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| Capello is Fab |
| Written by Bernard Sterling |
| Wednesday, 07 October 2009 11:20 |
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I wrote this as a facebook note on the 5th of September 2008 - a week before England beat Croatia in Zagreb 4-1 towards the beginning of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign; Sure I knew the name from his managerial days at AC Milan (twice), Real Madrid (twice), Roma and Juventus but I had no idea who this guy really was. Capello had been appointed manager of the English national and started his role on the 7th of January 2008. I really didn't know what to think. Call it stereotyping or whatever, but I wasn't keen on having an Italian as manager of the national team, after all they play slow, turgid, defensive football, right? I wasn't against having a foreign manager at all. Sven did an ok job. McLaren was awful at best and in my mind there isn't an Englishman who could take on the mantle then, or indeed now. But, Capello? He'd never had any exposure as an international manager, sure he's dealt with the egotistical footballer during his time, but would the time between games affect him? A £6 Million-a-year salary, surely he's doing it almost solely for the money? I just didn't see what Capello could wholeheartedly offer to improve the England national team, although he has stated that this will be his last job in football, I chose to be the pessimist, convincing myself that he saw this as an easy pension for a couple of years. After all, England were unlikely to not qualify for two tournaments in a row. Let's get this right, it's still early days and Capello had a quite unremarkable start to his time with England under his stewardship. He started with a scrappy 2-1 win against the Swiss at Wembley, followed by a 1-0 loss to a Franck Ribery penalty in Paris. At the end of the season England took mini tour West and played the US and Trinidad and Tobago, winning 2-0 and 3-0 respectively. At the beginning of the 2008/09 season the Czech Republic visited Wembley and England drew 2-2, an undeserved last minute equaliser from Joe Cole. Taking friendlies out of the equation we all know that England have a 100% record in World Cup qualifying with 8 wins in 8 games. The England performances haven't really set the world alight in terms of being free flowing total football, but the Football being displayed has been clinical and effective. This is where I have a problem with the English psyche. We seem to be able to pick holes in success an almost obsessive fervour. It's almost as if winning is not enough, there has to be a performance to go with it or worse, when England don't win - at least we played well. What a load of old tosh!! Ask an All Black Rugby player or an Aussie Cricketer what matters most to them. I guarantee you that winning is all that comes into consideration. This is because winning comes as a result of the performance, however aesthetically pleasing. I believe that Capello has instilled this sort of belief in our England football team. The football is very measured, reports suggest that Capello's preparation is meticulous and has is beginning to turn England into a team who manufacture winning performances. But how has he gone about this? Well, remember his first game in charge. He didn't pick David Beckham on the grounds of lack of fitness. In hindsight it would appear that Capello knew exactly what he was doing. His job was under no real pressure and he could afford to do something like this, if only to show any potential England international that they had to commit to the cause if they wanted to be part of his revolution. He had improved the diet around England camp weeks, banishing Jaffa Cakes and Chips for instance. Us Spurs fans are well versed with the gaffer banning certain foods, Ketchup anyone? But where Ramos went wrong is that he insulted professional sportsmen, athletes if you will, by telling them that they weren't fit enough before following this claim by banning certain indulgent foods. Therefore, Ramos didn't really get the buy-in needed from his players. Capello however has the buy-in from his troops, almost taking the step to ensure that England players believe in him so much, that whatever he wants to do must work. To that end they have implicit trust and do not even think about questioning him. They get on with the job in hand - concentrating on getting a winning result. Ex-England Rugby Union coach Sir Clive Woodward often spoke about 1%'s (one-percenters). His theory being that everything that could be done to satisfy your players as a coach - comfortable beds, the best possible hotels, gastronomic treats, using the best training equipment, employing specific coaches (the England Team that won the 2003 World Cup had a hand-eye co-ordination coach), etc should be done to highest achievable level as this will all lead to the winning performance needed on any given match day. Capello, behind the scenes at least, seems to be recreating his own version of this Woodward theory and it seems to bearing fruit again for an England International squad. After spending one summer as an International Football Tournament neutral in 2008, I'm now ready and keen to see what Capello lead England squad can do in South Africa. England don't quite have a Lionel Messi, but they do have Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney - two men who I would certainly love to be in the trenches with should I ever be called up to defend and fight for my nation in war. I find it hard to think of a non-Englishman who is likely to be at the world cup who are anything like Gerrard or Rooney. One who is a true warrior, yet can turn a game on it's head with a sublime moment of skill. If Capello can harness these two to the best of their ability England have an exceptional chance to better their performance of Italia 90 and possibly equal the performance of 1966. England have two games coming up in the next 10 days to finish their qualifying campaign. Ukraine away in Dnipropetrovsk on Saturday and finishing at Wembley against Belarus a week Wednesday, I for one expect to finish the group with a 10-0-0 record and no one person will expect that outcome more than Capello. He will not let the England squad think for one moment that their job is done, woe betide any one who give less than the required 100%. So, World Cup time in South Africa. We will know the draw come Friday the 4th of December and soon after the spreadsheets with automatic formulas will appear so that we can all make our predictions on all sorts of combinations and permutations. Who will England face in the 2nd round? How likely are we to meet the Germany or Argentina? Who might we have to beat to get to the final? Who will we get in the final? With Fabio Capello in charge I genuinely don't fear anyone for this man has a plan and if the players believe in him, which they evidently do, so do I. I'll turn 27, exactly a week after the World Cup Final - I hope to regress 20 years and be that 7 year old Bernard on the 11th of July remembering just how fun watching England winning can be, especially if they win the ultimate prize in world sport. Comment on this article HERE in the Blogs Forum. Registration to see everything else takes less than a minute, so what are you waiting for? 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