No one's safe from Capello... even Terry may face axe.
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No one's safe from Capello... Beckham may cet century but even Terry may face axe.
If David Beckham has been worrying about winning his 100th England cap since hearing the words 'Fabio Capello' and 'England' in the same sentence, he can sleep easy. Injury or catastrophic loss of form permitting, the LA Galaxy midfielder will walk out at Wembley on February 6 to clock up a century of appearances during England's friendly against Switzerland, Sportsmail can reveal.
Having initially frozen Beckham out at Real Madrid over concerns about the distractions of his commercial activities, Capello was impressed by the way he knuckled down, worked hard and forced his way back into the side. But if Beckham would be safe under Capello, who is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Steve McClaren, other big names have no such security — not John Terry, not Frank Lampard, not Steven Gerrard and certainly not Michael Owen.
Capello is flying to London this afternoon. He is due to meet FA chief executive Brian Barwick for dinner this evening and will outline his plans for the 2010 World Cup tomorrow morning. A morning may not be enough for Capello, but the former Real Madrid manager is eager to get to work.
According to those closest to him, there will be surprises in the squad for England's friendly against Switzerland. No one in the team that surrendered so meekly over 12 Euro 2008 qualifiers is safe. "The one thing Capello has noticed in the England team is that there are only three or four personalities," revealed a close friend yesterday.
"He is fascinated by the talented players like Wayne Rooney, but he wants them to express themselves. There are one or two big names in the dressing room that he really is not sure about. "If Lampard and Gerrard cannot play together under him, he will simply drop one or both of them. There will be casualties, for sure."
Capello is convinced England's players have talent to compete at the highest level and even believes they are on a par with world champions Italy. So why couldn't McClaren tap into that rich source of talent? Capello was said to have been astonished when he saw a picture of McClaren, always eager to please, flashing his pearly whites for the cameras when he rugby tackled England skipper Terry on the artificial surface in Moscow last month.
The Italian, who has managed Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and Roma during a hugely-successful managerial career, is not here to make friends. He will coach the team himself but the players can expect little dialogue. He will patrol the perimeter of the pitch during his notoriously intense training sessions, form his opinions and then post the team on the dressing room wall an hour or so before kick-off. Simple as that.
Capello does not have time for disgruntled, disaffected or disillusioned players and it will be left to Franco Baldini, his trusted lieutenant, to explain why they have been omitted. "The Italian national team has a mentality that England don't possess," continued the source. "That will change under Capello, everyone can be sure of that. Life is simple for Capello's players. Play well and you are in the team. Play badly and you are out. It is an easy choice.
"Don't worry, they will soon find that out." There will be no pussy-footing around with the £130,000-a-week footballers who failed to qualify for Euro 2008 under McClaren's weakwilled management. Not a chance. Capello, armed with a c.v. boasting seven league titles in four cities and a Champions League triumph with Milan, will mean business when he arrives in London from his Swiss home (one of four dotted around Europe).
Dressed in his sponsored RH+ spectacles, Armani suit (Giorgio sends them direct from the factory, 'gratis Fabio') and a pair of finest black, Italian leather shoes, Capello has the class to carry it off. From the moment he intimated that he wanted the England job on November 22, he has been studying England's footballers in the finest detail.
Forty years of failure have ensured that the future of English football will be in Capello's hands when he is presented with a contract worth £4.5m a year and he is determined to lead from the front. There will also be increased tactical responsibilities under the new regime. Capello prefers zonal marking, as opposed to the man-to-man system so prevalent in the Premiership, but he will encourage an expansive approach.
Those closest to him reveal that he became disillusioned with life in La Liga during his second spell with Real Madrid last season. He was appalled by the dives, the cheats and cynical side of the game in Spain. From afar, he has always respected England's players for their honesty and his friends claim he has been revitalised by the six-month break from football.
Like his predecessor at Soho Square, he rarely reads the newspapers, but the FA's communications department can put their feet up for the next two years. Laura, his wife of 40 years, reads every word and has been known to set the record straight from time to time. There are no skeletons in Capello's closet — Laura details his every move in the same meticulous manner as her husband — and he always presents the perfect family image.
As for his views on the England WAGs, don't even go there. -
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Yay... i am glad that Fabio Capello will get the job... This guy is a no nonsense man... Players will be real afraid of him, and he also won't talk a lot of rubbish unlike jose...
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Capello won silverware with every side he coached is it?
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Zoff
DINO ZOFF last night warned EnglandÂ’s gutless prima donnas they will be given the push if they do not perform for Fabio Capello. Zoff lifted the World Cup with Italy as a 40-year-old goalkeeper and nearly won Euro 2000 as a manager.
And he told England fans: “With Capello you can start dreaming of winning something again. "He’ll give you the best chance you have had for ages, a better chance than Sven Goran Eriksson did. Capello is more practical when it comes to winning. “If any England player fails to show enough guts with Capello as manager, he will just find another player straight away.
Inspires quicker
“Capello will carry on getting the very best out of players, as he has always done with all types, world stars and prima donnas or less gifted players. “Capello has shown enough flair to win wherever he has been and he inspires quicker than any other manager.
“He would be a great acquisition for England. “In fact, he is one of the very few who could do the job successfully. “He is one of the best in the world.” -
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good! that'll put an end to late night orgies and pissing into paper cups before important fixures..
