Capello set to stay in charge

I posted this on a related forum earlier ... it is worth reading for a sense of perspective


https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0629/1224273557820.html

I think he should stay on. If you ask has he taken the team forward then the answer has to be yes, he took over a team that failed to qualify for Euro 2008 and which had been dismal not in four games, but right across the campaign.

During qualification he did a superb job, but there were signs that the unique pressures and atmosphere of a World Cup campaign caught him by surprise and led to some uncharacteristic mistakes.

He now has that tournament experience and has made mistakes that he can learn from. He hasn't become a bad manager overnight and if you look at the fact that he has succeeded in every other job but England you start to see that much of the blame must be laid at the door of the players.

He should stay, prepare to be more flexible in his tactical approach, and prepare to be ruthless in getting rid of underperforming players no matter what their name is.

Reputation? Pass. Qualification? Pass. Economics and saving the FA £10m? Pass. And lack of alternative? Maybe..... but ... Heskey in the squad? Heskey sent on when we need to score goals? The choice of a ridiculously ponderous defence? The failure to recognise that the Germans were slaughtering Terry and Upson by not sending on the much speedier King or Dawson? Wright Phillips on ... why? The constant misuse of Gerrard, etc, etc. Mistakes are fine in preparation matches, but so many mistakes in the matches in which it really matters??

Keeping Capello is a good move. He is not a bad manager overnight.
He also could only work with what he had.
Although the FA have to make it clear that the system and the players have to work together with players in the correct position and the emphasis on youth with a small blend of experience.

Managers don't become bad managers over night? no it happens over a few years as football changes. Capello is a out of date manager now. Anyway the best thing to do bearing in mind the crazy decision to sign Capello up for a another 2yrs would be to let him continue and sack him if our Qualifying campaign goes bad. If we qualify okay then sack him before he gets to pick the team for the tournament and get a manager or indeed any one English that happens to be close by in to manage the team.

Manager is not the problem. England has tried some of the best managers in this world ,english and foreign. The problem is deeper.English players are usually tired in world cups , they make stupid mistakes and they don't play passionately for their team. Whoever you try as the manager will not give any good result. When a top player is injured then the manager runs out of option.By changing Capello nothing will change. If you can't win a cup with Capello you will not be able to do it with anyother manager. Focus on young players ,find the talents for every position in the squad, let them play in the premier league instead of foreign players, also train english football coaches so you can have top ones like Capello, Lippi...

Also just thought when doctors accidentally get things like doses wrong and kill a person they get struck off. Why on earth do people thing managers paid £6m should keep their jobs despite gross incompetence.

Capello had one route, and no fresh ideas when Germany stopped his team. He must go. How about setting up a rule that no future bosses will be assured of a job before a tournament?

Good article, mpwapwaman. And as a Spurs fan, whilst being frustrated by the failure to give Dawson a kick, I can also recall going to Wembley for Hoddle's goal-scoring debut, after which Greenwood even failed to put him on the subs' bench because of the mistrust referred to, which continues 30 years later. Having said that, however, whilst there has been a dismal Lawn Tennis Association-like failure to build for the future, whilst there continues to be a culture of mistrust of home grown talent and of flair, Capello still made, and continued to make, some incredibly fundamental and basic mistakes during this tournament.

I think we should stick with him, he's still a top manager and nobody would really be much better. It's worth negotiated with him with regards to his strict structure which he forces upon everyone, but these shouldn't be relaxed any more than a tad, the authoritarian figure is a good one. Tell him that we want him to bring some of the younger players into the team and build a younger England team for the future, maybe try and get him to catch up and use a loan striker in Rooney as well.

He's walking wounded and it's only a matter of time. He has no hope of surviving his first bad result in qualification for Euro 2012

He's made too many mistakes to list but let's highlight one that speaks volumes about his inability to get the best from his squad. He,,,,still,,,,needs,,,a,,,,translator,,,after,,,,,,2,,,YEARS!!!!!!

Yes you can have foreign expertise in any business but you MUST be able to talk to your staff. If Capello was worth £6 million he'd know this.

That doesn't detract from some of the valid points already made about the cancer that is the Premier League and the negative effect it has on the development of English players - as mpwapwaman's excellent link above highlights, we MUST learn from the Germans!

Should he go? No.
Should the way in which the team is selected be looked at? IMO, yes.

You can only work with the tools you have been provided. And unfortunately, England has a lot of tools that are broken or flawed. I think it's time to get some new tools.

Whilst the media pour fourth the usual rubbish when England get knocked out of a tournament lets please keep in mind that but for a massive refereeing error we may well have beaten Germany.

How good were the Germans when we carved open their defence twice in 5 minutes!

But the sports writers can't speak the truth and put in simple one liners to sell newspapers. They must therefore wheel out the same old drivel about the "state of the game" in our country."We need a route a branch change to the game","we need togo back to the school","too many foreign players",blah blah blah.

It was bad luck that the referee was poor and Rooney wasn't showing the form he showed through the qualification campaign,tough luck take the pain.

We weren't that bad but the press are already talking about a "shambles" and a "disastrous" world cup. Suppressing any mention of periods when we played well in the first game, the 3rd game and against Germany.(oh yes Spain,France Italy and Germany lost games in their groups because of their wonderful youth structures!!)

"Press" please sing another song as they same old tune is shrill and stupid.

The manager MUST stay anything else would be dancing to the sad media music of today that will be forgotten in a week or two.

Capello has to go and their has to be an overhaul of the English game just like Germany have done in the past 10 years.

Capello made some big mistakes in this tournament. Yes, the players have to take some responsibility but some of his decision making in the tournament were woeful.

As usual the FA will make the wrong decision in keeping him and give him a goal of reaching the final of Euro 2012 without doing anything to change the English game (we'll ultimately end up way short of that again). The FA and the LTA (heads of British tennis) have to be the 2 worst lead organisations in the world, they absolutely love throwing money away for no reason whatsoever.

I think Capello has done a pretty good job, considering the starting point. But he still needs to be able to finish flushing out some bad thinking among some of the players.

I'm also glad to see you mention "Special J" at the end, David, but I think England need to improve substantially before they approach him, whenever he becomes available. His recent talents, or preferences, suggest that he would be best employed by turning a "good" side into outright winners. I don't think we (England) can honestly describe ourselves as a "good" side at the moment.

I'm also glad to see you cite some of your sources of information. I don't see why BBC sports writers should be exempted from standards expected of other journalists.
Within the last few days, a colleague of yours wrote an article criticising Capello for changing his policy and "leaking" his team selection to the media in advance. He did not name the source of his information, or the person who "leaked" Capello's selection, yet this was a significant contribution to the article.

The headline I would have written for that story is:
"Using Leaked Information, Journalist Criticises Someone For Leaking Information"

Stick with him definitely. Capello is still a great manager - yes, he made mistakes but there's no reason why he can't learn from them. The majority of the blame is with the players.

