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Sven only 'delivered failure", did he? I don't think so - we qualified for every tournament easily and he took England to the level they deserved - ie, quarter finals. How can that be compared with McLaren's lack of achievement?

McLaren was a complete and utter failure.
Sven was average, mediocre, and did everything that was expected of him, no more, and no less.
You get the feeling from Fabio that he is meticulous and driven in his pursuit of his goals. The only thing that can hold him back is the quality and desire of OUR english players.

Winning poorly is often the trademark of a world champion.

Sven didn't do a bad job. We lost only 1 qualifier under him (Northern Ireland), got beat by the eventual champs in 2002, the eventual finalists in 2004 (on pens may I add, with the bad luck of Rooney's injury to boot) and was beaten on pens again in 2006 with Rooney's sending off compounding him misery. Sven's a decent manager who was just a bit unlucky really.

Feed the Goat - you're kind of contradicting yourself here. If winning poorly was the trademark of a world champion, Sven would be considered a world champion.

Ultimately Sven's record was one of the best of any England manager. He qualified for and got to the quarter-finals of three consecutive tournaments. That's actually something very few managers have done. The football (in 2006 in particular) was dreadful but to criticse his results ignores the fact pretty much every England manager has done much worse.

Even with the best will and management in the world I don't think it'll be a failure on Capello's part if we "only" get to the quarter-finals again. It'll be a fair representation - we're one of the best ten sides in the world but definitely not one of the best two and probably not one of the best four. With luck we could get to the semis, or even the final, but it absolutely should not be an expectation. It'll be absurd if Capello, like Eriksson, is decried a failure for not being able to rectify the fact some teams are just better than us. The one thing I do want from Capello though is a damn sight better football than we were forced to endure in Germany.

2002- Unfit Becks pulled out of a tackle on Rivaldo - 1st goal
------Ronaldinho freak/fluke freekick - sends us out

2004- Rooney injury after period of domination, Sol Campbell disallowed goal for no reason (Urs Meiers was the referee) in the 90th minute - would have sent us through to the easiest chance of victory in decades. Beaten on penalties.

2006- Owen injury game before, Rooney red card, beaten on penalties AGAIN.



Was Sven just unlucky? He really has an impressive record...

#4

Agreed that getting beyond the quarter-finals has been beyond England in the last few tournaments because there were teams with superior ability - or teams with an equal amount that had more luck.

However, the history of major tournaments is littered with teams that have over-performed and gone further than they should have. Luck comes into it, yes, but the manager has a big say in this as well - being able to get an extra 5-10% from his players to push them to, and in some cases beyond, their limits/realistic expectations.

I'm particularly thinking of:

Otto Rehhagel (Greece - Euro 2004)
Guus Hiddink (South Korea - 2002 World Cup)
Miroslav Blazevic (Croatia - 1998 World Cup)
Richard Moller Nielsen (Denmark - Euro 92)

You can even go back to Sepp Herberger (West Germany - 1954). There are lots of other examples too.

England have only had two managers since Ramsey - Robson and Venables - who have managed to achieve this. I am a fan of Sven on a whole, but he couldn't get that extra 5-10% out of the players when it mattered. This is the difference between a top manager and a great one. On paper, Capello is undoubtedly the best manager England have ever had. I'm confident he'll get us to the semi-finals.

Agreed I dont think Sven was a failure at all, how many other managers mooted for the England job at that time would have done any better. Two defeats on penalties and defeat to Brazil in quarter finals, doesnt sound like failure to me.

Time will tell on Capello's management, but so far so good, England easily qualified for the WC. He knows that the team is limited and will need the first 11 to perform to its highest standard to stand a chance. I think people should be satisifed with quarters and delighted if further than that.

Quite, England are a quarter finals team and Sven - for all his faults - met that every time. I don't remember Taylor, Hoddle, Keegan or McLaren doing that.
In fact in my lifetime England's World Cup Record is not great:
1974: DNQ
1978: DNQ
1982: equiv. Rnd of 16
1986: QF
1990: SF (Pens)
1994: DNQ
1998: Rnd of 16
2002: QF
2006: QF (Pens)
Which tells us that the most likely result if we avoid quality opposition in the last 16 is that we will lose in the QF. We have to face these facts and lower our expectations. If we do better - great.

I think that if Capello win us the world cup then i think that he should take england on the road around the UK with the world cup, but if that does not happen then i think that capello should say with england for a long time.

