England to go a-Capello

They didn’t think it was all over but it is now. Fabio Capello walks away from England football national manager, over interference from the FA over who can his team captain, with John Terry being dropped because of the racism charge. Don Fabio may believe in innocence before being proved guilty one couldn’t have Terry lead out the national team with such a cloud hanging over him. Given that when he arrived on these shores he was baffled by the importance that the role of captain had to an English team, has he had such a change of mindset? It is possible that the Italian also thought he was being set-up to be the fall guy in the event of failure in Poland and the Ukraine in the summer.

If the latter was the definitive reason to jump ship then it is a shame that Capello felt the need to learn only 100 English words for his vocabulary (as was his boast), as he then might have heard Stephen Hester on Radio 4, the RBS chief saying that, despite the brickbats, it would have been ‘indulgent’ for himself to resign. Indeed, the banker drew on ‘inner reserves of strength’ to carry on in his job. Capello was being paid five times more than Hester per annum and one would have felt the former could have drawn on some inner reserves after being feather-bedded with £24 million in four years. His compatriot, Carlo Ancelotti, put Capello to shame by becoming fluent in a new language at a not youthful age but when you are in semi-permanent residency in another country (namely the Italian’s own), the compulsion was in all likelihood lacking.

Don Fabio claimed that the England task would be the crowning moment of a glittering career. His pedigree was impeccable with league titles from managing AC Milan, Read Madrid and Juventus (though the two from the last were stripped after the Calciopoli match-fixing, referee-tapping scandal). A Champions League win and two other European Cup final appearances boded well. As Giovanni Trappatoni, Serie A’s most successful ever manager, found out, a good club coach does not always translate into a good national coach (scraping some success with Ireland, he was disastrous in charge of Italy). Far from being the apogee of his life to date, an underwhelming World Cup and now dropping England in trouble just months before the European Championship, it appears like Capello was looking for one final big pay cheque.

It could not have been better choreographed for Harry Redknapp. Cleared of cheating the public purse (as I knew he would) earlier in the day, he is now in the frame to be England manager (the verdict from Southwark Crown Court may have played a part in the FA’s just intransigence). He may not be so different to Capello, as ‘Arry admitted in a police interview that he writes like a two year old and the Italian maybe little better in English handwriting. Hopefully, Redknapp will be patriotic enough to take a pay cut (both from his Tottenham position and what he can expect to receive as England manager). Importantly, he will get tournament experience with the pressure not as high as it might have been had he been in position for longer.