Capello: England's most successful manager

Yesterday's departure of the England manager Fabio Capello was greeted with both shock and hope in the football world. The Italian resigned from his position after he disagreed with the Football Association’s decision to strip England captain John Terry of the armband.

Terry, who was stripped of the armband previously, is alleged to have made racist comments towards the QPR defender Anton Ferdinand. The events have led to a court case that will be heard after this summer’s European Championships. The FA felt that an internal inquiry could affect civic justice and therefore decided to act to remove the captaincy so it did not become an issue during the tournament. However, Capello made his anger known on Italian TV believed that sporting justice should be served. The clash between the FA and Capello has now seen the Italian go just six months before the England team head to Poland and Ukraine.

On the same day, Tottenham Hotspurs manager Harry Redknapp was cleared of all charges relating to a tax evasion charge. Currently as the most successful English manager, fans, players and ex-professionals are all now calling for Harry to take charge. But will it really mean anything?

Harry Redknapp is an excellent football manager and has a proven record in the English Premier League. Most recently, he led Tottenham to the quarter finals of the Champions League and won the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008. Yet, the mysticism of him being English does not conceal the truth.

Capello, with a win percentage of 67 per cent is England’s most successful manager. Even the World Cup winner Alf Ramsey only managed 60 per cent. Capello took over a team that had failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships and managed to re-establish them as one of Europe’s best. In the qualifications for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, England only lost once to Ukraine, in a game when qualification was already confirmed (plus England’s goalkeeper was sent off). More surprisingly, under Capello England have scored more goals, winning the average game by 1.5 goals.

His record in South Africa was not ideal and as many believe it is where he should have been judged. England was knocked out in the second round after losing comprehensively to Germany 4-1 in Bloemfontein. Capello admitted there were faults in the set up, yet people forget England regularly disappoint in summer tournaments. Not only did he have to contend with injuries to defenders Rio Ferdinand, Ledley King and a half fit Wayne Rooney. But like all other England managers, he took a burnt out squad, tired from a Premier League campaign. Capello became a national scapegoat.

Yet Capello is a winner. As both a player and manager he has had success wherever he has gone. Results was his only interest. He was paid £6 million a year to win trophies, he wasn't paid to help create a new generation of coaches or change English football's set up. When he failed on the pitch, it created a perception that he wasn't interested. The FA, with a new chairman and known to change managers frequently, believed the project must end. Who knows what they believe.

Whoever takes over the England job will go into the tournament feeling confident. Yet, whoever it is: Redknapp, Pearce, Neville; expect to see the same result both on and off the pitch. 

Goodbye to England; welcome to change?

No surprise then? We expected to lose at some point, possibly in penalties, there was some injustice though. If we ignore the absurdity of Frank Lampard’s “none goal” and the shabby performance by the Uruguayan officials then what can England fans say about the game, the tournament, the style of football as a whole?


Those who know English fans and even the stupid ones, will know that there is an obsession and a myopia that England deserve to win the World Cup or the European Championships every two years. Looking back over the past decade it has been completely inconsistent: Keegan in Euro 2000 was appalling, World Cup 2002 was a strange tournament in general and perhaps England did better than people expected, Euro 2004 will be remembered for the remarkable performances of Greece; but many will wonder what would have happened if Rooney hadn’t limped off in the quarter-finals, WC 2006 was dreadful and saw Sven’s men lose to Portugal on penalties again, a no show at the last Euros and then fast forward to South Africa.

An extremely confident qualifying performance against some fairly mediocre teams, but remember this was an England who had missed out on the previous tournament. Lampard and Gerrard clicked, Rooney was the leading scorer in the qualifiers and we played a form of football that destroyed an extremely competent Croatia team. What went wrong then?

I think it is extremely unfair to blame Mr Capello, though some of his decision making was questionable, going into the tournament he was hit by some immediate blows: no Beckham, no Rio and what looks like now a half-fit Barry and half-fit Rooney. Questions of burn-out? I would beg to differ, look at Tevez, Mascherano, Kuyt, de Jong, they didn't appear to be tired. This almost seems to rule out that the Premiership is too quick as well. Most of England’s players are competing against the world’s best every week in the Champions League, so these players and styles are hardly alien to them. What I think does matter is that many of the teams know what to expect of England and can therefore shackle their style and target individuals. Think Ozil against Terry, Klose was happy to run at Upson. I don’t think you can criticise the team for trying but they seemed clueless and lacking intelligence. They didn’t know what move to make, this shouldn’t necessarily fall on the manager, though the personnel he was bringing on didn’t help. Where was Carrick, J. Cole, I even think despite Capello’s frustration, Walcott threat of pace disorientates other teams. England just didn’t know what to do next. Tactically naive some would say.

Defensive football isn’t new and ‘parking the bus’ isn’t either but straight lined football and limited movement does not help you find the gaps. We can be frustrated by Lampard’s none goal and wonder what could have happened; but we could have also wondered if England’s players had done what their foreign colleagues do for them in the Champions League every week.

England - Dare I add more.

Certainly, it was one of the worst games of football I ever seen and by any means extremely disappointing from a team that seemed to canter through the qualifications.

If we neglect the tactical deficiencies and the anonymous Wayne Rooney, ( I shall leave those to the back pages of the newspapers). I would love to know what the players were thinking and really whether a coup is feasible in such a context, particularly the England camp?

If you think back to history, the teams most notorious for fighting were the Dutch (a cliché in itself). Cameroon also have a recent history of bickering when they heard that they weren't being paid by their own FA.

I think it is fair to say that we can we contrast the England's situation to that of the French. It appears that the French are looking to recreate the storming of the Bastille all over again and the press, fans and players all seem delighted by the departure of Raymond Domenech (as they should).

England on the other hand, it is different. There has always been an opinion that 'we are better than everyone' and 'if we all run around quickly and work hard then we shall win.' (something iterated by Frank Lampard today) It is certainly something you would have never seen under Sir Bobby. Sven was far too polite and diplomatic, Steve McClaren was in awe of his stars. Has English football's transition and adoption of a continental style football changed the mindset? Are players now more assertive and reluctant to leave everything to the Gaffer? John Terry certainly has form in the Chelsea dressing room and against Fabio in a previous encounter. The one thing that makes me think certainly otherwise is the excuses from previous squads: under Eriksson it was to lax and now Capello is too firm? Surely, this generation of footballers need not worry about the trivialities of how their manager is emotionally. One thing is more true from past campaigns, players use the media as intensely to purport the individual team and player's message.

Don't expect this story to fizzle out yet. Fabio certainly won't flop like Big Phil did.