At #7 - just because Sven was the best available at the time doesn't mean he wasn't a failure.
Anyway, for the record I don't think he was a failure given his record on paper, but my main problem with his tenure was that despite having a very capable set of players, we played very negative, uninspiring football on the whole and whilst we reached three quarter-finals, the manner of defeat in each of them was galling.
In 2002 we sat back despite trailing for most of the second half, and against 10 men!
In 2004 we snatched an early goal, threw men behind the ball in the hope of keeping a clean sheet, and took off our attacking players. That we managed to snatch a late equaliser in extra-time with the way Portugal were playing and with the defensive players we had on the pitch at the time was something of a shock.
In 2006 the performances throughout the tournament were insipid and lacklustre.
That, and his inability to change things at half-time, resulting in a string of poor second-half performances, is why I don't rate him highly despite his record.
Being realistic, we are not one of the major contenders in world football - our international record shows that. But I do expect a degree of commitment and fight, and that was sady lacking under Eriksson.

"Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren received a total of £6m in compensation - despite only delivering failure for the national team."

Eriksson actually delivered the most sustained success in the history of the England national team since 1966.

It's not his fault that that's not saying very much considering how pitiful we've generally been.

"Sven was average, mediocre, and did everything that was expected of him, no more, and no less."

So you "expect" England to beat Germany away from home in competitive fixtures (something done only 3 three times since the war, and one of those was a fix)? In fact, not just to beat them but to wallop them? And you "expect" England to beat Argentina in the World Cup finals (the best result in the final stages of that competition that England have achieved since 1966)?

I envy you. Speaking as someone who grew up in the 1970s, I don't even "expect" England to qualify.

I think it is time to get realistic and understand that english players aren't that good. Apart from a handful of players (Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand and A.Cole), how many of our players are key players for a top club? or how many would interest the likes of Barca and Real if they became available? Ask the same question about Spain or Brazil or Argentina and then you will see how much stronger they are than us.
Think of Mikel Arteta, he is rated as one of the top players in England but he has never represented Spain at any level because he isn't even good enough to even be considered!!

we're always hearing that Capello is meticulous and plans everything carefully etc. Maybe, and I hope so, but quite a few things recently look a bit like last minute anic - Scholes/Carra, the unexpected dropping of Walcott, the Barry thing (what was all that about unfit players?) the recall of SWP (what's he done suddenly?) Even the mucking about with the squad in the last few days. If England dont do well, could capello go the same way as Sven, and have all his judgements reassessed by journalist "experts"? I thought he picked in form players - are Gerrard, SWP, Heskey, Carrick etc in better form than Adam Johnson, Huddlestone??

I dont remember anyone really ever arguing with svens selections, apart from maybe hanging around for Becks and the walcott fiasco - and surely no one is seriously suggesting that Walcott going to 2006 changed anything at all?

QF is okay, anything more is a bonus and we're way short of the quality needed to win the thing

Compensation:-
I still don't understand why the FA had to pay Sven compensation. He quit his after all.

Good news for England - Capello is the best manager we have had for such a long time.

I still don't think, whoever manages England, that we'll make it past the quarter final stages. Too many big names go missing or don't turn up. There's always an air of arrogance within the team, you can tell by their body-language on the pitch. They expect to progress no matter what as if the opposition is just going to lay down in front of them because they're England.
Sven was a good manager. His approach may not have been to everyone's taste but he did a decent job, certainly the best I can recall since Sir Bobby.
Steve Mclaren, on the other hand, was an absolute waste of time and space. The FA, when appointing Ericsson's successor said they wanted something fresh, something different to shake the team up and add to the foundations of solid football Sven had produced so what do they do? They install Svens protoge as the new manager. What does McLaren do? play exactly the same way but without the ability to get the players riled up and ready for the big games. It's a disgrace that this 'manager' was compensated for being rubbish.

13. At 3:43pm on 02 Jun 2010, Petes_toon wrote:

Think of Mikel Arteta, he is rated as one of the top players in England but he has never represented Spain at any level because he isn't even good enough to even be considered!!
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I understand the point you're making, but that's not quite true. Mikel Arteta has played for the Spanish U-17, U-18 and the Spain U-21s. He just hasn't won a senior cap. I think this is probably the best Spanish generation of players that they've ever had, so I think there are mitigating circumstances as to why Arteta hasn't played for Spain. I would not decry the quality of our league and our players just by using one foreign player as an example.

