Twitter focused on England, not Terry or Capello

While journalist Neil Ashton tweeted that England manager Fabio Capello “nailed” John Terry for his comments on Sunday, social media seems to have been rather quieter about both the coach and his former captain.  A quick analysis shows that Joe Cole has been mentioned much more often than either over the past week, peaking as you might expect following England’s toothless draw with Algeria.

Neither Terry nor Capello saw a significant increase in coverage after Sunday.   Tweeting England fans, perhaps surprisingly, seem less concerned with gossiping about squad unrest than with England’s prospects of making the round of 16, with jasonfubar posting a rallying cry.

While Capello doesn’t seem like the kind of coach to be influenced by the mainstream media, let alone Twitter, the FA’s track record in responding to criticism suggests that the authorities are a little more susceptible to public opinion. Should England fail to perform tomorrow, the manager could do worse than survey the social media response for an indication of his fate.