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The Italian's Job.

Dave Bowler

12/20/07

It’s been a pretty low key story, so you might have missed it. Just in case, we should tell you that Fabio Capello has been named as the new manager of England. Who’d a thunk it?

Bizarrely, we have to start by paying tribute to Brian Barwick, who has suddenly stopped being the Inspector Clousseau of the Football Association and has emerged as the man who has appointed the best qualified England coach since, well, probably ever.
Yes, you can legitimately claim that the England manager should be English, but what you cannot deny is that Capello has by far the best looking CV of any manager out there with even a passing interest in the job, bar none.

If you want to win a major international football trophy, and remember, there are only two of them, then you have to give yourself the best opportunity. The margins are thin, the opportunities few and far between, the difference between sides coming down to fine detail, meticulous planning, leaving no stone unturned.

Let’s be truthful. Tactically, English football is light years behind the best the continent has to offer. Had England come up against Italy in the last World Cup, defeat would have been inevitable. The semi-final game between Italy and Germany was one of the greatest games in world football for years, but could England have played a part in a similar game? Very doubtful. Instead of the forensic passing and the rapier intelligence, John Terry would have shouted “Over the top we go!” and they’d have gone rushing off with their pointed sticks into a hail of bullets, getting picked off over 90 painful minutes, the rush for glory giving the impression of a team that was competing while massive casualties were being taken without us noticing.

It’s one of the enduring clichés, but no less true for that, that at the highest level, unless you have a team full of extravagantly gifted stars, football is a chess match. And there are no better chess players in world football than the Italians. That’s how they won the last World Cup, that’s how tournament after tournament, despite being written off by everyone else in the world, they find their way through to the last four.

With a host of Serie A titles to his name, Capello has also proved that he can export his way of thinking to foreign climes, heading for Real Madrid and winning them their first title in an age. But there is the rub. He did it by making Real a hard side to beat, by building from the back, by keeping possession, by picking holes in the opposition defences rather than by the all guns blazing approach that Real tried to employ with the galacticos. Just how is 15 minutes of keep ball in our own half going to go down with the Wembley crowd - assuming we can manage to keep the ball for 15 minutes? But it’s the way to do it. In international football, possession is ten tenths of the law - if you have the ball, they can’t score. Unless you’re passing it back to Paul Robinson / Scott Carson / David James.

Capello is tactically the sharpest tool in the box. He is also technically adept. Next up - and you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of this - the press mean absolutely nothing to him. “Why should I talk with people who are less intelligent than me?” is his dictum and good on him for that. He knows the game. He knows that if he fails, the bullet will be in the post. So if you’re going to go, go on your terms, making your mistakes rather than those that The Mirror would have you make. And nothing personal members of the Fourth Estate, but I think he probably knows football better than those of us with the laptops do anyway. If he picks Gerrard and Lampard, it will be because he can see a way of them working together for the good of the team, not because the scribes insist on it.

But if he decides they can’t work together, then he won’t pick them. There will be no favourites under Capello. Do the job or you’re out, whatever your name. But he’s also a big enough man to revisit his decisions, as he did once Beckham got himself together again at Real last year after being dropped. Capello will be your boss, not your mate. Impress him and you’re ok. Fail and you’re toast unless and until you can win his trust back again.

Barwick could not have made a better appointment, which is probably why the Premier League seems so ambivalent about it. Because the next two years are going to be the ultimate litmus test for the game in this country. Is there a better candidate than Capello? Do you honestly think Harry Redknapp would have been better? No. Only Lippi and Mourinho really stack up alongside Capello. He is one of modern football’s true greats.

Which begs one huge question. What if, in two years time, England are still rubbish? If we are, there will be no hiding place. If Capello fails, it is not the failure of the manager yet again. This time it will prove that the English game isn’t up to the task. That for all its megabucks, the Premier League is short changing the national team. We will have to decide if we want the “most exciting league in the world” or a successful England team. And if it’s the latter, we’re going to come hunting for the Premiership. And then it’s going to get nasty.