In assessing the relative merits of the different national managers, one can't compare the reults they achived without factoring in the quality of the pool of players available to them from which to select.

Did any manager get better or worse results than the 'average' manager would've done with the same players?

14. At 4:06pm on 02 Jun 2010, tork wrote:
we're always hearing that Capello is meticulous and plans everything carefully etc. Maybe, and I hope so, but quite a few things recently look a bit like last minute anic - Scholes/Carra, the unexpected dropping of Walcott, the Barry thing (what was all that about unfit players?) the recall of SWP (what's he done suddenly?) Even the mucking about with the squad in the last few days. If England dont do well, could capello go the same way as Sven, and have all his judgements reassessed by journalist "experts"? I thought he picked in form players - are Gerrard, SWP, Heskey, Carrick etc in better form than Adam Johnson, Huddlestone??

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People like you have me banging my head in frustration.

Do you really blame Capello for trying to persuade two quality experienced players in Scholes and Carragher to return to the squad for a major tournament?

How was the dropping of Walcott wrong because it was 'unexpected'? We knew players would be dropped, and surely Darren Bent has the most reason to be disappointed as he scored 20+ goals this season?! Capello has to cut his squad from 30 to 23 so 7 players had to be dropped- do you really think he is wrong to check players he's not sure about in friendlies? He can't name a squad 3 months before the tournament starts- how does he know who will be fit? Also if he bases a squad purely on form, is he only supposed to pick the best players in the league for the last 3 months of the season and ignore players who did a good job in helping England qualify for the tournament?

I honestly think people like you criticise the manager whatever he does. If Capello had his 23 announced and decided two months before the tournament, you'd criticise him for not allowing a player to make a late entry into the squad or having to replace an injured player. But when he uses friendlies to experiment and look at fringe players its a sign of last minute disorganisation. The mind boggles.

I'm astonished at the utter absurdity of the whole situation to be honest. Talk of hand-shakes over £5m deals, phone calls getting 'verbal assurances', lawyers checking small print for compensation clauses etc...It doesn't sound good going into what is the biggest tournament in the sport does it?

If only Footballing chiefs across the world got together and bought in some strictly adhered to performance related pay early doors we wouldn't even have to discuss this. Besides it's pretty simple...if we amazingly won the WC - give Fabio a nice new contract or let him go with complete thanks and blessing as job done, if we 'do the usual' what difference bringing in someone new again? (if he didn't succeed there's plenty of Roy Hodgsons about). I'd do it for less than a million squid for a couple of years ;)

Fabio...worried about the sack...do me a favour!! (sure he'll be okay - don't worry)

Hi i agree with the majority of you to say Sven was one of our most consistant managers and we got to the quarter finals in 2002,2004 and 2006.
I found that especially in euro 2004 which i thought we were really good for the semis and maybe the final as we scored loads of goals and i enjoyed that tournament.
You may or may not agree with me on this, Steve Mclaren was a disgrace agreed, especially not to get us to euro 2008, but i thought that the players were every bit to blame as Mclaren, they had lots of chances to cement their place in them finals, especially against russia and the croats.
Have you seen what he has done at fc twente.
I know its the dutch league and not as big as other leagues in europe but he still has made a name for himself. So in just think the balls not all in his court to blame for the failure even though i agree its a disgrace to miss out on a finals like Graham Taylor in 94.

Re: 14 (tork):

I would seriously suggest taking Walcott to Germany affected our performance. We chose to take 4 strikers. Owen, who rushed back from a metatarsal injury, got crocked with his knee in the group games (give his injury record, surely not a surprise), Rooney, who was a major doubt going into the tournament having been injured against Chelsea (Paulo Ferreira) and never scored, Crouch and Walcott. Owen injured left you an unfit Rooney, and Crouch. Walcott being a wasted pick, we had Crouch plus half a striker.

Funnily enough, we went out 0-0 (pens), not having been able to score, after an unfit & frustrated Rooney reacted as Portugal knew he would to provocation. Had we actually had a decent 4th striker, i.e. a Defoe or a Bent, who were discarded - who knows?

So yes, Walcott's inclusion in 2006 materially affected our performance, imo.

