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• Millennium Stadium may be shunned in favour of smaller venue
• Toshack predicts nations will struggle to agree fixture dates

The Wales manager, John Toshack, will consult his players before deciding whether to play their home Euro 2012 qualifier with England in the Millennium Stadium or a smaller and more intimidating ground.

Wales are in the same group as Fabio Capello’s side in addition to Switzerland, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Holding the match at the Millennium Stadium, with its capacity of nearly 75,000, would mean more revenue and less headaches in terms of security.

Toshack, however, admits other options to consider are the new Cardiff City Stadium (capacity 27,000) and Swansea’s Liberty complex (22,000) where they host Sweden in a friendly on 3 March.

Toshack said: “Things have changed a bit recently for us. We have got two other stadiums now. We were well pleased with the treatment we got from the Cardiff people when we played Scotland there recently.

“Swansea have a new stadium as well and we have been treated well there and play Sweden there shortly. You have to consider the atmosphere factor as well. It is early days yet. We have a fixture meeting on 15 March when it will be decided what dates we play but you don’t have to announce the venue until 90 days before a fixture.

“I will be interested to get the players’ views on that subject as well so we have got a little bit of time to decide.”

Toshack concedes England will be favourites to qualify but believes the battle for second spot is wide open. “Looking at our group, I think it is the most wide open of all of them. England will be clear favourites but I think the other four nations are all in contention.

“Between the four of us there is not a great deal to choose at all. It is difficult for anyone to predict the positions the teams will finish in. There are no ‘gimme’ fixtures for anyone. England are favourites but none of the teams are superpowers.”

Toshack locked horns with Capello just once when rival managers in Spain during the 1990s, but believes he can lead England to a successful World Cup.

“I sat next to Capello on the plane on the way over for the draw yesterday and we had a good two and a half hour conversation. On the way back he sat at the back, I sat at the front and we never said a word.

“Seriously, I am sure there will be an awful lot of interest in the game and I can see them having a good World Cup as well. Hopefully they will come back with 10 injuries and we can pick them off in September. You never know. For our players, the prospect of playing England at Wembley is a terrific incentive. If our young players get more game time in, and progress as we think they are capable of, it will be great.”

Toshack’s main concern is that Wales have more luck with injuries than in their World Cup qualifying campaign. “When you look at us and England, we have 11 players who play in the Premier League and two of them are goalkeepers. You can see the difficulties we have with four or five injuries. We need a bit of good fortune on the injury front which we never had the last time around.

“If we make mistakes or pick the wrong team, or concede late on, that’s down to us, but we would just hope to have our best players available.”

Toshack believes it will be more difficult for teams to come to an agreement over when to stage fixtures given the new guidelines which allow weekend games to be played on Friday or Saturday and all midweek fixtures on Tuesdays.

“I can see that being difficult this time around for all the groups. I can see a lot of these meetings to decide the fixtures being thrown out and it all going to Uefa to decide. A lot of countries are not accustomed to playing on Friday evening and won’t want Saturday-Tuesday either.

“In this country, our players are accustomed to playing Saturday-Tuesdays so I can see fixture meetings this time around having a lot of problems and not being easy to come to an agreement.”

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In a line-up that’s every bit as unsurprising as the top four in the Premier League, James Richardson is joined in the pod by Barry Glendenning and Sean Ingle in another rip-roaring edition of Football Weekly.

The pod squad analyse Chelsea’s demolition of Arsenal, Liverpool’s bruising battle with Everton, and Tottenham Hotspur’s snoozefest with Aston Villa and ask: why are we getting another dose of the same old same old?

Also in the show – and lest we be accussed of Big Four-centricity – we discuss Hull City’s recent revival now that Phil Brown ditched the earpiece and the goatee.

Plus, we ponder whether Fabio Capello’s done the right thing in stripping John Terry of the England captaincy. And we get dewy-eyed about those Brat Pack movies of the 1980s.

Finally, our favourite Teuton Raphael Honigstein brings us news of a rift in the German national team and the latest from the Bundesliga; Sid Lowe brings us up to date with Spain’s La Liga; and Jimbo tells us about Lazio’s mounting woes in Serie A.

Have a listen and post your thoughts on the blog below. We’re also on iTunes, Facebook, and Twitter, and if you like this type of juvenile humour, get your daily dose with our tea-timely email, The Fiver.

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• Meeting to be held in Switzerland
• Capello thought to favour autumn games

England and Wales’s qualifying fixtures for Euro 2012 will be decided in Switzerland on 15 March.

The date was agreed in Warsaw yesterday following the draw and the meeting is almost certain to be attended by the national managers Fabio Capello and John Toshack, who will be keen to get the schedule they feel suits their sides.