Narrow minded journalists are calling for him to get the heave - of course, sacking managers have had a great effect on England haven't they? How are the media so thick to believe that we are going to turn into world beaters simply with a change of manager? No matter what anyone says, Capello is still miles ahead of all the possible names for England manager. Is Redknapp really better than Fabio? It's even a no contest up against Hodgson. Managers who play direct route one football are not going to win anything.

The whole 'England should be managed by an English man' has reared it's ugly head once again - it's nonsense that an English manager 'understands' the English game better. Capello has a distinguished record in Italy but also Spain for goodness sake. They say Capello didn't adapt his tactics in South Africa - how do you adapt tactics to suit a bunch of players performing terribly? It was an accusation thrown at Eriksson also, but it's impossible to adapt tactics when your players are rubbish. Don't say they are world class because they are not - their deficiencies are hidden by their superior foreign counterparts at their respective clubs. Also, the players would look much fresher and less sluggish and slow if they were given a winter break, but the money grabbers who run the Premier League won't let this happen.

Perhaps if the FA and the media stopped looking at the short term solutions and concentrated on long term targets like reforming the structure of English football (look at Spain's structure - large host of top quality coaches teaching kids from the age of five compared with our few inept coaches who largely coach grown men in the professional and semi-professional game).

Until serious reforms are made, it's inevitable that England will continue to fail at international tournaments.

However, we've had this discussion so many times so why is it likely to change? Come August, all the journalists from the papers, BBC Sport, Match of the Day, Sky, etc. will be raving about Man City's latest big money foreign signing while boasting that the Premier League is the best league in the world. This argument will once again be put on the backburner once again and it's highly likely no progress will be made. Same old England huh?

I think that those of you who think that it's all down to a dearth of English talent and that Capello should stay have it all wrong. As mentioned by others above, he made numerous unforgivable errors, for example: picking and sticking with Heskey; showing complete tactical inflexibility and playing players out of position; doing a u-turn and picking the inferior SWP instead of Walcott; not using friendlies to try anything out properly; the Capello index; using italian style sensory deprivation techniques and not having the cultural knowledge to realise that this would not work with England's players; not bothering to learn English (having lived abroad I know that his effort at learning English over 2 years is worse than pathetic); bullying his assistant Stuart Pearce (as shown on youtube); refusing to take responsibility and blaming tired players.The list goes on.
As for the Irish times article, it's all very well them saying that we have unrealistic expectations, but they would have been going to the world cup (but for a French handball) expecting to get to the second round. Now, compare our players to theirs. Exactly, ours are miles, miles better! The difference is that theirs work hard for each other and punch above their weight as a result. We punch below ours because once again we've employed a failure. We're worse than we were under Sven. Capello SHOULD go, but, depressingly, he won't...

It is clear that the combination of Capello's rigidity in management terms and the English players sheer incompentence as a national team lost us the competition. It is NOT the media's fault, anyone with any sense of what is good football and tactics could see the woeful level of performance. The best thing by far would be to set some ground-rules - no more foreign managers, recruit from the whole English football population,not just the Premier League, and accept a lesser role internationally until we have a fresh, young team. Also. the FA should sort itself out and stop offering ludicrous salaries to club managers with no international experience. They should earn their salary,not expect it. But it won't happen - Capello with blunder on, the team for the Euro qualifications will look much the same, and the tactics will stay the same, and fail again. But, eventually the penny will drop!

We know if the FA hadnt removed the clause, hed already be gone. Gartside and the rest are just busy trying to save themselves a fortune and a mountain load of embarassment at what they did, they dont really believe hes the right man anymore.

Capello made an almighty mess from start to finish of the world cup campaign proper. From the ludrocus decision to take David Beckham along as a celebrity cheerleader to the rigidity of the tactics, its been a month or more of incompetence and farce.

In agree it appears somewhat pointless to go through the process of appointing another manager when we know the issues go deeper and theres no obvious candiate. But the players, a significant proprotion at least, are patently hating every minute they spend under Capello. Things clearly went on that we still havent found out about within the camp in south africa.

The press will simply hound Capello at every step from now on if he remains, they will focus in on his imperfect english after every match, there wont be any leeway given like there has been up until this tournament. The whole atmosphere around England will, i fear, remain nothing short of poisonous from now onwards if Capello stays and therefore i think it remains in the interests of both parties to call it quits here and now.

Goonermaestro, your comments about English players not being that good and being carried by superior foreign players just aren't true. Who was carrying Gerrard when he almost singlehandedly won them the champions league? He has been their most consistent performer by far over the years (despite an indifferent season). Who carries Rooney? He has carried Man Utd this season! How about 27 goal Frank Lampard at Chelsea? How about Terry, Chelsea captain, or Ashley Cole? Or James Milner, one of Villa's stand out performers last season? Utter rubbish, but what I would expect from the supporter of a team full of foreigners. They have underachieved BIG TIME. Accept it.

@ 1. mwapapan

An insightful article from an excellent writer

I believe in Capello. I believe he, and the FA, will learn from their mistakes and have the inteligence to make necessary changes to ensure a better showing at the next European Championship tournament.

England win as a team and lose a team, and our 'team' representing the country not only includes the players. So by sacking Capello, you might as well say sack the entire England set up, back-room staff, physios and all 23 of the squad from participating again in any form whatsoever.

It beggars belief that our country's media cannot find anything else to do but build someone up, only to knock them down again when things take a turn for the worse for a while - unfortunately in our case, it was that our bad spell came during the actual event we were hoping to win. Our WC was very disappointing but their are more factors to take into account than simply, wrong system, wrong players and bad English.

Capello deserves a little more respect in what he had achieved prior to the tournament and unless the media back off every time the chips are down, England will go through this 2 year cycle all over again, and again.
Is it any wonder so many top managers decline the top England job. With the amount of bull**** they have to put up with (from the media in particular), I can't say I blame them.
Give them man a chance, let him lick his wounds and get on with the job he's paid to do.

4. At 11:45pm on 29 Jun 2010, kyzajai wrote:

"He also could only work with what he had."

__________

Completely agreed.

But for a fumbled ball against the Americans, England would have finished first in the group and played Ghana. Blame the manager for the fumble?

But for an astonishing error by the officials, (and the long-standing mule-headed refusal of FIFA either to adopt technology that would improve fairness; or to adopt ethical standards requiring players to own up to what they know to be true, (Mr. Maradona, Mr. Neuer, and Mr Henri, all step forward)) the outcome of the game with Germany might well have been very different. Blame the manager for an egregious refereeing error?

England's defense was slow and porous. But the best defender was injured in a practice session in South Africa. Blame the manager for the injury?

England could have done with a second dangerous striker. England has one, too, but he injured himself two months before the competition. Blame the manager for the injury?

Give it a rest.

Next time there won't be stupid horns blowing all the time. Maybe they won't play with a glorified beach-ball that wanders all over the place in flight. Maybe England will arrive at the tournament healthy and with it's head in the right place. And maybe it will get some of the bounces that didn't go its way this time.