As an American am glad walcott didnt make the final squad cause he is the best England has got. i was watching the lowlights to England's W.C campaign and the games he didnt play England suffered.its good people are writing us off early before even the ball is kicked.Do we have a chance to win the W.c no but we can pull off a surprise. i hope England comes second in the group so we can face Ghana and who knows anything is possible.

"By removing the break clause, the FA is gambling that Capello will take England beyond the World Cup quarter-finals and eclipse Eriksson's achievements in 2002 and 2006."

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How is it a gamble? Even if England crash and burn in the group stages, they still have a proven, top class manager until 2012. And what's it got to do with Eriksson?

Beckham will be thrilled. More utterly pointless 3 minute free caps for 2 years which Capello wants to hand him for some unknown reason so he can become the most vacuous record caps holder in football history with the added deluded belief he can take his zimmerframe with him to Euro2012 and impact an event for the first time at 37 when he couldnt at 27.

24 Dec 1984
-------------------

Let me complete the sentence for you more acurately . . . .

AS AN AMERICAN - you know very little about football - your 4 national sports are MLB NFL NBA & NHL and every year you insist on calling the winners of these sports' titles "world champs" - they are NOT !!
They are USA champs only . . . but I digress

USA has one of the best football teams in the world . . . . . in the LADIES event.

I would not be surprised if USA finishes 3rd in the group.
ENG & SLOVENIA are the strongest 2 teams.

subterranean, dont get in a lather, I'm not the criticising type. What I'm saying is that Sven looked like a genius too, until he didn't bring home the cup. In fact, i think he was capable of bringing out the best in players, and he was a bit unlucky in 2002 and 2004.

about Walcott. If you build up a player and drop him it not only damages his confidence, but makes others wonder if they're next.

Scholes, Carra - maybe its the right thing to do, but it looks last minute, and NOT LIKE METICULOUS PLANNING. And Carra hasnt had an unarguable season, has he?

About form. If 3 months isnt enough good form (or bad in the case of Carrick) how much do you want?

And other nations havent made such a songand dance about their final 23. Capello has picked the squad he would have three weeks ago - bar Walcott. What has he learned?

Are these people completely stupid? Capello hasn't committed his future to England - all he's done is make sure that if and when England fail and the FA want to get rid of him, it will now cost 10 times more in compensation. All part of the football finance fairyland that these morons exist in.

10 days until england gets a beating

This is not good news. Capello is ridiculously overpaid and, in recent days, has not shown great acumen. What if England get knocked out early? WE'd be stuck with a lame duck/failed manager. He gets close to 6 million pounds a year- if he cannot deliver he should be out straightaway, not tied in to an extended deal. His recent performances have been unimpressive- not just the poor showing v Japan/Mexico but the silly selection process, including bringing Carragher in after a poor season, choosing Wright-Phillips, picking players who have not played much/cannot get in their sides' teams/have been injured - all of which he said he would not do.
After the World Cup, England could be stuck with a failed manager as they try to qualify for Euro 2012, Yet again, wonderful "management" from the FA.

# 27

Wow some really original cutting criticisms of America and Americans that no one has ever heard of before!

Another blog full of negativity towards our national team.

When will this stop??? Lets pick holes and twist every single story relating to England and turn it as negative as we can.

How about a balance article summing up the pros and cons rather than concentrating on the negative points.

There is one paragraph that looks like its highlighting the positive but is immediatley smashed down wih more negativity

''With no obvious alternative lined up and Capello's successful track record in qualifying for South Africa, the FA has moved decisively, and perhaps wisely, to ensure his future is with England, especially with Inter Milan showing an interest in the former AC Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid coach.

But with all the cards seemingly in his favour, why did Capello ask for the two-year break clause to be removed before the World Cup when his stock may rise even further?''

What about the fact that we have secured one of the finest managers in the game for the next tournamemt. Someone who has gone a long way to restore some discipline and respectability to the England national team.

Our players are particulally difficult to motivate for the national team, partly the press are to blame with all the doom mongering, managers with the wrong tact and clubs who have lost any sympathy for the team.

This seems to have turned around somewhat and Capellos leadership is probably the reason....

So David Bond if you even bother to reply to your blog unlike so many other of your peers of late who slap out these negative posts and dont bother to reply the question is why such an unbalanced negative blog?

#27

I agree with you in that Americans over-hype their domestic sports to 'World' competition. However I think you underestimate the USA soccer team. They have quite a few players playing in the EPL and surprised a lot of people at last years Confederations Cup. They may not have as many 'Prima Donna's as some other teams, but they do play with that spirit that FC is looking for from the England squad.

