Coming across Nick Faldo in the Brown Hotel in downtown Louisville the morning after his Europe Ryder Cup team had been comfortably beaten by the United States for the first time in four attempts was to find a man drained, strained and irritable.

He had three words for the small clan of reporters that had gathered at 6am in the hopes of getting the captain's final thoughts on what had been the unravelling of a good team and, if truth be told, they were his most eloquent of the week. “Officially, no more,” he snapped, before striding off in the direction of the team bus. It seemed a fitting epitaph to what had been a fraught captaincy. He would not be coming back.

Imagine the raised eyebrows, then, when Faldo said yesterday that he would happily take on the role again should the players' committee look in his direction early next year when the captain is chosen for the 2010 match at Celtic Manor, Newport. In the two months that have passed since Paul Azinger led the US to a five-point victory at Valhalla, Kentucky, any bad memories have obviously started to fade. We are now into the delusional phase.

“If somewhere down the line there's another opportunity to be captain, I would seriously consider it,” Faldo said on the eve of the Hong Kong Open, in which he has accepted an invitation to play. “I loved the experience and I thought the team atmosphere was great.

“A month after, I thought, 'Wow, I miss the guys.' I hadn't been in that situation for 11 years since my last Ryder Cup [as a player].” There is much debate at present as to who will captain the side at Celtic Manor, but it is most unlikely that Faldo - Europe's most successful player and a winner of six major championships - will be considered.

Colin Montgomerie, who has hopes of captaining the side at Gleneagles in 2014 and has been championing Sandy Lyle for 2010, was quick to dismiss the notion. “I think it is a one-hit deal and it should remain that way,” he said in Hong Kong.

The Scot had been drawn on the subject in Bahrain last week during a lull in celebrations for the opening of Riffa Views, the links-style desert course that he has helped to design. It did not take too much reading between the lines to realise that Montgomerie, who was not picked for the team and thus missed his first Ryder Cup since 1991, believed that Faldo's ego had got in the way of team-bonding.

Asked how he would do things differently as a captain, Montgomerie said: “It's difficult to pinpoint any particular area [where Faldo failed]. But the team didn't seem to bond as we had bonded before. The Europe team seemed to play and behave like the American teams of recent years and vice versa. It flipped.

“If I'm lucky enough to be asked to captain the team one day, from the moment they sat down in the team room on the Monday afternoon, I'd tell them to leave their egos at the door and pick them up at the gate on the way out a week later. And the same goes for the captain. In a team event, that's important.”

In a veiled reference to criticism levelled at Faldo that the week at Valhalla seemed to be more about the captain than his team, Montgomerie added: “It would be nothing to do with me. It's about 12 players. I'd just hopefully help them to play their best.”

With plans to play until 2015, when he will be 52, Montgomerie said that to become a good captain, it was important to be among the players as much as possible, which exudes contradictory signals given his support for Lyle's candidacy at Celtic Manor.

“The last two captains, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam, were still at least playing golf,” he said. “Nick wasn't. He was in America [working as a television analyst] and didn't quite know the European scene. I'd like to feel I was still part of that scene if I was invited to be the captain.”

Darren Clarke, who surprisingly missed out on a wild-card pick for Faldo's team, said that the captaincy should pass to somebody else. “The days of doing a repeat captaincy are long gone,” he said. “We've so many great players in line wanting to do it.”

Faldo was initially criticised for his wild-card selections of Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, but was vindicated by Poulter's outstanding contribution of four out of five points. However, he simply did not get the best out of his players. Why, for instance, was Sergio García a shadow of himself? Leading up to the Ryder Cup, and immediately after it, he was in fine form. The same could be said of Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood, but between them, they harvested only 2 points.

With clumsy jokes, poor speeches, the selection of only one vice-captain, in José María Olazábal, and questionable tactics - particularly in relation to his singles line-up on the final day - Faldo did not come across as a good captain.

Question: Should he be given another chance? Answer: Officially, no more.

Potential candidates for 2010

José María Olazábal Almost certain to captain the team one day, but says he wants to qualify to play for the next team and is thus not up for selection.

Colin Montgomerie As with Olazábal, a certainty to lead the team one day, but has his eyes set on Gleneagles in 2014.

Thomas Björn Another with a good Ryder Cup pedigree, he is liked and respected by his peers, but, at 37, believes that he is too young for such a role and would prefer to play.

Ian Woosnam After leading Europe to victory in Ireland in 2006, Wales' only major winner said that he would like another go. His selection, although drumming up local support, would go against the “new” principle that you get just one try at captaincy.

Sandy Lyle The only member of the “Famous Five” - including Severiano Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo and Woosnam - not to have been given the captaincy. Some say he is too quiet, but, with Woosnam alongside him, this could be the dream pairing.

Paul McGinley Passionate, well-liked, thoughtful. The 41-year-old has ambitions to captain the side one day, but would like to add one more match to the three that he has played in.

Bernhard Langer Led Europe to a record victory in Detroit in 2004. Said this week that he would not rule out becoming a captain again. But his selection would be a direct snub to Lyle.