The Irish article is maybe the smartest assessment of the situation I have seen amidst all the handwringing hysteria:

"The quality end of the Premier League is the place where English players need to be if they are to thrive and develop properly. The top end of the Premier League, however, is a festering pile of debt-ridden clubs hooked on foreign talent and desperate to keep their lips close to the teat of Champions League action...

"The so-called golden generation of English players...are victims of a football culture which leaves them under-prepared for the game at the highest level and a media culture which overhypes them.

"The Premier League, with its 100mph game and its dire financial management, is a poor learning ground at the best of times....In a culture of fear and overspending, managers take fewer and fewer chances on what young talent they do produce."

In a nutshell: The young and promising future of English football is sitting on Premier League benches !! England will never succeed on the world stage until it frees them and lets them grow.

Ed - Erm, they're a bad bunch simply because they can't play as a team. The English players, very good on their day for their clubs, but they aren't versatile or intelligent enough to work together unlike superior foreign players. Intelligence is key - blasting in a fantastic goal or making a last ditch tackle is all very well, but football is a bit more than that and no England player can be heralded as an 'intelligent' player. This is obviously something lacking in our coaching of youngsters.

I'm as passionate about England doing well on the International football stage as any other proud Englishman, and before the tournament I genuinely thought, rather than hoped, we could do very well in the World Cup this time around. However, for me the reality has now kicked in, and although it may be hard for most English people to accept, we simply aren't good enough. Whilst some of Capello's tactics may have seemed 'strange' to us fans to say the least, this should not mask the real issue here; that Capello is merely at the top of an English football pyramid that is crumbling.

It's been said time and time again, but if we want to succeed at International level, we have to start from the bottom. No more chancers at the FA opting for a quick-fix solution in an attempt to appease the fans. I would rather see Trevor Brooking come out and admit that the problem is much more deep-lying than everyone thinks, and now actually carry out this 'root and branch' investigation (as perviously promised by the FA after failings in the past) as opposed to looking for the next quick-fix solution if Capello does go. We need to move away from the 'traditional' way football is viewed and run in this country, and learn from the other nations who have failed in the past and actually done something about it (eg. the Clairefontaine model in France which churned out World and European champions, Coverciano in Italy which helps develop and produce world-class coaches and managers).

I do fear however, that due to the commercialisation of the Premier League in recent years, it will take years if not decades to climb this ever increasing mountain, and therefore we are in for a rough few years ahead on the pitch.

Keep Capello. There is noone else out there (especially an English manager) who could do a better job right now.

Keep Capello. He did the best he could with the players he had available to him. I was in Wembley Stadium when England won in 1966. Anyone who thinks the current players are the equal of those in the 1966 and 1970 teams is delusional. It's also about time the players realized that their role is to perform on the pitch, let the manager determine strategy and follow his instructions. Ramsey would not have tolerated the kind of nonsense we have observed coming from some of the players in the 2010 team. That said the quality of players available to play for England will not improve within the current structure of league football in England. There's a clear choice: the best national team in the world (or at least a realistic possibility of attaining it) or the best league at club level in the world (which we already have).

Oh and Ed, when I talk about the narrow minded, short sighted view, yours is the perfect example.

As the Irish Times says, change the cloth not the tailor.

I have listened to all the arguements and reasons why England failed to progress further in SA. It appears that no single reason (manager, players, tiredness, ball, FA, youth, beer, boredom, mutiny, form, fitness, formation etc) is the sole reason, but is more obviously a combination of all of the above.

I must admit that I am a big supporter of the idea that England should be managed by an Englishman (or at least by someone who speaks the same language), but also find the way that many have turned on Capello following our exist as people looking for a scapegoat, and he's the one in the line of fire. He was seen as "the man" during qualification, and while some of the gloss may have fallen off his reputation, he has not suddenly become useless.

I thought the idea of bringing in first Sven and now Fabio was because we ere supposedly going to get a level of international tactical sophistication that the English managers lacked. But this WC has shown little evidence of that from Fabio, and his selection and substitutions at times seemed inept, but he did lack real quality choices if we are all honest. Look at the benches Spain, Brazil and Argentina have? It's not an excuse, it is just the way it is. It is interesting to note that Argentina, Spain, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Paraguay, Uruguay all have a manager from their own country. But then again, so did Italy and France!!

The most successfull managers in recent times were English (Sir Bobby Robson and Terry Venables) but our worst were also English (Keegan and McClaren). Hoddle was doing OK until he went all weird. If a decision to replace Capello was made, I see that Hodgson and Redknap are being promoted. I think Harry would be great (good tactically and passionate and would be great motivator), but I have just seen the video clip of Roy Keane on the BBC website. He would be a good choice too, although his managerial track record isn't great, but look what he's had to work with.

In conclusion, I say stay with Fabio , but we need to address all the other issues that make his just almost impossible as well.

Also, I'm not saying Capello is blameless - he made big mistakes of course but he should be given a second chance. Like many have said, he hasn't turned into a bad manager overnight.

Can’t sack Capello, and as sure as God made little apples he isn’t going to walk.
Would you, with £12 million to lose?
Keep the intransigent nugget, pay him for another two years, but get rid of the FA plodocrats; Richards and Burden who cancelled the release clause. They appear to know sweet FA about realistic negotiation.
When does the world of fantasy football reconnect with the real world?

It is simple. Capello had a couple of years to prepare for this, he then attempted to coax multiple retirees to join the squad at the last moment. The team from the friendlies through to their eventual thrashing by Germany performed poorly. He then invited a number of players to join the squad of 30 without even giving them a run out. Capped that off by bringing the likes of Heskey while leaving Bent back in England.

The difference between winning and losing is largely about mental conditioning. He produced a team that was evidently very low on confidence and exacerbated the situation by his inflexibility and clueless tactics.

He has to go.

I feel sorry for him because since the great Qualification stage he has genuinely been rattled by this first experience. But then again his stubborn nature also doesn't seem to match well with this and peoples' reactions sometimes. I still think it was more the players fault than his, that squad should have performed at the group stage at least under any formation!

I definitely think he should have one final chance at Euro 2012. Try a proper rebuild with new players, like Hart and new formations. If that gets messed up too, he will go, and at least there is still time for Brazil 2014!

I agree, he didn't become a bad manager overnight - it was more over the course of 2 months.

The preparation was a shambles. The squad selection had holes all over it - no clear first choice keeper, no reserve right back, a creeking bunch of centre halves, no natural left winger, no holding midfielder, Emile Heskey, I could go on. Whether the tactics were modern or not, they didn't work but there was no plan B. The defence was an absolute mess.

I just don't buy the argument that technical weakness got us knocked out, not when the reason we fell apart against Germany was total disorganisation at the back. I'm not saying we're the best defenders in the world but we're much better than the mess on display on Sunday. That kind of defensive performance simply comes down to poor preparation, and that is the manager's responsibility.

Mistakes will always be made, but Fabio made too many to convince me that he knows what he's doing at this level.

There's also an element of double standards here - we are told that our Premier League/Champions League/FA Cup winning players can't operate at the higher levels required in international football, but the coach is a legend for winning things with his past clubs and can't be a bad manager overnight.