I do not see the point of comparison to two losers (Eriksson and Mcclaren). They cannot even dream of Capello's accoplichments in their dreams. Why don't we just look at the future instead of dwelling on the past (which is not even woth metioning imo). Even if England was out in the first round there is no way on earth that I would wish it was Eriksson or Mcclaren rather than Capello. C'mon it is not that simple. And Capello has nothing more to prove.

by the way; just his style is enough to rue out his predecessors...

to reply to 23,

you've got a point with bent/defoe, and i wouldnt defend the selection of walcott if he didnt have the balls to use him (at the time i thought why not put him on for the last 15 minutes against a tired and slow portugal back line, cos if nothing else his pace will worry them, instead of bringing on carra who missed his pen anyway - but there you go) but i can't believe it made that much difference. If gerrard, beckham, cole, crouche, rooney, lamps, hargreaves, lennon etc couldnt score against portugal, why should defoe or bent?

and rooney getting sent off is his responsibility.

no doubt if it goes belly up in south africa, it'll all be put down to leaving walcott at home

Will the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ever stop criticising Sven? It's getting a little embarassing now. He had moderate success as England manager, but gets labelled as "only delivering failure."

A foolish and premature FA decision - should have waited until AFTER the World Cup Finals are concluded.

Good that Andy Capp(ello) is staying beyond the three games in June, but I bet the hype and the expectations of glory that the media will dump on us before them, and their catastrophic dross thereafter, will be enough to change his mind in a few days. PLUS... This is... ENGLAND !! But if England insists on adopting stupid Americanisms, such as Team GB, Team England, Club England - and the inane "assist" then we will deserve what the Yanks will undoubtedly dish out on June 12th. No Penalty "Shoot Outs" this time.
This is going to be embarrassing... unless the Press and Media shut up and let the players go out and prove ME (above all else) very wrong.

The most obvious thing to say is that should Capello bring nothing but failure then keep him as the manager nonetheless. One of the main problems with the England national team is that we suffer from a syndrome whereby if in one tournament we are unsuccessful we rid ourselves of the manager. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to look at clubs such as Manchester United. A manager, such as that of Alex Ferguson, should be brought in for long-term improvement and success. If they have a few seasons during which they underachieve despite being renowned as a world class manager then it is important that we let them continue. Football players need to establish a rapport with a manager/ authoritative figure in order to perform at their best. Uncertainty and constant changes in staff are not what footballers need.

To lump McClown in the same bracket as Sven is very unfair. I've been impressed with Capello until the last few months really. Qualifying campaign was excellent but something has changed. Sudden panic! Why is Carra back? He turned his back on his country so goodbye! Its not like he's had a great season either! There are far too many underachieving players in this squad to have any sort of chance. They will do well to get out of a rubbish group! Then possibly Germany in last 16 means goodbye South Africa! Its not Capello's fault! I largely blame Sky for overhyping these players into world beaters, when all evidence suggests otherwise! Quite why SWP is going I have no idea? At least J Cole, Heskey etc have some kind of track record of having an impact at international level! SWP? Quite bizarre! Plus how many of our players would make the Spanish squad? Rooney and maybe Gerrard and Lamps! Thats it! Too many years, too much hype! Not much good football and inevitable defeat! Capello will do well to get to QF! Unlikely IMHO.

If Rooney gets injured v USA we won't get out of the group!

Why was agbonglahor not chosen, Heskey is an unreliable donkey!

I think Capello is the best England manager we have had for a very long time. I dont just see the problem in the squad as a lack of talent. I think that in previous tournaments a huge lack of discipline was an enormous factor. Too many Engliah players are over paid big egos who want to live a glamour celebrity lifestyle and think the world evolves around them. Capello has a zero tolerance policy to all that nonsense and has installed a fear in the players that if they dont perform they are dropped. Did any other managers do that? I think not!

I dont agree with dropping Walcott when the likes of Carrick and Wright Phillips are left in the team. But I really dont see how any one can doubt Fabio when two years ago the England team was nothing short of complete shambles! Some of our games qualifying for the WC (i.e Croatia home and away)were sheer world class and the England team under his leadership have shown glimpses of what they are cabable of! When they play like that they can tale the game to ANYONE.

