one.
It’s looking more and more like the F.A. are going to try and pull the hat out of the hat with Fabio Cappello as their choice.
After Mourinho pulled out of the running I have to say Capello was/is my last choice of those left standing. Yes I would have gone for “The Special One” though there would be problems in that selection, mainly with his ex-players, Terry, Lumpalard & the Coles, who might have been guaranteed their place in the squad and team.
After Jose said no I would have tried Martin O’Neill, then Klinsmann, then Lippi and if there was no takers then Capello. Not much between the first three though.
The first two I’d go with because of their use of youth, O’Neill has shown his trust in young English flyers this year with Villa and I’d like to see the likes of Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor given a run out for the senior team. It was also the policy Jurgen went with during his spell as German coach, dump the old duffers bring through the hungrier young players and have them play some attacking football and it worked.
I don’t think I’d be unhappy with Lippi either, the setup needs a strong hand and there’s too much “show us your medals” mentality with English players, which the Italian can stop in it’s tracks with one medal in particular. He won’t put up with a bunch of crap from the players while they’re being cosseted and pampered, his World Cup winning side weren’t set apart from their fans in opulent surroundings as Sven’s lot were.
That is one plus for Capello he’s another hard taskmaster and talk of him being a stereotypical Italian who starts at the back does sound good, because they need it but can he stop them falling too deep, dropping off players running forward aiming to shoot, then turning their back’s on the shot and poncing out of blocking it, in the few days he’ll have with them?
There’s also this thing about dull football, yes winning is good but christ they won at times with McClown and it wasn’t much fun to watch, there’s also this nagging doubt about his relationship with Beckham.
This has to be the first thing asked any candidate, what are you going to do with that midfield that has failed us miserably over the years. Beckham, Gerrard, Lumpalard and J. Cole – Are you going to pick them no matter what? Yes, well goodbye thanks for the application – filed in the cylindrical out tray.
The first is well past his sell by date but it’s said he will win his 100th cap by captaining the side in the next friendly and that says it all about the F.A. a player that has cost us games in the past, is only about personal glory now, getting picked because the sponsors like it and some screaming girls in the far east will be more inclined to tune in.
Gerrard has 60 odd caps now and has deserved no more than 3 to 5 of them on his England performances, forget what he does for club it never materialises for his country and one player can’t dictate how the team is built around them, especially when it is – given the central midfield role he craves and partnered with a player that doesn’t inhibit him – and he still fails and is overshadowed by the lesser light – Gareth Barry. He doesn’t even fall over for penalties as successfully for England as he does for ‘Pool.
With the news that some at the F.A. want Terry dropped as captain no doubt those with red coloured specs and those that have a nice financial deal as a ghostwriter will be clamouring for the Liverpool man to be installed but he wasn’t the right choice back when McClown had to make it and with what’s happened over the last 15 months how can anyone say that’s changed.
Lumpalard had a couple of good years, he at least did perform unlike Gerrard but there’s a bitterness to his feeling of entitlement that followed his “I deserve respec innit” crap after the World Cup since when the performance for England haven’t quite met the standard.
Joe Cole needs someone to slap him every time he stops a fast breakout or flowing move to do some stupid step over, or to let the defender catch up so he can try and beat someone because he’s just not good enough at it. Get the ball run with it then cross it, no showboating, you are not Zidane no matter what the sycophants around you say or that growing bald patch at the back of your head might suggest.
One positive is we won’t have to hear all that pre-scripted bullshit McClown came out with all the time and there’s be no Stevie-G, Becks, Lamps, JT being used by the new boss. Because what is needed is a boss not some pal of the players, after the easy matey time they’ve had of it under Svennis and McClaren.
So I don’t know about Capello, not my first choice by far but he is a winner everywhere he goes with a top class pedigree in Italy and Spain – where he did it with under performing lazy prima donnas – he could ruffle a few feathers within the F.A. and the team which would be good and after all the only way is up after the last regime.
So they say he’s going to be the boss by the weekend, well there’s still time for Bumbling Barwick to screw it up again – meet Steve McClown my first choice.
Fabio’s major asset may be his lack of the English language?
The multi-lingual Sven-Goran Eriksson was seen as being capable of playing the media game but the batchelor “babe magnet” wouldn’t play along so was harassed & labelled as “alloof” by the press. He also had the additional audacity to lose a total of 5 competitive matches and fail to bring home a trophy in his years at the helm after turning round England from the fiasco of Euro2000 and the preceding decades of variable mediocraty.
The results that England’s “golden generation” of football stars achieved for Euro 2008 without Sven, have opened an opportunity for Capello to be given a little better media support and less of the xenophobia that drove out what TheFA list as Englands second all time most successful manager maybe…? Just as long as he wins EVERY match, lives like a monk and brings back the trophy in the 2010 World Cup and subsequent tournaments??? As Sven’s “statistically unmatched England record” proves, nothing less will do for our “patriotic” media…..
I wouldn’t put too much store in what the F.A. say after all a certain B. Barwick once said “Steve McClown is my first choice”.
Going by winning % Sven is third behind Sir Alf and Hoddle, success third again behind Sir Alf and Robson, maybe even fourth behind Walter. Is he second probably in number of wins but that has more to do with his surviving cause the F.A. were penny pinching and couldn’t afford to get shot when it was obvious it wasn’t working.
I think you may be a bit biased in this case 😆 so you forget the insipidness of his leadership, can you do an Ian Duncan Smith accent? his star struck celeb worship that’s seen the likes of Beckham outstay his usefulness and his presence when injured that cost us games.
Along with Sven’s decidedly odd ways in which he played the fringe players out of position, or gave them no time at all, almost as if he wanted them to fail so he wouldn’t have the headache of choosing between individuals and he could just stick with his mates.
As for the press, well if he wasn’t bright enough to learn after the first time he was caught he pretty much deserved everything after that.