Sorry Fabio, I had high hopes but it seems you are just like all the rest.

yes the FA board member must go. Maybe Alan Sugar is a good choice!

Ok so we all agree the manager made some mistakes off the park and on but he has a fantastic record and I don’t think he is entirely to blame here. Our players did not perform so we get the excuses out and blame the manager and then the ball and then the wags not being there and how the team cant have a beer etc etc. Its time to get real here and accept we cant keep sacking managers and paying them millions in compensation because our players do not perform. Capello is the right man for this job.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)
Are we going to learn from our mistakes or just keep repeating them?
Clean house.
At the very least appoint Brian Clough in an advisory role. Even dead he probably makes more sense than anyone at the FA.

He'll stay because the FA don't want another expensive mistake. They might also realise that there is still a good manager in there somewhere.

Sacking him would only mean the FA would have to face up to their realities and admit they got it wrong, again. They'd rather sweep all of their problems under the Wembley pitch. Maybe that's why it plays so bad?

There will never be an overhall at the FA because there is no accountability. Government intervention is outlawed by FIFA, so they can get away with it. Until someone who isn't a Lord and an unknown knight of the realm is running it, this will happen. There is just no ambition to really be great at football from the FA. They'd rather make money leasing their stadium to George Michael, or try and convince the NFL that a gridiron on the sodden Wembley pitch is a good idea.

Rotters.

To discuss the continuity of a coach who must work with the output from both the EPL and the FA, is bass-ackwards (of course, what does one expect from an organisation with no acountability, transparency or assured renovation over time?? The issues that France and Italy have had are not far from England's, while the Netherlands and Germany have already altered both the governance and the professional league models. To let ex-captains take a run at whomever is coach and then to hold the coach accountable for trying to manage a bunch of overpaid jocks whose only interest is their respective commercial continuity is truly bass-ackwards. How about asking Board members for limited term membership, no conflicts of interest and asking the FA for a 15% reduction in schedule, while insisting on the 15% going to training with a national side? As for the ex-captains, well the title should suffice for the both of them: they simply do not get it.

Finally FA become more sensible. Still believe Capello can do his job if he runs his iron fist discipline to axe the dead wood (really disgruntled to see pictures of Ashley Cole and Ledley Kings and felt sorry for the England fans). I think he just learnt the true identity of England star players in this world cup.

Hopefully Capello can build a squad around Gerrard (one of the few players performs and still love England shirt) with young players to gain experience from Euro 2012 and then World Cup 2014. What matters are to find committed players who would like to wear England shirts, and instill belief like the German that they can beat strong opponents with an average squad.

Many talks about academy and youth development that is too far away. Young players from Premier League and Championship should be given a chance and hope Capello will be true to his words.

Of the 8 group winners only one has failed to continue on to the last 8 of the competition. That team is the USA and we all no who finished runners up to them.

Surely this proves 2 things:

1) We were in the weakest group of all 8 and..

2) We quite simply are not technically gifted enough to play in the later stages of international competitions, in fact i would say there is an argument to say we are now in the 3rd tier of international football along with such powerhouses as Japan & the 2 Korean teams.

Don't blame Capello, blame the system, blame Murdock for creating the Premier League Monster, blame the clubs for not concentrating on bringing young talent to the fore, blame the FA for trying to buy the World Cup but whoever you blame don't blame Capello!!

I think England should maintain Capello. But it is high time england give consideration to english players rather than going after any new talent discovered in other countries.Fine everyone is saying The English league is the best because of the high caliber of players competing in the premiership but is this reflecting in the English squad. NOOOOO!!! and why not ??? THis is because clubs are more concern with the succeess of their teams only and this is why they concentrate on buying players from outside England who are very well paid, well prepared and well equip by the english clubs. But in as much as clubs want to succeed the F A should also put the interest of the nation in mind at all times and should therefore set up guidlines to billionaires who come to buy Clubs in the premiership. Else it is these same players they buy from oversea who will go back to their respective contries and humialite england when they meet in a major tournament. The F A should puts laws that will ensure that every club should line up atleast five english players in your fixture in every match in the premiership. Without this, english football will fail as england will always be humiliated anytime they are in a competition. So Sacking capello is not the issue but consideration should be given to the number of english players in the premiership.

Its laughable on here that so many people are so wrong.
Yes the players are to blame but who picked them?
Who picked Heskey, asked for Scholes, Hargreaves, picked SWP?
Played 2 of Englands greatest players in the wrong position?

I'm no manager I admit and IF heskey had scored 2 past the Germans we could all say 'he was right' but that was never going to happen and in a knockout match any mistake is a big mistake, he made mistake after mistake.

The shambles that has been this world cup could potentially ruin some of our players confidencewise.

If Capello stays he has to start again. Needs to work with the players (not tell him what to do but have input from them)
Pick a system and find players that can play in that system.
whether that means a Full Villa midfield or Spurs defense so be it.

The stars route hasn't worked lets try actually build a team.

The argument for keeping Capello because it would cost too much to sack him is English absurdity at its finest.
If he's the wrong guy, he's the wrong guy. I'd rather pay him to leave than to stay.
As I said in the McNulty column, Capello should go because he threw his principles out the window in the 2 months leading up to his team selection.
He violated every Commandment he wrote about how he would run his side.

Yes, the players were awful.
Yes, the system needs a complete overhaul from the grass roots up.
But those are seperate arguments.
Capello failed to live up to the tenets he himself set.
For that alone, he must go.

Oh, and putting Heskey on when 3 goals were needed is icing on the cake.

I dont know why this fuss about how great Capello is,although winning the group to go into the finals looked very easy there was never any impressive style of play.In every game England played we have never seen that type of football that makes you marvel.On the contrary a boring type of football defending and tring with the counter attacks hoping that luck will prevail. In my opinion Capello should not be given the second chance,England should try to find another manager.

Everyone is bemoaning player selection and substitutions by Capello as dismal. But if there was a problem with Capello is that he failed to generate the team spirit that takes teams to the end of this tournament. Germany, Ghana, Chile Algeria all had what it takes. We didnt.

Laughable all this is! If you have to moan and complain then aim it at the players! You talk about money 'wasted' on Capello when the players are getting paid for being bad for all 4 games!! Atleast Capello showed some fight! The players just didn't care or seem like they even wanted to be there. And they come back with money in their pockets too! For once england fans need to keep faith in something instead of bailing at the first chance they get!

I don't think sacking Capello is the answer getting rid of the overrated overpaid so called golden generation is the first step he must take then build a young team that his is players who will play for him and the shirt with fresh young players he might even change his formation or tactics and we won't have this argument about where to play Gerrard and Lampard who both should go along with Terry Wright-Philipps Heskey and the rest of the failures and let Rooney know he is not the best thing since sliced bread i would build my forward line around Walcott in a central position find the best youngster to command the midfield and a couple of mobile centre backs the boat England are in is also filled by the French and the Italy so Fabio start from scratch and build your Team

I think Capello should go. He had shown a great weakness in assigning players. One thing that never goes away from my heart is as to why he let Barry play the entire 90 min. Barry was not even playing the whole game in his club. The two goals Germany scored were his fault. So, if Capello was a great coach, he could have replaced Barry with Carrick. The other big mistake Capello made was to let Heskay in in almost all of the games England played. This guy plays 10-15 min for his club. So, how on earth, was he allowed to play almost the entire games in this tournament. Jhonston was, I think one of the causes for Liverpool's failures in this season. But Capello had Johnston in all of the games. We know that we have very talented players, but their assignment which is made by the coach went very wrong in South Africa. I wish Capello is replaced by another coach right now.

