Besides the sub zero temperatures sweeping the nation in the last few days i don't think there has been any bigger news than the resignation of Fabio Capello as the England boss with immediate effect. On a personal view it did not come as a huge surprise and i was perplexed as to why this decision had not been made earlier.
I remember reading a great article by Alan Hansen, yes i know they are few and far between, about Capello and what he might bring to the England set up upon taking over. He admitted along with the majority that the man had an unbelievable record and i personally agree. There is no doubt that he has an outrageous CV, possibly one of the best in the business. He has the unbelievable distinction of winning the domestic league title with every club he has coached throughout his career. In addition, in his first five seasons with Milan he won the Seria A title four times, add the Champions League to that in the 93-94 season and this makes a fantastic record. Similarly as the England manager he finished up with a win percentage of just under 67%. This win percentage is the highest for any England manager ever and even eclipsed the great Sir Alf Ramsey who has the accolade of a world cup winner on his CV.
Hansen went on to explain that this was not to be the problem. Instead it was the huge language barrier with Capello entering the job with little to no experience of speaking English. He claimed in his opening news conference that he would learn within the next 6 months with the best help made available to him by the FA. However, although there were noticeable improvements in his speech it never got near an acceptable standard. Given that Capello relies heavily on a system of intense man management and motivation it became a huge problem. A problem that's seriousness was not realised until results really mattered at the World Cup in South Africa. It was a comedy of errors typified by Capello's refusal to let players relax and most noticeably see their families and also the outrageous nature by which he dismissed David Beckham's England career. For a player with 115 caps and 13 years of service for the national side, it was intensely disrespectful to cast him aside in one sentence. I think with someone in the job who really understood the British culture and the values that that team really stood for, a far more relaxed environment would have been created. One that these players would have been comfortable with and thus had a greater chance of success.
With the World Cup such a failure you have to ask yourself why did the FA not remove Capello immediately after the finals and not delayed it this long? There is a simple answer to that question: money. Capello is on a contract worth 6 million pounds per year and as a result, to sack him with two years left on his deal would have cost an estimated 12 million pounds, silly money. In a way you can simpathise with the FA as they were in no position to shell out that much money and in any case with the World Cup being such a failure they would have risk the blame and frustration being focused on them. However, England is home to some of the most passionate supporters in the world and the Premier League is undeniably the best and most exciting league in the world. As a result as a nation of football fans we deserve more than for our coach to be retain just because of the sheer cost of it. We have the right to have the best and at any cost because of the position that football plays within the hearts and minds of England as a football mad nation.
So the decision was not made, no one seemed to mind when we were tearing up Euro qualifying. We qualified with 5 wins, 3 draws, no defeats and ending 2011 unbeaten. Everything seemed back to normal, this was until the bombshell of the Terry captaincy disaster that emerged as a problem concerning the national side in January. It appears that the FA had shown a huge lack of communication with Capello for his reaction to be so ignorant however again i feel that the problem has in fact been Capello's failure to communicate properly and understand the British media and general culture. It was almost suicidal to act in this way and if he had not resigned i feel that he will have left the FA no choice but to fire him themselves.
It therefore comes down to the fact that the FA did not have the steel to fire him outright after the world cup and in a sense they have disrespected the football nation in England by retaining Capello's services simply on financial grounds. In addition his failure to grasp the English language sufficiently, means the blame can also be cast on Capello himself but should someone with such little experience of English have been hired in the first place? It is for this very reason that the FA and the British public are so incensed that the next manager is English, hopefully the mistakes made will never reoccur and the shambles that the English team has descended into will never return.
Redknapp is, as a result the obvious choice for Capello's successor, this will be discussed in the next blog in a couple of days.....
by Giles Harwood ( @gilesharwood001 )
sick mate, score mate
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