We still struggle to fathom what he is trying to say, he can’t motivate his own players and as yet has failed to achieve anything with this ‘golden generation’ of England players.
We still struggle to fathom what he is trying to say, he can’t motivate his own players and as yet has failed to achieve anything with this ‘golden generation’ of England players. So why don’t we just get rid of Fabio Capello now and build for the Euro’s this summer?
Capello took over the national team in 2007, a time when the prospect of English football wasn’t looking the greatest after Steve McClaren and his umbrella failed to guide us to the Euro 2008 championships. At the time, the appointment of Capello was seen as a good decision and a fresh start; we tried having what everyone wanted; an English coach, and it didn’t work, so we resorted to looking abroad for our inspiration. And his pedigree was and still is good – winning Serie A with three different clubs, winning the Champions League and winning La Liga with Real Madrid in two different spells, so every English football fans’ dream of winning the World Cup again was now going to come true? Yeah right.
Capello’s reign as England manager got off to a near perfect start, winning nine out of the ten World Cup qualifying games, comfortably enabling us to travel to South Africa in 2010 after missing the previous major tournament. Normal business had resumed. But his tenure as England manager, as everyone knows so well, hasn’t come without drama.
His first game in charge saw England face Switzerland in a friendly at Wembley, with David Beckham sitting on 99 England caps and everyone expecting him to reach the momentous 100. However, Capello decided against bringing Beckham on, baffling the crowd, players and the English media. Possibly, he was trying to set his stall out early at this stage, attempting to ensure everyone knew he was the one in charge and making the decisions. Nevertheless, one game later against France, Beckham reached this landmark and has now joined the elite club of players who have received 100 England caps.
Capello also isn’t afraid of expressing his opinions, stating that the England players are ‘rich boys’ and that footballers are paid too much, yet we’ve never heard him complain about his £6million annual salary have we? However, for many, the turning point in Capello’s managerial career here in England came after his sheer ineptitude in dealing with the issue of the captaincy during the John Terry scandal. Without going into the boring details, Capello first of all stated that John Terry would remain as England captain, then decided to give the captaincy to Rio Ferdinand after pressure from the media, and then finally decided to give the captaincy back to John Terry.
It all seemed a bit like playground behaviour, like a child who couldn’t make their mind up about which sweets they wanted. After this debacle, English fans lost their faith with Capello and he lost much of the authority his whole career as a manager has been based around. We saw again on Friday Capello’s lack of control over his players as Wayne Rooney impetuously kicked out at a Montenegro player and got himself sent off – would Rooney dare to do such a thing under the management of his club boss Alex Ferguson?
Capello didn’t do himself any favours by leading England to an embarrassing World Cup in South Africa in 2010, resulting in the shameful 4-1 drubbing at the hands of our German rivals. This seemed the perfect time to get rid of Capello and start again, but the FA showed faith in him and stuck to their guns.
Their faith has yet to be re-paid as it remains to astonish many of the media and fans today how Capello still seems to have not completely picked up the grasp of the English language. He stated soon after he was appointed England manager that within the first month he would learn English so he could communicate with the players effectively. Many have grown tiresome of this and the words of Richard Keys epitmoises the view of much of the public and media: ‘He’s been here long enough,’ Keys snapped. ‘Why isn’t his English better?’
Herein lies the argument of appointing an English manager. We’ve tried so many times in recent years to do this, and it hasn’t worked – Graham Taylor, Terry Venables, Kevin Keegan, Steve McClaren have all failed to live up to the great days of Bobby Robson and Alf Ramsey, but surely it is the only way we can progress as a nation. We need someone who understands the English game, loves the English game and knows the English game inside out. He’s sitting right under our noses and has been on the lips of every England fans lips since the 2010 World Cup. Harry Redknapp.
He has the passion for the game that transfers to his players, he has been in the English game for years and many believe he is the man to nurture the outstanding young English talent we have in our game and produce the best England team we have seen in years. But the FA are adament in sticking with Capello and want him to see out his contract. And can you blame them when they would have to pay out £6million just to get rid of him? Maybe for the sake and the future of English football, it is best to stick out the tough times with Capello and wait until after the Euro’s to get our beloved Harry in charge. Who knows, Capello could lead us to glory this summer and we could be begging for him to stay.