The end result was that Englands team were not good enough again.

We are lacking one or more world class goal keepers. James is past it, Green will end up with severe lack of confidence and never play another international again. Hart is promising but untried. The problem in this area is a lack of England keepers playing in the Premiership.

In defence, we have an aging group of centre backs prone to injury who should be retired off. I feel sorry for Upson who thought he would be topping off his tan in Florida watching the action and then got called up to the squad to actually play when obviously not match fit.

In midfield Lampard, Barry and Gerrard showed they are unfit compared to the best in the world and should be pensioned off too. Past their best!

Up front Rooney was a shadow of his Man United self. Why was our current most prolific goal scorer (Crouch) not used more?

We see from other succesful teams that promoting hungry U21 players to the full team is paying off. A team full of top paid prima donnas does not work.

Good luck Fabio in your rebuilding. Be bold and brave and bring in the new not recycle the old.

Capello is the best there is. But the squad need a psychologist. They just quaked in their boots at the thought of a WC game (or of the headlines back home)! And the case is chronic, so will need some deep soul-searching.

The problem is not Capello, nor the FA, nor even (specifically) the English players.

It is England. The English nation. It is a trainwreck.

English people need to learn that they are not among football's elite, and are not likely to be going there any time in the near future.

Then they can kick back and enjoy qualification when it comes.

If they EVER beat one of the real contenders - Argentina, Germany, Spain etc - they should consider it a wonderful, unlikely achievement.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I just don't understand the hatred toward's Sven's tenure. England fan's would have taken that QF exit a damn sight more than this embarrassment I'm sure! It's a huge thing. So what about Gold-showered Swedes and WAGs parading in Germany's shopping malls, England were far more entertaining that in WC2006. Joe Cole's goal is still amongst the finest in a World Cup! Memories from 2010? Exactly. It's far more the players than the manager.

They should really be getting 3-4 months pay-strike for this, and SA is a damn sight harder to get to than Germany for sure! I think Italy's campaign was way better if only for those last 20 minutes!!

People who blame our players consider this

I don't think it is Balls skills or positional play.
Its the amount of games they play.

People often make a mention of all our players pretty much playing in the premier league and not abroad like the leagues abroad are technically superior but the truth is if your playing for Athletico Madrid or Panathaniakos your probably not playing 70 games a season.

Your not taking part in 2 League cups and getting to the Final stages of Euro Competitions. (ManUtd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Fulham had long runs)
Many of the games are also over 2 legs.

So for all the talk about control and positional play I would put a fit Wayne Rooney up with anyone in a ball contest and think he would do well.
Obviously he was either played in the wrong system, not given the right service or (what I believe) He's Injured.

So was Capello in a No win situation - Probably
Should we over look his failure - No he made some bad decisions which came back to ruin us.

I'm not a Harry Rednapp fan but I do believe he has his finger on the pulse of England and when everyone was screaming for Rooney with Gerrard
I believe he would have done it. Its not the fact we are out its the fact of how bad we were. Really we should be out and I hope it prompts some change because of it. - Not likely

I apologize for what I said about WAGs needing brains. That was stereotypical and missed my real point. Some - comet to think of it, more than some - of the happiest relationships I've seen have nothing to do with brains, but offering a shoulder to lean and cry on.

What I meant to say was that I wish more England players had WAGs who were publicity shy. I know there are footballers' wives who shun the publicity and/or have regular jobs, like being a nurse or admin assistant. Isn't Theo Walcott's gf of four years still studying to be a physiotherapist or something? Now, that's cool.

Thank goodness for some reasoned talk here and from this director, I felt relieved when I heard there would be a 2 week hiatus to reflect on this matter. For the record, I'd of though of Harry before Fabio Capello was hired just like I wanted David James before Rob Green was put in that first game. But with Fabio, it's a case of not needing to change horses in mid-stream. You know, I'm glad England don't have a "cynical style" of play which seems to afflict the play of some teams, but darned if the citizenry can often be so cynical in their attitudes.

@52 "English people need to learn that they are not among football's elite, and are not likely to be going there any time in the near future."

Well, Don Fabio does not agree with that train of thought, no matter how many times it is echoed, that is as unreasonable of an idea as any. That is just a ploy to deride others.

@50. "Up front Rooney was a shadow of his Man United self. Why was our current most prolific goal scorer (Crouch) not used more?"

This is absolutely correct Kerme. I have to repeat something I heard via the grapevine and someone mentioned "psychologist" above, the analysis could be wrong but I think the Germans actually pulled a bit of psychology against England, a ruse. What did the Kaiser Beckenbauer say last week about England? He said England were still the ol' "kick and rush" long ball kind of team. Crouch is actually suited for that kind of play. But the Kaiser had his say and I think it set England on its heels, how could England still be playing the old outmoded hoof the ball up style?? Self consciousness and Crouchie did not get much play, I think only in the first game and then Beckenbauer said that and that may have been the proverbial "Trojan Horse", the analyst said Germany came out and they beat England with what?? The ol' kick and rush long ball game. I think there is some merit in making a case that this is indeed so.

Perhaps Capello should invite England cricket coach Andy Flower for a drink sometimes - the cricket players (swanny etc) credit Andy with creating a setup for them to play 'joyously'.

I am also pleased Capello will probably stay, I believe he is a step in the right direction for the england team given the alternative's, sure he made mistakes in this WC, what england manager hasn't (even messiah Ramsey allowed his captain (Sir Bobby) to be arrested for shop lifting in the 70 WC when England had probably our best ever team) ? at the very least it isn't a return to the bleak bleak days of McClaren or the Turnip, who where given the job on the back of minor domestic successes; a good Uefa cup run and runners up in the league... these minor successes smart of Hodgson and Redknapp to me. however, that said i would be happy to see Redknapp come in, in a crisis, in the same way as Venables did for Euro "96 he could possibly provide a swagger for England at a finals stage but, i feel the consistency required for qualifying is better suited to a man like Capello.

I and all England fans now need to see Capello prove his credentials, Qualify again comfortably for the next two international tournaments and show an improvement in performances once there. Capello also needs to construct his 'TEAM' in his image as someone had previously mentioned

I'm a realist, i had tickets for the WC in Africa but only to the QF stage, England always come undone against Quality only this time we met Quality one game earlier than usual (glad i wasn't on the bandwagon that we should win the WC otherwise it would have cost me another $1000 in tickets). I had hope, I believed, i thought we could do better, but i knew when we met the Germans, Argentina, Spain... et al our abilities would be undone and so it proved, sadly.

