John Terry has spoken to Michael Ballack about playing under Jürgen Klinsmann. He has picked the brains of Carlo Cudicini to discover whether Fabio Capello deserves his reputation as a sergeant-major. José Mourinho, of course, he knows very well from their years together at Chelsea.

Terry is trying to do his homework, trying to gauge who the next England head coach may be and what he can bring to the national team. The names he has heard have impressed him.

“There are some world-class candidates out there,” he said. The process of renewal has begun.

Reminders of England’s failure to reach Euro 2008 still come frequently – and they will torment Terry next summer – but the calibre of managers excites him, as it will do all England supporters. Might Mourinho, Capello, Klinsmann or Marcello Lippi be able to unlock England’s talent?

“The good news for the next man is that English football can only move in one direction and that is forward,” Terry said. “A top manager will come in and do it his way. He’ll take the bull by the horns. He won’t need me or Steven Gerrard to tell him what to do or what we think. We are ready to knuckle down and learn from any of the big managers.

“If that is José, he does it his way, as we know. We’d all have to adapt to that. With him in charge, I’m sure the results would be there, the performances would be there. But there are other top managers and they’ll have their own strong opinions. The FA just need to get the right man, whether that takes weeks or months.”

It feels almost indecent to be moving on so quickly from the dark, dank evening at Wembley only two weeks ago, when English football reached its lowest point for more than a decade.

Terry pauses for a second when asked to relive that desperate night.

“It was just an awful feeling, walking out on the pitch and consoling the lads,” he said. “It is so hard to know what to say. There is nothing that anyone else could say to me to cheer me up. You don’t want to hear anything, no matter who it is from.

“You don’t sleep for nights. You switch on the TV and it is on the news. You pick up a paper and it is all over that. You can’t get away from it. If it wasn’t for my kids, I would have probably stayed in bed for three days.”

A relief has been that, for all the jeering as England lost 3-2 to Croatia with a shambolic peformance, the man in the street has largely been supportive. When Terry turned up at a school in Weybridge, Surrey, to host a coaching session organised by Nationwide Building Society, the England team sponsor, he was met with high-pitched shrieks.

“Coming away from Wembley, you fear if you are going to get abused, if you’ll be able to leave the house,” he said. “But I’ve had fans coming up and asking how we are, being positive. I think the real frustration for the fans is that they know we have the quality. They see it for the clubs. I believe, deep down, that they believe in us. But we have to reinforce that in their minds through games and results.”

At a time when so many of the England players appear paralysed by fear in the national shirt, Terry might be speaking for a hardcore group when he says that “the next game can’t come quick enough”. But his desire should not be doubted and he was enraged by suggestions that he could have played against Croatia, given that he appeared for Chelsea a few days later. “I think everybody knows me and that I would do anything to play for England,” he said. “After more than five weeks out after an operation [on a knee], I don’t think anyone else in the country would have been close to playing. I gave it a go, I tried training, but I wasn’t close enough.”

Now he hopes to move forward as England captain, but he cannot be certain of that, even if Mourinho were to be named the next England head coach. “Will I be captain? It is a great honour and I think it is one of my strengths,” Terry said. “I will worry about what the next man will decide, but I will respect whatever decision he makes. If he believes David Beckham, Stevie G, Rio [Ferdinand] or someone else can take England forward, I’ll get right behind it and fight to keep my place in the team.”

Terry is prepared to step aside for England’s next match, against Switzerland at Wembley on February 6, when Beckham could win his 100th cap, if selected. “We all feel like he deserves that the way he’s played recently,” Terry said. “The attitude he showed, the hunger he showed to get back in and then the way that he’s performed since. The players and fans would love to see him get to 100 caps. And we all know how much it would mean to him. I would definitely stand aside.”

That will be down to the next head coach, but, despite meeting Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, last week for a chat about England matters, Terry will have to wait in line to discover who will follow Steve McClaren.

A top-class candidate will fill him with hope for the future, but it will not be until after next summer that he will truly be able to move on from the recent failure. “I’ll flick on the TV to watch the tournament and I’m sure, like a lot of people, I’ll be sitting at home thinking, ‘We’re better than them,’ ” Terry said. “But the fact is we are not there and we’ve only got ourselves to blame.”

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