It’s only a personal view, but I don’t like goalkeepers as team captain. The necessity to stay in the goal restricts their ability to be influential in other areas of the pitch. Centre Midfield or Centre Back is the ideal position as they can see most of the game and are involved a lot of the time.

Having said that I think the captain position is a bit overrated in football anyway. It’s not like cricket where the captain picks the players, sets the strategy and manages the game on the pitch. In football the captain role is more of a figurehead.

The more interesting thing for me is what this says about Morgan and the manager’s view of him. He’s obviously seen as a first choice pick and someone who is seen as being influential on the pitch and off it. I’ve no idea whether he has the right sort of personality for the role, but as a player I’d only have him in the “decent” bracket rather than anything more phenomenal.

Lots of Forest fans have said of Wes Morgan that he's a 7/10 player - someone who'll rarely be outstanding but almost always solid. I can understand that having seen him for half a season. It's true that he does look a bit vulnerable against pace, but is on-field attitude is good and I've been surprised how comfortable he looks on the ball.

Is he captain material? I understand what you say about wanting a player to have been around for longer, but yes - I think he is. In many ways I would also prefer him to Schmeichel, who I'd rather concentrated fully on his goalkeeping. While it's good to see Schmeichel's passion on the pitch, giving him the captaincy as well might not work as passion and people skills are very different things. Better to leave him to bark orders and have a pop at defenders when necessary (which is his natural style) and not to worry too much about the other responsibilities that captaincy can bring.

All of that said, the article suggests that Morgan will only be a stand-in captain until Wellens returns. Although on the other hand, would Wellens be able to manage three games a week at this level any more?

Incidentally, I can see why you'd make Morgan a stand-on captain over many players in the squad without it being a slight on them. But it is interesting that he's apparently being picked over Konchesky.

*stand-in

I think it can be quite easy to automatically think of the 'best' or 'best performing' players when considering a captain. Whilst this perhaps does influence the decision to a certain extent, we have experienced such inconsistency on several fronts in the last couple of years it would be difficult to pick someone based on this. Modern football also means that it's quite rare to have consistent players who stay at one club for a significant period(more than a few years).

I think generally, most managers look to pick someone who will probably play on a regular basis and who has experience at the relevant level or above.

For me, I'd look at players like Morgan, Konchesky, possibly St. Ledger, possibly King (although whether he will play enough is another question).

Although it is always specific to the individuals and team during any one season, my own preference generally is a CB or a defensive midfielder. The latter isn't really an option, so Morgan would have probably been my choice.

However, if you were going to pick a captain purely on commitment and desire on the pitch, Nugent and Schmeichel would probably be up there.

I've long since become resigned to Morgan being our first choice centre-back, so I suppose it'd be no surprise to see him made captain. Personally I'd rather see him carrying the water bottles than the armband but hey-ho, Pearson must see something in him that I'm missing.

I suppose we're also a bit stuck for choice - Kingy is, as we've already seen, not really captaincy material and Pearson has either fallen out with or sold off virtually all the other candidates.

I'd go for danns!

I actually think Morgan was probably our most consistent CB last season, although that isn't really saying much!

I think Danns was definitely improving and becoming more settled before his injury - particularly with his work to get back and progress in to the role of a box-to-box midfielder.

I think it's just difficult to say with regard to the midfielders, because we probably aren't sure how it's going to pan out and who is going to start on a regular basis.

I'd go for Konchesky. He's an experienced pro who's played at the highest level with some big clubs. He's also not tied to NP in the same way King, Wellens, Morgan etc are, and a captain needs to have the ability and guts to stand up against the manager if he's wrong, not just toe the party line because their boss controls their career. King was far too quiet as a captain under Sven and didn't have the experience or confidence to offer wise words when they were needed.

"a captain needs to have the ability and guts to stand up against the manager if he's wrong, not just toe the party line because their boss controls their career."

I'm sure this is partly another pop at Pearson for letting go of Mills (let's just say I now you too well by now) but I'd add an important amendment to this statement:

"In private".

If a captain, or any player, does have an issue or disagreement with their manager, I would be fine with them talking to their manager about it as long as it's in private.

Listening to Mills's interview, we're only getting one side of the story; Pearson doesn't want to talk about it any more and that's his prerogative - No point dwelling in the past. But something clearly happened between them more than either has stated.

Mills did give clues with mentioning his role as captain including passing on concerns when other players came to him. This can be a good thing in itself, but the way it is done is vital. Unfortunately the way it was done, we will never know.

I'm not sure I agree there Dunge. If a manager is making fundamental errors of judgement on a regular basis, it's the captain's duty to tell him, especially if other players have the same concerns. Whether it's in public or private is irrelevant I feel.

As for Mills/NP, as you say we only have Mills side of the side. But as NP has refused to give his side of the story, I think you have to take Mills' words seriously and even assume they are correct.

I don't think you have to assume that at all, Foxello. If Pearson had said: "Every word is true", then you'd have to believe it - but instead Pearson doesn't want to engage in what could become mud-slinging and move on. I see no issue with that.

For the first part, if you fundamentally disagree with a manager in any business, you have choices. Firstly, you can keep quiet. This is a legitimate choice in some situations but perhaps less so for football because careers are so short. Secondly, you can approach the manager themself, in private. If the manager is reasonable, they'll listen. If you can't do that then thirdly you can go over the manager's head. In this case it would be to the Raksriaksorns or the chief executive. If dealing with the manager in person should be in private, then this should definitely be in private! The final choice is to leave, although that would be a very sad conclusion in most cases.

What you can't do is approach a manager and question his authority (not necessarily in the way of "I question your authority" but "I/we have a serious issue..." in public or in front of co-workers (teammates). This has a very bad effect on morale throughout the squad, potentially creates a split in the camp and pretty much forces the manager to prove that he can deal with you by... well, let's just say that being dumped in with the youth team is the kind of response that something like this might get, and from managers far less strict than Pearson.

Obviously I can't say that things definitely happened that way, only that they seem to fit. If Mills went for a quiet word with Pearson, unbeknown to everyone else and 1-1, then his treatment from then was almost certainly poor. If, however, he stood up to the manager on the training field and challenged him in front of everyone, it's hard to see how he could have expected much different from any decent manager. That's why I think it's an important difference.

For flip's sake... I want a comma before a close bracket, why must that always turn into a WINKY FACE!? ,)

^JA606 is mocking me.

"I'm not sure I agree there Dunge. If a manager is making fundamental errors of judgement on a regular basis, it's the captain's duty to tell him, especially if other players have the same concerns. Whether it's in public or private is irrelevant I feel"

That is the biggest load of BS you have come out with so far Matt!

^
Who's Matt!?

^
I think True Blue is suggesting that Foxello is so biased in his view of NP that he is really Matt Mills using the pseudonym of Foxello.

Although I might be wrong ....

And here was me hoping that True Blue and Foxello knew each other personally and ended every disagreement in a Facebook Face off.

Matt Mills? I thought I was a Forest fan, spending my lunch breaks willfully pretending to be an LCFC fan?

"That is the biggest load of BS you have come out with so far Matt!"

Come on then, explain yourself big boy.