Of course the FA want him to stay! If he goes now they'll look like right numpties for extending the contract of their grumpy Italian art collector.

35 Avonns:

"yes the FA board member must go. Maybe Alan Sugar is a good choice!"
_____________________

Or maybe we could just hire Alan Sugar to do a TV special where all the FA board members site round a table and Sir Alan can glare, point a finger and say "You're fired"!

Managers don't become bad managers over night? Hell they do! Give them the England job. Never have I seen men as accomplished and experienced as Eriksson and Capello standing on the sidelines completely clueless as to what is happening; shocked as if they were watching a horror film. Managing England can take you places you have never thought existed, no matter how much football you know..

Just to add that Capello should stay but not to expect much to change when it comes to England's fortunes. Is Maradona a better manager than Capello? I don't think so, yet his Argentina might well win this WC. I am convinced that they would win it if he had selected Zabaletta, Zanetti, Cambiasso and Ayala to secure their defence. But even so, they might still win it. Why? Because Messi is slightly better than Heskey, Tevez better than Rooney and so on. It is the players that make the difference.

Ahhhh Yes the proverbial poison chalice, who else would want it now anyway. I think the FA have painted themselves into a corner so they don't really have a choice do they? I guess there's not much point in voicing an opinion at all now. Lets hope they have a cunning plan then and regain the fans trust and support oh and the media. They're going to be the toughest nut to crack I feel. It'll go one way or the other so let's see. I just hope their faith won't be in vain for all our sakes.

37. At 01:44am on 30 Jun 2010, Andy Proctor wrote:

"At the very least appoint Brian Clough in an advisory role. Even dead he probably makes more sense than anyone at the FA".

Nice.

The only reason to get rid of Capello is that we don't have the talent or discipline in the players to justify having a coach of his calibre.

No...I've said it before. We sacked McLaren who could not get this group of players to qualify for Euro 2008. He then went on to do great things in the Dutch league. He'd done good things before in the EPL. I don't think he was as bad as England made him look.

Capello has already improved us hugely by getting this group of players to achieve, pretty much, our normal tournament achievement.

He needs the FA's backing to put a marker down that says "We stick with our man. If you want to play, live with it and do the work. Or else retire".

BTW; "Sven-Goran Eriksson who became caricatured as the money-grabbing Swedish lothario"...Money grabbing? Welcome to the 21st century. Lotharia? His private business invaded by the tabloids.

This is a message to the FA. If you're worried about the money situation don't be. You could pay off Capello and employ any one of thousands of decent managers for 500K a year. It's a hell of alot more money than many decent folk will earn that's for sure. Go on take a chance!! What have you got to lose. " I realise I'll probably be eating my words next time around, but hey I've got broad shoulders" Seriously though it's an obscene amount of money, and maybe that's the problem. How much did Alf Ramsey earn?

Capello's reputation is not 'tarnished' as his reputation is that of a very successful club coach. Why did the FA decide that he can replicate this success at the national level? There are not enough good players for that at his disposal to start with. So he has 3-5 good players, the rest is mediocre at best (who's Gareth Barry?) and he couln't get them playing as a team. Most likely one of the reason he couldn't is the language barrier. Can't see anything changing. Some of England top players will retire so his choice of players will be even more limited to mediocricy. where's the success going to come from? If it wasn't for England's 'star' players England wouldn't have even qualified from their group.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

69. At 07:22am on 30 Jun 2010, LeBlueenSuisse wrote:
...where's the success going to come from? If it wasn't for England's 'star' players England wouldn't have even qualified from their group.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

You mean Milner and Defoe?

Although Capelo has indeed made a few mistakes in this tournament, it's quite hypocritical of the media to call for his resignation.

Had England gone out because Capello had selected younger players or played with different modules, you'd be all asking for his head blaming the very reasons you now advocate.

You media folks, as you know it all, explain why you did not see this coming and did not realise beforehand how deeply rooted the issue is in the English football system.

It is amazing how it is always the managers fault. Of the last three managers two have been successful European club managers and the third MacClaren made a hash of things but has turned out a winner in Holland. The miserable and negative Alan Hansen last night should take time out and learn from the excellent Clarence Seedorf and Jurgen Klinsmann. Hansen or Shearer who have a lot to learn about football management should listen to their peers. Fabio Capelo is the best manager available. How can a person change from the best to the worst in a matter of weeks. The over paid players should take full blame.

Capello should stay: where are these wonderful English Managers with a better track record? The FA Board should resign, they obviously don't know their statutory responsibilities. How can they admit to not knowing the terms of capello’s contract? No wonder our team of no-hopeers can’t compete!
I feel conned. I bought two debentures at Wembeley only to watch a third rate team on a third rate pitch.

The FA and it's cash cow marketing triumph called The Premier League is the true problem facing the English national team and the nurturing of English talent.

The FA should not be involved in the running of the England team. It should be a wholly separate stand alone organisation with no conflicts of interest that currently cripple the team at the top of the pyramid.

Total rubbish? There are sillier ideas floating about in cyberspace.

You won 9 matches out of 10 in Qualifying and you lot are stating your manager is rubbish and outdated? No wonder you never win anything.

Personally I would blame the author of this article and the cheif football writer of the bbc web site. You built them up, then tore them down.

Oh and Mr Bond, a blog is usually used to stimulate debate, which would mean it would be only polite to respond to those who bother to respond to you in the first place.

IMHO he should go and a fresh start made by a young english manager.
if the FA really think the fans do want him to stay and are blaming the press for hounding capello then they are not listening - again. Verey blog there is a split view but I woudl say 60 / 40 in fvaour of capello going.
simple solution boycott the next 2 games

BBC put a vote on the website and see what happens

A young manager (shearer or pearce) bring in older tacticians on a part time basis (rednapp, hodgson, venables etc.).
Invest a lot of money in grass roots football and set a reasonable target of winning the world cup in 2018 when it hopefully will be in England, 2014 world cup target 1/4 final, EU championships 2012 target 1/4 final, eu championships 2016 target semi final

75% of players international match fees to be invested in their local FA for development ONLY.
75% of money raised at international matches / tournaments to be put straight into development
Reduce costs of all FA hanger ons,
PL teams must play at least 8 english players in every game, squads limited to 30 players for the season.
Big levy (not tax free) on players earning more than £25K per week (say 10%) to go into development funds. All players win bonuses to be levied at 10% also in development fund
25% of all winnings (PL, Champions league etc.) to be put into development fund.

Let's really develop a team ENGLAND for 2018 from ENGLISH stock and bring pride back into it. Come on we can do it together

I totally agree with the FA they should keep Capello ,the blame should be put on the players they let him down badly and looked frightened of the big time, he should concider more about young guns who want to play for england not for the money and a name, stick by him FA.

"He made mistakes, and he admits that, but the players and the English football system are seen as far more culpable at this stage in the inquest."

That sounds about right. I was very surprised that there was all this talk about Capello resigning, because I didn't give England more than a 20% chance of beating Germany anyway.

