INSIDE STORY OF ENGLAND'S WORLD CUP FIASCO
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FABIO CAPELLO has a mammoth task to win back the hearts and minds of the England players left disillusioned by him during four weeks of World Cup debacle.
The Italian has clung onto his job after the FA backed him to carry on.
But a month locked inside Camp Capello has stretched the loyalty of even those players who believe he is the right man to lead England.
And today Sport of the World lifts the lid on a World Cup campaign which saw the England camp riven by PARANOIA, haunted by FEAR and relying on the SUPERSTITION of sticking to the same kit as a plank for success.
Seven days after the most crushing World Cup defeat in England's history, the majority of the squad feel, despite the FA's vote of confidence in the Italian, there has to be a sea-change in both Capello's man-management and tactics.
One senior player said: "We all bought into the manager's ways in qualification because everything he said and did brought us success.
"The question many of us are asking is why he forgot most of those principles once we got to South Africa.
"Everything he'd done before went out the window. It got to the stage where some of us were asking why Fabio had sent his clueless twin brother to manage England during the World Cup."
While few players have publicly put their heads above the parapet following England's humiliating exit at the hands of Germany, their private thoughts make fascinating reading. And much of the blame is heaped at Capello's door.
Intense
Another player admitted: "A lot of us loved Fabio for the way he turned things around after Steve McClaren but can't understand why he destroyed so much of what he'd built.
"One of the things everybody admired during our qualification games was his attention to detail. We knew everything about the opposition, how they played, how their set-pieces worked, how they liked to defend and attack.
"We would have DVDs on the opposition, we'd go through them and the build-up to matches was very intense.
"During the World Cup that attention to detail was missing. We would have team meetings and we'd watch a DVD of the game we'd just played and go through it. But it didn't matter what the opposition were playing, we were stuck with the same old 4-4-2 even though nobody believed it was the right way to play.
"It was as if Fabio had gone a bit crazy. He looked much older than he had done before. His English grew worse the more angry and frustrated he became. He cut himself off from even the senior players he used to trust, and wouldn't change anything.
"The World Cup was almost too big for him which is mad when you think of everything he's done.
"He was obsessed with people not knowing the team. He grew paranoid about revealing it even to the players who WOULD be playing.
"None of the goalkeepers were sure what was going on in his head and even before the Germany game nobody knew who was going to play between Matthew Upson and Jamie Carragher."
Capello would only name the team in a meeting five minutes before the squad left the hotel even though leaks and rumours had already reached the players.
"There's no point in being paranoid," one source pointed out. "The players just wanted to know what the team was and settle into a pattern."
That paranoia was made public one day when Capello exploded at photograhers who he thought were being overly intrusive before training.
Capello's regime even included banning the players from ordering room service, not trusting them to comply with the diet devised by the FA's nutritionists.
The fact players were forced to spend long periods alone in their rooms - sometimes up to four hours at a time - raised the frustration levels purely because Capello did not trust them to relax properly without an imposed curfew.
While many of the Italian's dictats were based on science, his decision to stick with the all-red kit to face Germany stemmed simply from his belief it was a lucky strip after England beat Slovenia wearing it in their last group game.
Small points when taken at face value but it amounted to an atmosphere where even the biggest names were scared to approach him in case it affected their place.
The situation reached breaking point after the dismal goalless draw with Algeria and John Terry's infamous press conference where he claimed that he - and others - would be telling Capello some home truths in a crisis meeting.
One fringe player said: "The news filtered back about what JT had said to the press and a lot of the big boys went mad.
"It wasn't just because JT looked as if he was trying to be captain again, it was because it killed any chance of anybody speaking to the manager. We all knew from Fabio's staff just what a mistake JT had made. The team meeting that night was pathetic.
"Suddenly, there were players who thought they could make sensible points too s***scared to open their mouths. The manager was basically untouchable and from that moment nothing changed."
That incident also strained the relationship between Terry and Steven Gerrard with the Chelsea skipper, having picked up on vibes Gerrard was none too pleased with his stance, tackling the captain over it.
There was definite unease between the two but whispers of a slanging match are wide of the mark with Gerrard keeping his own counsel.
The serial frustration, however, DID manifest itself in the behaviour of Wayne Rooney. One moment the Manchester United striker would be on fire in training, the next he grew so angry with himself and his inability to alter games that he was almost uncontrollable.
Strange
Another player admitted: "Wazza was struggling because he'd never known anything like it before.
"Nothing he did in games was working, he couldn't control his temper in training and his behaviour was strange, to say the least.
"Capello didn't seem to have any answers. He just kept telling Wazza to play the same way and seemed happy when he was good in training but didn't change anything when it was obvious the team needed Wazza in a different position.
"Nobody around him has the courage to tell Capello the truth, they just tell him what he wants to hear. In fact, the manager doesn't want to listen to anybody, he's just stuck in his ways all the time."
It even got to the stage where some players were openly debating who ought to replace Capello after the World Cup, with the likes of Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink, Harry Redknapp and even Jurgen Klinsmann mentioned in dispatches.
But there remains a core loyalty amongst the senior players - thought to include Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand - who back the decision to keep faith in Capello. They know, though, many things have to change.
As one senior player summed up: "Everything Fabio did before the World Cup was perfect. Everything he did during it was mad.
"The players are just about with him. Well, most of them. But he has to be willing to listen and learn, not just think his way is the only way because obviously that's been shown up."
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I'm still waiting for evra's story...
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the most over-hyped team in history still get all the attention after mega-flop................
what do they expect from an over-rated team and over-rated coach ?