England’s love affair with Fabio Capello has never felt right. Perhaps it was his limited English, maybe his looks of a dictator or perhaps his inability to grasp what makes England as a country tick. Whatever you say the reason is for the absences of any actually love in this fateful affair you can’t say it wasn’t predictable.
There was justified excitement when Capello succeeded the hapless Steve McClaren after an unsuccessful Euro 2008 qualifying campaign and rightfully so. The Italian was appointed on the back of managing some of the biggest clubs in Europe, spells at Milan, a stint at Roma and Juventus and another two spells at Madrid, surely he could cope with England.
It was predicted as a match made in heaven, a manager with a top class record – something England hadn’t had for many years previous – combined with the ability of being able to choose from the best players in the country, the same country which boasts the most competitive league worldwide. His reign however never quite took off; it featured sporadic highs – the demolition of Croatia – but plenty of lows, none more so depressing than the World cup in South Africa which at times had a feeling of desperation about it.
The reign also featured strange decisions starting with the omission of England’s most prolific goal-scorer at the time. From the moment Capello took charge of his first game he decided to alienate Michael Owen, the man who had previously provided the majority of England’s goals for the decade previous.
Then the decision came to re-install John Terry having stripped him off it over the Wayne Bridge affair, even stranger. But perhaps the most mystifying decision came most recently when he stuck to his stubborn guns and decided to continually omit Micah Richards, the most explosive, strongest defender in the premiership. Its clear Capello just didn’t fancy particular players; it appears the FA has lost their fancy for him.
Yet you can’t help but think perhaps Capello intended it to end this way ever since he decided to speak publicly on the removal of John Terry as captain for a second time, he knew how the FA would react to his comments of disapproval but yet didn’t seem to care. Is it possible Capello spoke out deliberately in a bid to ruffle enough feathers to make his position untenable as he knows full well he is now unable to motivate his players to achieve success at the Euro’s as the country expects.
Oh and the hefty pay-off might just be enough compensation. One more failure at tournament in front of the world may have spelt the end of Fabio Capello as a manager, now he lives to fight another day.
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