Capello is a good coach - as is qualifying results point out. He does have some trouble getting his players relaxed - and he'll look into borrowing some of Maradona's camp management techniques next time. It was a bit shocking hearing him refer to giving the boys a beer as 'imaginative'.

Give Capello four more years, and let him use Euro 2012 as a practice ground, using at most 3 players over 26 and having at least half his squad under 23. Bring in the kids, let them make mistakes, even if it costs England qualification for the Euros. He is still the best coach England have had in a decade.

He also needs to encourage his young players to play at smaller clubs if it will get them more matches. Perhaps even pick some from the Championship. And stick to his promises of picking players on form, and give each player at least three England matches before considering dropping them.

And he might want to talk to coaches of other English and British national teams - cricket especially, but also the rugbies - for advice with the islander psyche. They already know each other from that excellent round table the BBC organized a few months ago. Perhaps bring in some sports psychologists and all that.

But let's get one thing straight - even if England had brought in the Bents and Downings and Parkers and played JCole more often, and had God as coach, they would not have beaten Germany, let alone won the World Cup. They simply aren't that good.

* mpwapwaman * i think you are right. however i still feel Capello totally messed up with some of his unbelievably poor/unimaginative decisions in deciding who went to the WC.

If you read the blogs from the Germans they don't think we played as bad as we do lo go figure.
We need to start again at the bottom and work up..but that lot at the top need to go first and be replaced by a group of senior football experts voted in every 4 years ie after every WC.

To say that the buck does not stop with Capello is wrong. He messed up the tactics, team selection and seemingly team spirit. An example: The much maligned Dirk Kuyt is a regular for Holland. He seems to have an unstoppable engine and works the right side of the field magnificently. Quite often we see him back behind right back Gregory van der Weil helping him out when the youngster is in trouble, and then he is up on the wing, next thing in the middle having a pot a goal and working non-stop. In the Germany game, right back Glenn Johnson, who had a nightmare World Cup, was torn to pieces by Podolski, and allowed him far too much room. Never once did we see James Milner back helping him out, like Kuyt does with Holland. I don't think Milner crossed the halfway line! He seemed to be glued to the touchline. Because Milner crossed the ball for the only goal against 'mighty' Slovenia he suddenly became the saviour. But we needed a proper winger there, running at the defence, opening it up, making gaps for Defoe and Rooney, but it never happened. Milner just pumped over long balls and we hoped.... Capello's weakness was shown when he took Milner off and replaced him with Joe Cole. At least he should have sent on Lennon and told him to run at Boateng. The England defence seemed to comprise 4 defenders in front of the keeper. They got no help at all from the defensive midfielders. Whose fault as this?
England will never have a winning team until the whole concept of the game is changed and we stop this 100 miles an hour game built on strength and speed and where young skilfull players are kicked to pieces.

It wos the players wot dun it...

Capello did OK, the players did not. For example:

1. They played less games last season than the Germans yet are claiming tiredness. Are they wet or what?

2. Everyone is criticising Capello for playing Gerrard "out of position" wide on the left, where he refused to perform. Spain's David Villa is playing "out of position" wide on the left: Argentina's Gutierrez is playing "out of position" at right back: both of them are having fantastic World Cups, playing out of their skins.

The manager cannot be blamed when "stars" fail to perform on the pitch, or show signs of really caring about playing for their country. Especially underlined when they don't even seem to be prepared to sign their own national anthem (Rooney, Milner). What a bunch of wasters.

Try picking Hull City first 11 next time! (or whoever has the most Englishmen in it in the top two divisions).

We are good at one thing of course - we have had the referee for the final of the World Cup more than anyone else - and I reckon we should get it this time too. So, every cloud has a silver lining.

It is not the manager. The golden generation? What a misnomer that is. It appears to me that those of the foresaid generation have been since the year dot told how good they are and how brilliantly they perform. What they have not been told is that they are too slow, can't control a ball and have no vision. Those are the conclusions I have drawn fromwatching them over the years. So if I a lowly software salesman have thought this for a number of years what about the whole FA set-up? The coaches the managers et al.

How do you coach vision and the ability to see the space? Who knows I tried for a number of years to achieve this in coaching rugby with limited success. Where I did succees was in the mechanics of passing, tackleing and control.

A shake up of the system must take place so less emphasis is placed on strength more on skill and spped of both thought and deed. Stop telling them how brilliant they are until they can control the ball and pass it to someone in the same coloured shirt.

As for the psychologists why what is needed is a pin to deflate the egos. Heskey may not score goals but he works to the instructions given to him by the coaches and contributes to the shape and pattern required. As for some of the others where were they when 2 break away goals were being scored. The German took 20 yards out of (Barry?) the Defender and he was running with the ball!!!!

"Yes, Inter Milan were sniffing around but the FA should have stood firm and called Capello's bluff. "

Errr, that's not what most of the media were saying when it was done, can't remember if you blogged on it by I know the big chief footie writer did and amazingly he now thinks it's a bad idea too.

It's amazing how often the media pull this one, trying to get us to forget what they said was a good idea, when it turns out bad. It happens all the time and I for one am sick of it.


Here is why Capello shouldn't go

- He's not responsible for the lack of talent in the Team. The fact so many are now saying we should have takan Adam Johnson says everything about the lack of talent. He has FOUR full games for city under his belt! Had he been picked it would have been akin to Walcott and would now be being called great folly. Add Beckham, and Hagreaves (our best player at the last WC) and 3-4 1/2 fit players including Rooney who had to go because there was no-one else and it's not like we were in physically good shape.

- He's not responsible for the Injuries. Loosing one captain to media bloodlust was bad enough, loosing a 2nd to injury was fatal, especailly as going back to point 1 we don't have enough quality defenders to leave ex captains with agendas at home.

- This bunch of players if effectivly the same group who failed to qualify for the last Euros, so he's still much better than his predecessor. This bunch of players has failed at internationally level time and time again. It's not that we've employed 3 useless managers, 2 of them had top club reps, it's that the players aren't up to it.

Finally the media expectation. One BBC pundit after we won our last group game actually named England as one of 6 teams who could win the tournemant! Now if that's not media over-hype I don't know what is, the media collectivaly are responsible for building up expecations way above the talent and circumstances of the squad. We were 1/4 final material at best. But still there are people in the media who seem to think that not winning with our team is a failure. I'd have been embarressed if we'd have won with that team. Of our squad how many would get into any of the 1/4 final temas? 2-3 maybe, with the honourable exception of Paraguary.

England is full of great league players, but international journeymen at best.

It's time people woke up and realised that fact.

100% Capello! The best manager by far in a while. Gave England one of there best qualifications in our history. This whole issue is actually an FA issue, from prolonged seasons & player fatigue which the FA need to (but thru finance issues) change. Fewer teams in the Premier League say 16 or 18 teams & longer breaks mid season..... or our players will continue to be robots for the money hungry FA. Look Rooney played so many games this season for club & national team.

"There remains a level of respect inside the FA for Capello's achievements prior to the England job. He hasn't become a bad manager overnight, observed one board member."

