04/19/24
December 12, 2007
Fabio Capello to be crowned as England manager.: Capello, who won nine league titles and an European Cup (before it became the Champions League) with teams you may not have heard of, such as AC Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid, will soon be revealed to the public as the new England manager. I daresay this is quite a positive turn of events for the FA. What I've read about the consultative process the recruiting team used "across all of football" gives me some confidence about their choice. Of course, Capello's credentials don't hurt either.
posted by worldcup2002 to soccer at 09:36 PM - 14 comments
Two LOL excerpts from the 10 things post ...
2. He does not take friendlies lightly ... During Milan's money-spinning tour of China at the end of the 1996 season he deployed a three-striker formation in a friendly against a China XI, but then pulled Paolo Di Canio for a midfielder at half-time to protect a 1-0 lead. When Di Canio asked why he cared so much about the result of a friendly, Capello shot back with a barrage of expletives and added: "Your face looks like a penis." Di Canio never played for Milan again. 7. He will not bow to the big names ... Sick of perceived laziness from Ronaldo at Real Madrid he resorted to asking him "Aren't you ashamed of being so fat ?" in front of his team-mates as he left the showers. The striker was sold to Milan the next month.Fookin' brilliant. This guy is going to be magic.
posted by worldcup2002 at 09:51 PM on December 12, 2007
Just as long as he doesn't employ anyone to translate The Sun or the Daily Express for him.
posted by owlhouse at 11:17 PM on December 12, 2007
Didn't he also really, really want the gig? Added to his actual credentials, I would consider that a huge plus.
posted by chicobangs at 04:02 AM on December 13, 2007
More likely to go: Reporter: Fabio, I mean, Mr, I mean Signore Capello, what do you think of the England team? Fabio: Non parlo inglese.
posted by squealy at 06:35 AM on December 13, 2007
Having a manager who can't read the redtops? Priceless. Club management and national management are different beasts, as Sven is now proving once more, but this is, at very least, going to be interesting. It also means that David Platt has a job waiting for him in the setup. And if it goes tits-up, the FA can spend its entire budget on hiring Hiddink next time.
posted by etagloh at 12:25 PM on December 13, 2007
The odd thing, to my inexperienced eyes, is that Capello has not previously had charge of a national side despite such a lengthy and successful record. But hopefully he will bring the necessary changes so that England qualify for South Africa because failing in that would be a disaster for more than just England.
posted by billsaysthis at 04:28 PM on December 13, 2007
The odd thing, to my inexperienced eyes, is that Capello has not previously had charge of a national side despite such a lengthy and successful record. The same could have been said of Sven and MacLaren. I say Fabio stands a fair chance of performing as well as Sven, certainly better than Mac.
posted by worldcup2002 at 09:17 PM on December 13, 2007
Too fucking late for Euro 2008. Never understood why the hell they hired the other failures assistant. A total regime change made much more sense. Whatever, three fucking years until we find out if this guys worth it thanks to McLaren's ineptitude. Depressing.
posted by Drood at 10:20 PM on December 13, 2007
Failure to qualify for the Euros is probably the best thing that ever happened to English football. If you'd made it, you'd have limped on with that mini-beetroot in charge, got knocked out in the quarters, and nothing would have changed. Now, you get a fantastic manager with a new regime and (better still) no hesitation about dropping underperforming players regardless of who they are or how much Chelsea pays them. If John Terry hasn't had the captaincy taken from him yet, he will do soon. Capello hasn't managed an international side, but as McClaren's chairman at Middlesborough put it when he took the England job, "International management should be your last job, not your next job." Capello has reached the stage where he's ready for the last phase of management if you like. When England messed up qualification for USA '94, it was a shot in the arm for the team who came out so pumped for the Euros in '96 that they nearly won it - should have won it.* With a bit of luck, the same might happen again and they could have areal shot at winning the World Cup in South Africa. *I was at a dinner in London the other night and was sat beside Terry Venables (who is a close friend of my girlfriend's father). He says his strongest footballing memory that haunts him completely is Gazza not scoring the golden goal against Germany in the semis in '96. His face when that happened says it all: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WxFazPI2_PI How did he miss!?
posted by JJ at 05:35 AM on December 14, 2007
And if it goes tits-up, the FA can spend its entire budget on hiring Hiddink next time Nah, we saw him first. In the meantime we have Pim Verbeek, sort of a Hiddink-lite.
posted by owlhouse at 06:30 AM on December 14, 2007
It occurs to me: Capello will work well, and is ultimately an easy hire to sell to the rank & file, because he's the Gordon Ramsay of football. He's essentially a mercenary who comes in, looks at the shop, will scream blue fucking murder about the things that are wrong, not one nice fuckin' thing to say about anybody for a long fucking time, he'll piss everyone in the room off to the very edge of fuckin' homicide, but if he does it right, he'll leave the team better than he found it. I reckon that's an easy sell in England, especially after whassisface.
posted by chicobangs at 12:12 PM on December 14, 2007
btw, Capello may not have managed a national team, but he's also played successfully for top Italian pro teams and the Italian national team. He even scored the only goal (WMP or Real required - c'mon, BBC!) in a 1-0 win over England in 1973. Along with his top managerial achievements, could the same be said for Sven and Mac?
posted by worldcup2002 at 04:10 PM on December 14, 2007
Man, I've been wanting to see Capello coach on a national level ever since Lippi left. Pity it's the wrong nation...(In the sense that Italy's currently stuck with Donadoni, a coach who was fired from Livorno for feck's sake. I've been praying that he'd get sacked and replaced with Capello. God doesn't like me, apparently ;) As a side note, Capello's been doing color commentary during this post-Real Madrid/pre-England national downtime, and I've really enjoyed it. He's fairly blunt, yet diplomatic, usually couching criticisms in the 'if it was me' caveat.
posted by romakimmy at 08:25 AM on December 15, 2007
I thought this Guardian post was a good read, too: What to expect: 10 things you need to know about Capello. btw, I think it will be cool to have a manager called Fabio. Imagine what his first press conference will be like ... Reporter: Fabio, I mean, Mr, I mean Signore Capello, what do you think of the England team? Fabio: I can't believe it's not better. BONG!