David Foot column: What is it that makes a good and natural football captain – the question is a topical one, and we have to ask ourselves how much it has to do with setting a personal example for inspiration and encouragement along with driving endeavour on the field?

A few days ago Wayne Rooney was one of England's rare successes against Brazil. He was also making in effect his debut as the skipper of his country. It was a surprise appointment in recognition of his worth as a team man, standing in for the injured John Terry.

Terry, we assume, is showing no inclination to give up the captain's armband. But he has nominated Rooney as his likely successor sometime in the future. His comments were accompanied by his feelings that the still-young striker had markedly acquired added maturity and a sense of responsibility.

Team leaders, whether they are playing for their country, in the FA Vase or on a muddy village ground in south Gloucestershire, need to carry out a visual duty. The player in charge should be SEEN urging his team-mates on, helping to lift their morale when it droops and praising them with the goals go in. When the criticism comes, it should be a discreet rebuke.

Danny Blanchflower was the most complete skipper I ever watched. He may have lacked a little speed, just like Bobby Moore, but the mind was ceaselessly ticking away. Occasionally he would look towards his manager, though the tactical decisions were his alone.

A football match was for him mental even more than physical, and that was what he enjoyed in the days when he had given up playing and instead had joined us in the press box. I once drove him from the ground to Temple Meads station. Not for a minute was the conversation trivial. Verbally he retraced the pattern of that afternoon's game at Ashton Gate – the way things had gone on technically and at times with a negative sum total, the occasional moment of artistry that delighted him.

It struck me how much an intellectual exercise it had been, just as it had been when he was still bringing a veneer to the football at White Hart Lane. His regard for the match had been sharply critical and affectionate at the same time.

His colleagues in the Spurs side used to say they couldn't always understand the eloquent gist of his half-time monologue. Yet they knew it invariably made sense, even when he was getting carried away and taking the game into another sphere.

Eddie Hapgood may not have had the same gift of words but his instructions in that Barton Hill voice he never lost as he went on to lead England, revealed that he was another fine captain. He was an immaculate defender who so seldom wasted or misdirected a clearance. He was fortunate, of course. He didn't need to shout or cajole. His Highbury team-mates, including another West Countryman, winger Cliff Bastin, his blond hair slammed back, and at times Knowle West goalkeeper Con Sullivan, were too well versed and disciplined in the Arsenal style.

And other memorable team captains? There was Wolves' Stan Cullis with his severe, uncomplicated approach, Just as Blanchflower offered this columnist a football lesson in that post-match monologue, so – more quietly as you'd expect from a church organist – did Blackpool's Jimmy Armfield. Rapidly after the final whistle, we shared a taxi to the Tower Ballroom to use an improvised BBC studio for match reports on Bristol City's much-remembered FA Cup replay win, Jimmy was still in his playing kit.

The taxi driver did his best but Jimmy and I still missed our deadlines. Perhaps we enjoyed our chat too much.

There have been too many anonymous captains – some who abused their authority with bombast. At random, one can also think with admiration of Bryan Robson, Ray Wilkins, Alan Shearer, Gerry Francis, Tony Adams and arguably in his earlier days, David Beckham.

Tommy Burden was a brainy captain at City, while Louis Carey has taken on notable responsibility in a later era. Two of the best at Rovers were arguably Ray Warren, ever sound and down to earth, and Ian Holloway (when he could be restrained a little). Their qualities may have been contrasting but their leadership, in or out of the dressing room, was always reliable.