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That's rite! Capello gonna take out all those United divers fr the team, esp the one who fouls their opponents & give penaties away!
Do it man!
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is capello the coach now ?
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talk is very cheap! i hope the manager can be merciless n not affected by the media, fans n players pressure in his selection. no one is untouchable n players should be select base on merit form.
hate coach who say one thing n do another. walk the talk!
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One thing i must say is when i saw Real Madrid win a difficult match last season, Fabio Capello never look excited... He just stand there with his arm fold...
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RUUD GULLIT insists Fabio Capello will turn England into winners but warned: You can forget about Sexy Football. The former Chelsea boss and Newcastle reckons Italian Capello is the right man to put the Three Lions back on the football map. But he admits things could be about to get ugly — with manager-in-waiting Capello ready to bore fans with his defensive style.
Gullit, who played for 61-year-old Capello at AC Milan, said: “I worked with him for four years and he’s a coach who plays to win. “He doesn’t play for the beauty of the game but to win — that is all. “The game is all about winning. He knows how to do it. It’s all about discipline, especially in defence. “In attack, you can’t draw it on a board, it’s something that clicks with good players. But defence you have to work hard on it and he’s learnt that. “Would they play Sexy Football? No, I don’t think so. He is about winning.”
Capello lost his job at Real Madrid in the summer precisely because he refused to play exciting football — despite leading them to their first Spanish championship in four years. Right now the FA would bite his arm off to take over the reins as long as it meant success at World Cup 2010.
Capello looks certain to be offered the job in the next 48 hours as long as he impresses FA chief executive Brian Barwick during his formal interview today. But his no-nonsense approach is sure to be a hit with Soho Square bosses, who are keen for the new manager to clean up EnglandÂ’s image.
Gullit added: “Real were winning games but no one was happy with the style. Even though he won the championship he still had to go. “I think as competitive as the English are, they want to win and he knows how to do it. If you play for beauty only, this is not your culture. “You need to be well drilled to play for him, very disciplined. And you certainly don’t fool around with him. “He can be moody but he is straightforward. He was a great coach for Milan and he’s proved it at other clubs. “You don’t see Fabio laughing much. You have to go his way or you will get in trouble. He screams at you. “You have to decide what you want changed from the English game — then you will pick the right man. He’s won many things as a club coach. We know he’s a great coach but it’s the FA’s responsibility to know if he can move up.”
Capello has won nine league titles in 16 years as a coach. He won the Champions League with Milan in 1994 and was also an accomplished player, winning 32 caps as a midfielder for Italy.
Former England midfielder Ray Wilkins was at the San Siro for six months when Capello was youth team coach in the mid-1980s. Wilkins said: “England need a man manager, someone who can get in there and manage the person. “You don’t have to be the greatest coach but you have to manage the person. You have to inspire that person to go and perform and he can do that.
“I was at Milan alongside Fabio for the last six months I was there. He was very aggressive, told it as he saw it and I enjoyed working under him. “Fabio also has a great sense of humour. He remonstrates with everybody and throws his hands up but off the pitch he’s a nice guy. “He won the championship with Milan four times, won it with Roma, again with Juventus twice, won the Champions League with Milan and the championship in Spain twice with Real.
“Look at what he’s won — that’s the pedigree of the man.” Gullit and Wilkins were speaking ahead of Sky Sports’ coverage of Grand Slam Sunday this weekend. -
FRANK LAMPARD has backed Fabio Capello to become the new England boss.
Capello is the hot favourite to succeed Steve McClaren and take charge of the Three Lions.
And in our Sun TV interview, Chelsea ace Lampard discusses the merits of the charismatic Italian.
Lamps talks about the "respect" that Capello commands, while also going on to praise his "great record" in football.
He said: “Fabio Capello has shown what he can do by winning titles at all levels of football and would be a very good choice." -
DB will be back?
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we shall see..Originally posted by I-like-flings(m):DB will be back? -
Fabio Capello agreed to become England's new coach last night in a deal that will see him earn even more than Sven Goran Eriksson. FA chief executive Brian Barwick believes he has secured the services of a 'world-class manager' after spending three hours with the 61-year-old Italian at Wembley yesterday and today he will seek the approval of the FA board.
He expects to get that, just as he now expects Capello to sign a two-and-a-half year contract that will pay him in the region of £6million a year, with a two-year option to take England to the 2012 European Championship as well as the 2010 World Cup.
Capello will earn around 20 per cent more than Eriksson, making him the highest-paid international coach in history. The former AC Milan and Real Madrid manager flew home from Heathrow last night but left his legal team in London to complete contract negotiations. He could return as early as tomorrow for his official unveiling.
Marcello Lippi, the World Cup-winning fellow Italian who was also considered by Barwick, last night said the FA had made the 'best possible choice for England'. He added: 'You only have to see how many trophies he has won to realise what his qualities are.'
Former England striker Mark Hateley, who lived in the same housing complex as Capello when he played for AC Milan, is predicting a few surprises in his former coach's teams. Hateley warned England's underperforming stars: 'Be worried, be very worried. This man will not suffer fools. 'He will drop people. He will bring people in who you least expect. He's not in this to pick individuals.' But John Barnwell, chief executive of the League Managers' Association, said: 'If we are saying there is no English coach able to do the job then that is an indictment of our game. 'It shows there must be something deeply wrong and the development of our young coaches is a major concern.' -
wah becks face former coach. or will capello drop becks like he did in real?