial point in the semi-final of the Champion’s League match against Barcelona and his self-serving reaction to being sent off. He owes everything to his teammates who ensured that, in the end, his moment of self-indulgence did not cost them their dream. Given the fact that he played no part on the pitch in the Final and that the real leaders were those others who stood tall in Munich, it is not far fetched to expect that Terry, while of course celebrating the club’s success, would keep out of the limelight of victory, which belonged not to him but to his teammates. Yet, predictably, we have seen him position himself at the centre, as if he were “there” on the night. A further demonstration that his real focus is “Me” not “We”. That is not the mark of a leader, rather a bad caricature.
And so we remain perplexed that a manager as experienced as Roy Hodgson, a man who by all accounts understands and places great store by the importance and minutiae of team dynamics, should risk Terry’s inclusion in the England squad for the 2012 Euro Championship.