Can Fabio take us all the way? We all know how ludicrous it is to get hopes up. But we sure do have a chance and not matter what happens he desereves a pat on the back for fixing a comeplet broken mess of a team.

It seems that Capello is a disciplinarian, and a good manager.
However, the problem seems to lie in the mentality of the players, who are
more committed to club than country, over-rewarded,egotistical,
undisciplined and not sufficiently motivated. (some of them anyway)
If Capello can do anything significant with them, it will indeed be an
achievement.

I think Capello has done a reasonably good job and I think the FA had that in mind when they reviewed the contract.

Also before you start thinking of changing coaches you have to evaluate who else is available out there who can do a better job than Capello and I think the truth is that there are not many out there who are not already committed to some job.

Dunmow Wolf:-
To answer you question:-
'Plus how many of our players would make the Spanish squad? Rooney and maybe Gerrard and Lamps! Thats it!'
Note the following:-
- Rooney would make any team in the world
- Gerrard and Lamps would not be starters for Spain as they have a wealth of talent in that area. Squad players pushing for a first team place maybe?
- Ashley Cole and a fit Ferdinand would be in the first 11 for Spain.
By my reckoning that's 3 definite starters and possibly another 2 pushing very hard. By my reckoning almost a 3rd of the team at worst and at best nearly half the team.
By asking the question: How many of(Germany's|Portugal's|Italy's|France's) players would make the Spanish starting 11 would you get such a positive response from any one of those 4 nations? Nope! You're comments are typical of the miserable, whinging, whining nation of sporting fans that we have become. Just be optimistic, enjoy the world cup, supporting your nation of choice (some people can't because their nation didn't qualify) and stop being so bloody negative.
Just to take you up on this absurd statement which incidiently, lost you any credibility you may have still had left after your initial rant:-
'If Rooney gets injured v USA we won't get out of the group!' - How much do you wanna bet? If you offer me similiar odds to what the bookies offer I'll be more than happy to take your money. Also is that if Rooney gets injured after 2 mins and it's still 0-0 or after 89 mins and England are 4-0 up? Obviously with 3 points in the bag that would have some bearing on the odds on offer.
Singing for England, Engerland. All the way to a semi-final meet with Brazil. Lovely

Reading all this I think the belief in England that a manager can win you titles is gone mad. Managers can only work with what they've got. As a manager you have to have a team that is good enough to go out and win it in the first place!
If Argentina or Brazil had Fabio Capello as thier manager they would win it - no question. But not England. England will not win the WC even if Capello is manager, referee and striker at the same time. The England team is QF material.
The other thing is, do English pundits really know their football? Pundit after pundit stares into the camera (or microphone, or keyboard) and says/writes 'we will win it, we've got Capello!' Either these pundints are deliberately misleading the public and setting the public up for dissappointment, or they know nothing about football. Ask those who know - the bookies!

David,

I think Fabio Capello will take England all the way to the final in the 2010 world cup - am in South Africa already and the atmosphere is amazing. Certainly maximum support here is for the local followed by Brazil.. but England is certainly not far behind in terms of local support - at least in the area where I'm based there are some fanatical English supporters sporting both flags and Premier League colours in support. Hope you'll be in SA for the tournament - the vibe is fantastic!

I certainly feel that Capello will deliver what Eriksson has not been able to do during his tenure - a victorious England when it counts the most! Good luck to him earning that £1M bonus for England in the final!

Michelle

Does nobody pause to consider the finer points of why the manager selects - apart form their own precious opinion?

Is there any room for positive figures in the squad, the way the players interact, get on...does this have a bearing on team spirit, for example?

Is bringing Carra back part of this? Is the way Heskey and Rooney interact on the pitch a major factor to team confidence. Does he consider how the players interact off the pitch, how they relate, how the get on?

I don't know, but I figure FC considers more than just media opinion when it comes to naming his squad.

I find it all rather unsavoury and distasteful that these contract talks are happening as we go into a world cup competition. Just goes to show that football is all about hype and money these days. Shameful I think.

What are the FA going to do when we don't get out of the group stage I wonder.

So SVEN TOOK the English team to the quaterfinals, lost on penalities while playing with 10 men because of the stupidity of the "beloved" Rooney and is considered a failure vy English fans? Who did these English teams lose to, Chopped Liver? It is funny how Capello is being played up in the Media as so great, I read in one of the post here that Sven has not accomplished what Capello has in his career. Yeah right. I would argue that he has won as much if not more on the club scene. Capello will be judged shortly and I suspct he will be found lacking when England crashes out AGAIN. I believe that Sven will finally get his due from England in retrospect.