Capello's achievements prior to the England job were as a club manager rather than as a national manager.
While there is some overlap between the skill-sets required for the two jobs, they are not identical.

I agree with players not performing for which you cannot blame Capello for but at a most critical point in the Germany game he takes off Defoe and brings on Heskey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!There were other tactical decisions for which only Capello can be blamed so overall he must go.

p.s. if it means Harry Redknapp would take over then leave Capello, rather see Tottenham do well than England.

Capello is a great manager. However, it seems the FA and many people in this forum don't realize that Capello isn't made for World Cup format.

Capello had won just one ‘cup’ in 15 years – the Supercoppa Italiana, the Calcio equivalent of the Charity Shield.

He may have reached three successive Champions League finals between 1993-95. It is questionable just how important he was in these journeys considering the fact he was continuing predecessor Arrigo Sacchi’s creation and boasted so many world class players provided to him by Silvio Berlusconi’s chequebook.

Even in Athens in 1994, it was Capello’s nemesis Dejan Savicevic – disliked by the Italian for his individuality – who really made the difference.

And here lies a reason why, since 1995, Capello’s cup record has been so disappointing. Once he managed to stamp his print on post-Sacchi Milan and his future clubs, it soon became clear that the former Italy international championed a brand of football suited to winning leagues and not cups.

Since 1995, Capello’s record in the Champions League has been very poor. He has never once progressed further than the quarter finals. Juventus lost in the last eight to Liverpool and Arsenal in 2005 and 2006 respectively, Real Madrid failed in the last 16 a season later, while Roma never even managed to make it to the CL knockouts.

My ten point plan for England success:

1) Sack Sir David Richards. Replace with Sir Trevor Brooking.

2) Sack Capello (and sell Wembley).

3) Retain Stuart Pearce as assistant manager.

4) Establish objective of winning 2014 World Cup.

5) Set strategy of playing youngsters (Jack Wilshere, Fabian Delph etc. - kids who aren't necessarily getting regular Premier League games) alongside a few experienced pros (Rooney, Cole etc.) and stick with them despite inevitable losing streak for first couple of years (or more).

6) Look for a new manager who'll work well with Pearce and Brooking (they both know the youngsters better than anyone) and who won't mind being in charge of a losing team (this rules out Redknapp, Hodgson, Venables... in fact, practically every manager you can think of).

7) Appoint David Beckham as manager (and give him a four year rolling contract).

8) Don't expect success overnight and ignore the inevitable howls of derision from the gutter press.

9) Believe.

10) Bet now on England winning in 2014 - you'll get good odds.

Keeping Capello is a good move. He is not a bad manager overnight.
He could only work with what he had.
________________________________________________________________________

Absolutely - he has become a bad International Manager over the past three to four months - inability to make strong decisions - weak in management.
- Sacking Terry
- Taking Rooney (who was always going to be a liability against top class opposition)
- Not taking Walcott as, at least, a squad player - a potential difference maker and boy, did we need someone to make a difference
- Not picking between Gerrard and Lampard - they do the same job
- Taking Ferdinand and King - two players in the same position who were not fit
I could go on - but the man has proven himself incapable of managing an England side and needs to be fired.

What England need is a person who can ignite some English passion and get the players looking as if they want to play for their country - someone like Stuart Pearce/Roy Hodgson (know that can;t be done now though)/Sam Allardyce, even, dare I say it, David Beckham - it has worked with Argentina.

Time and again, it is proved that good big club managers do not necessarily make the best international coaches. The last good one England had was Sir Bobby Robson - who managed little Ipswich Town.

Passion/Pride/Commitment - you cannot ask an Italian (or Spaniard, or Brazilian, or American etc etc etc) to fire up the English to play with English passion.

Get rid of him now - to keep him means another tournament failure. Qualifying is one thing, achieving is another.

It won't make any difference anyway. England are good enough usually to qualify for tournaments, but no better than that. Most managers should be capable of qualifying from an easy group more often than not; no-one is good enough to make a genuinely competitive side from the current assortment of mediocre players.

In which case, maybe the FA should ask Capello to leave, just to save some money.

mpwapwaman - the link to the article you posted @ 1 hits the nail firmly and squarely on the head. Well done

Good sense here surely there is no better coach around than Mr. Capello but what's needed is a better system of producing talented world class players than we currently have.I say this because away from the teams where they look to do so well they are found seriously short on ability or world class talent.Someway Mr. Capello needs to address this when he speaks to the FA and change things to develop real talent that gives heart and soul for the national team because that is the only way the England team will come back from this.I don't at all blame the coach but our teams who would rather buy from abroad than put time,effort and money into bringing English young players into the top level of the game and keeping them there and developing them.A whole new reappraisal of our entire national game both league wise and international wise is required if we are to have a world class team again. What about a National Acadamy for talented young players,the ones in cricket are already producing fine young players as they get the best coaching and development very early on in their careers.It's time to build and prepare for the future by young players getting the back up and right coaching to get their international and team careers off to a good start.

ashenfacedsupremo should be given a job somewhere in the set up as he has outlined the perfect plan.

i read about Beckham being mentioned as manager and did think it a great idea.

Capello's record shows that he's a great club manager. Not a great national team manager.

There are big differences. With a club, there is a larger pool to pick players from, there is much longer to get to know those players and to train them to the system and tactics, and the pressure - mostly - is a lot less. With a national team, there's no such luxury as time, it has to be right. Motivational and communication skills take on much more importance.

Capello's record so far as a national team manager rather suggests that while he was a great club manager, he's pretty poor at this.

For me, the bottom line is, it's his job to get the best out of the players at his disposal. Even if you regard the England players as merely average, I very much doubt anyone with at least half a brain can honestly look at the performances in South Africa and think that he even came close to doing that.

Get Sven back.

At least he got us to the WC QF. Twice.

Give Capello four more years, and let him use Euro 2012 as a practice ground, using at most 3 players over 26 and having at least half his squad under 23. Bring in the kids, let them make mistakes, even if it costs England qualification for the Euros. He is still the best coach England have had in a decade.
_______________________________________________________________________

He is the worst England manager since 1950 - records show that. Qualifiers etc matter not, what counts is success when it matters. Ask the New Zealand rugby team!!
His record is shambolic in this World Cup and, the inability to pick/shape a team to perform in a tournament - he has had two years to do it (!!), is indefensible.

You have to look at these things objectively and sadly, Capello will do what the English press says he should do, he has no mind of his own.

It is not a sport, it is a business and we are paying are CEO £6m per annum - if if was a limited company, the Board would remove him. That is precisely what should be done.

One comment above is that we should use Euro 2012 as a 'trial run' as it were, even if it means not qualifying. That contributor has looked at things sensibly - look at it as a five year plan - progress does not always have to be forward. When Australia took a couple of hidings in the mid to late 1980's in cricket, they completely stripped out the side and brought in a load of youngsters and trusted/enabled them to take the success of Australia forward - and what a job they did for the next 10 - 15 years.

New business plan, new board, new leader - strong decisions, but must be taken.