Capello got his wish for a five-team group and Switzerland is the obvious meeting point to decide the fixture schedule, given that Group G also involves the Swiss, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

The England manager will want to play the most difficult fixtures during the eight dates available in September and October 2010 and 2011, as that is the time of year when he feels English players are at their most productive, before an arduous domestic campaign.

He may try to avoid qualifying games in June 2011, knowing that Bulgaria and Montenegro can get uncomfortably warm at that time of year.

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• Manager Owen Coyle says player will be out for ‘months’
• Defender’s World Cup hopes almost certain to be dashed

The Bolton Wanderers defender Gary Cahill could miss the rest of the season after suffering a blood clot in his arm. The 24-year-old was hoping to win a place in England’s World Cup squad.

Cahill was taken ill on Friday and missed Saturday’s 0-0 Premier League draw with Fulham.

Bolton’s manager, Owen Coyle, said: “Gary suffered a pain in his arm and it became severely swollen on the day of the game.

“There was no way he could play so we took him straight off to hospital. It turns out he had a blood clot in his arm, so he is going to be out for a number of months.”

Cahill is due to be released from hospital today after being kept in since Saturday.

Coyle said: “It is a severe blow for the boy but our main concern is his welfare. We have to make sure Gary is fit and well.

“He will miss the next few months, it might be for the rest of the season. We will hear from the specialist later. The clot needed to be resolved and in doing that you need the medication. It follows you can’t play.

“As disappointed as we are, at 24 Gary has a marvellous career ahead of him. I believe he would have made the World Cup for the summer but we have to make sure first of all he recovers from this blood clot.

“I don’t think it is a sport-related injury, I think it is just one of those things that can happen to anyone at any given time.

“Gary will be disappointed as he has so much to play for. He is one of the best players at the club and he had a big role to play, no doubt about that. He also had a chance of going to the World Cup – but that chance will come again. He is a terrific lad and someone we love working with. He has a great mindset.

“Gary will get the best care available to him. As much as we love football, we will focus on making sure Gary recovers well.”

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Fabio Capello believes John Terry remains one of England’s most important players.

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Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp insists Ledley King can still play a part in Fabio Capello’s England squad for the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

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Fabio Capello did not get the ultimate Battle of Britain clash – but after declaring “bring it on” beforehand, he will now discover what a big scalp England are after his side were pitted against Wales in the qualifiers for Euro 2012.

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England coach Fabio Capello has attempted to end any debate about his decision to sack John Terry as captain.

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• Manager says Terry is ’still important’
• Capello says ‘time to move on’ from captaincy debate

Fabio Capello says John Terry, the deposed England captain, still has an integral role to play with the national team and will be one of his “most important players” at the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Terry was stripped of the captaincy in a meeting with Capello, the England coach, and the general manager, Franco Baldini, at Wembley on Friday, following a week of allegations about his private life. The 29-year-old is the first England player to lose the role over misdemeanours off the field. Having vowed to “continue to give everything” for his country, he will be buoyed by Capello’s public backing.

The Italian was in Warsaw for yesterday’s Euro 2012 qualifying draw. England were drawn in Group G with Wales, ­Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro but, much to the Italian’s frustration, Terry dominated the agenda.

“[The issue] is now all over, it is finished,” said Capello as he left Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science. “It is now time to move on. But yes, John Terry is still an important player for England. He is one of our most important players.”

Rio Ferdinand, who was appointed as Terry’s vice-captain in August 2008, will take over the captaincy. Baldini has telephoned the Manchester United defender but Capello does not intend to speak to him until the squad meets before a friendly against Egypt at Wembley on 3 March. Steven Gerrard will be Ferdinand’s deputy and Frank Lampard is expected to be next in the pecking order.

Capello said: “I want to speak about this question [the captaincy], but first I want to speak with Rio and the other players. I want to do that before everything – we will speak about the new captain then. I prefer to speak with the players first.

“When I was made England manager I decided on the captain, the vice-captain and the third captain. Everyone knows this. It has been a normal week for me. I spoke with John Terry – everyone knows why – but it was a private conversation.”

A fear remains at the Football Association and among those close to Terry that further damaging allegations over the player’s conduct could emerge during the build-up to the World Cup.

Terry, who captained Chelsea in ­yesterday’s 2-0 win over Arsenal, retains the support of his club. Last night he received the backing of a former manager at Stamford Bridge, Guus Hiddink.

“I loved to work with John and even in training I’d have to say to him, ‘A little slower because we have a game tomorrow’,” said the Russia coach, who spent three months at Chelsea at the end of last season. “That means he’s very ­committed. I know his spirit. He will fight back. But they had to make a decision and I’m sure Fabio made the right one.”

The Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, who faced Terry’s England in qualifying for Euro 2008 and this year’s World Cup, said: “John Terry is a tiger, he is a lion and [he] always will be for his team, there is no doubt about that. He is just a leader. Some players need the push of the armband to be a captain, to be an authority and gain that from the rest of the players and a leader for the rest of the team, but not John Terry.

“He has never needed that. He is a natural leader, anyway. He can still be that kind of player for England this summer in the World Cup. It will not affect him. That is the kind of man he is. He was the leader on the pitch for Chelsea right from the beginning, long before he became the captain of the club. It is the way he plays and he always will show that leadership on the pitch, whether he is the captain or not. Capello knows that as well.”

The draw for 2012 qualifying saw ­Scotland pulled out of the hat with the European champions, Spain, and the Czech Republic in Group I. Northern Ireland face the world champions, Italy, and Serbia in Group C. The Republic of Ireland join Hiddink’s Russia in Group B.

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Melanie Phillips thinks he’s a ‘creep’ and George Galloway hopes he lifts the World Cup. Meanwhile, a nation snoozes

Apologies for returning to the subject, but I have only just found out that John Terry once urinated into a beer glass. I am indebted to the Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips for appraising me of this, on Thursday’s Question Time on BBC1, while discussing what the French would undoubtedly call “l’affaire John Terry” – except they wouldn’t, as over there sexual incontinence in public figures appears to be not so much frowned upon as smiled indulgently upon. In fact, it may even be obligatory.

Mel, to nobody’s great surprise, could not be doing with this kind of slackness, and demanded Terry’s immediate removal from high office, and possible public castration if that could be arranged. The defender’s curriculum vitae, she said, included “mass public debauchery, public brawling, public drunkenness, urinating into a beer glass, and having sex with a 17-year-old fan in his Bentley”. The real disgrace, she said, was that this “creep” was not “chucked out years ago”.

She will have been less than satisfied then by Friday’s 12-minute dethronement ceremony, which was covered in the customary understated manner by Sky, which had a reporter at Chelsea’s training ground in Surrey; a Skycopter tracking Terry, OJ Simpson-style, on the drive from there to Wembley; and chief football reporter Nick Collins, who always looks to me like he has wandered off the set of One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing, standing outside the venue of legends all day. By the end of it all, Collins’s splendid wing commander’s moustache had little icicles hanging off each side.

Nor will Mel have been particularly impressed by Fabio Capello’s pronouncements over the weekend, which failed to castigate Terry for any in-car fornication or shenanigans in the four-ale bar. I have to say the urinating into the beer glass scandal completely passed me by – I really must get on to that internet – but given that a lot of footballers drink draught lager I do not see it as much of an issue. I probably failed to follow the story quite as assiduously as Phillips because, like a lot of football fans, my reaction to the initial headlines was on the lines of: “Well, John Terry turns out to be a bit of a scumbag. What a surprise. Never saw that one coming. Whatever next? Robbie Coltrane giving the salad bar a miss? Richard Littlejohn not voting Lib Dem at the next election?”

So I kind of lost track of the story, only catching up on Question Time, which I feel I should watch as a service to those of you who rarely stray far from this section of the newspaper/website and wish to know what the wider world is saying about football.

Possibly you feel it helpful to know the thoughts of the shadow work and pensions secretary before making up your mind about the England captaincy. Well, Theresa May, you will be fascinated to learn, is happy with Terry at the heart of the English defence ”provided he can keep the respect of his team-mates”, which I am sure he can as long as he keeps his pecker away from their beer and their (ex) girlfriends.

The captaincy, as previously discussed, means little in football and Terry, if anything, emerges from the imbroglio better qualified than ever for his key task – to marshal the England defence. Maintaining an affair and a saloon bar-based micturition habit while posing as a Dad of the Year-winning family man requires the kind of strategic skill that persuade you Terry is the man to ensure England’s centre-backs do not leave space to be exploited by opposition forwards.

Predictably, Clare Short and George Galloway used the affair as an excuse to accuse the press of sleaze and prurience – the idea – with Galloway making the most controversial statement of the night. “I hope John Terry lifts the World Cup for England,” he said, which must make him close to unique among Scotsmen.

Interestingly Question Time’s host, David Dimbleby, is blessed with some of Terry’s better qualities, notably a firm hand on the tiller and the organisational nous to keep the show on the road when disaster threatens – when he is landed with an unfunny comedian or a politician who insists on answering a question that has not been asked, or an audience member who starts talking when it is somebody else’s turn.

Actually, I am rather fond of those “No, you in the yellow shirt; no, not you, the man with the beard sitting next to you” moments. I am waiting for the night when Dimbleby finally loses it, and says: “No, not you – the man in the second row with the cracked teeth who looks like a paedophile.” That would be the kind of scandal we could all enjoy.

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