This smacks of the usual poor business sense by the FA. If you note Capello's advisor's stated that he didn't want to be able to be sacked for no reason (no money more like) after the World Cup, the fact is that if the FA sacked him after the World Cup it would be because he had failed utterly and therefore there most certainly would have been a reason!

People go on about Capello's record in qualifying but the fact is you would have expected us to qualify with much the same results under any manager (maybe not winning by quite such a margin in Croatia but the sending off had a lot to do with that). If you look at our results against the top teams then we have played really badly and have a very poor record under Capello.

If he had kept his promise about picking players on form/playing for their team/fit then I would have more faith but he has not. Someone said that players were now afraid that if they did not perform then they would be dropped but that simply is not the case. Look at Gerrard who has had a very average season at Liverpool and has been shocking for England for a number of years, yet he is still guaranteed a place in the starting line up.

We hear all this gumpf about Capello being different but the fact is that he is taking virtually the same team that has failed to deliver for the past decade and appears to be considering playing Gerrard off Rooney which Sven tried years ago and it didn't work.

Do I want England to do well? Yes
Do I think Capello should be guaranteed the job if he does badly? No

Hopefully England will do well (quarter finals will be all we should expect and anything more is a bonus) and this will all be moot but if not the FA have shown their fantastic business acumen once again.

I like to think that any succesful manager of the modern era has a degree of foresight. Does this mean that Capello is lining himself up for a golden ticket?

This one has the potential to nosedive into a bitter relationship in which the FA keep on a disgruntled manager at the price of saving a penny.

As you say.. it happened with Sven and McClaren:

Winning the WC in 66' was the worst thing for England fans. Because now they 'expect' to win. England are one of the best teams in the world under capello,
they strolled in to the finals, they had one the best qualifications that i can remember.
Now for the first time since 98' they are going in to the biggest cup competion in the world with no injurys, their best players all 100% and still the media and people here cant get behind them

"quarter finals are the best we will do, heskey is rubbish, walcott should have gone" waah wahh waahh.

Get 100% behind your country, trust the manager. (there is a reason he is there and the armchair managers that post in here are not)

Im not english, and I want england to win the world cup.

52. At 09:50am on 03 Jun 2010, boweigo wrote:
So SVEN TOOK the English team to the quaterfinals, lost on penalities while playing with 10 men because of the stupidity of the "beloved" Rooney and is considered a failure vy English fans? Who did these English teams lose to, Chopped Liver? It is funny how Capello is being played up in the Media as so great, I read in one of the post here that Sven has not accomplished what Capello has in his career. Yeah right. I would argue that he has won as much if not more on the club scene. Capello will be judged shortly and I suspct he will be found lacking when England crashes out AGAIN. I believe that Sven will finally get his due from England in retrospect
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People write so much stuff that is ill-informed

Eriksson won one Serie A title, with Lazio. He never won the Champions League.

Capello has won the Champions League, he won Serie A with AC Milan and Roma. He also won 2 Spanish La Liga titles with Real Madrid.

Eriksson receives unfair criticism but his career record does not compare to Capello's in terms of trophies.

I wish people would either research their comments or stop making things up just to back up their point. It often shows up your point to be absolute rubbish, so I'd recommend doing the research first.

They think it'll boost morale if they know the manager is staying.

What if England go out in the group stage? The FA will be flushing millions down the toilet, again!

We end up prostituting our game with despicable sponsorship deals etc to pay for it.

I've great respect for Capello, but it's a stupid move by the FA.

The NHL 'World Series' is called that because it was originally sponsored by a newspaper called 'The World'. Nothing to do with being world champions at all.
Sven gave England fans the highlight of their recent England supporting careers (Germany 1: England 5) and was more successful than most England managers. He was ridiculed for playing Rooney as a lone striker, against Portugal, yet now the pundits recommend that Capello play Rooney as a lone striker. Football journos and commentators make it up as they go along, and add nothing to the game (Barrie Davies excepted). I can no longer watch footie on ITV, or listen on 5 Live, thanks to Clive Tildsley and Alan Green: neither of them seem to have an off switch. They talk nonstop for 90 minutes while telling you nothing.
As for Carragher, irrespective of his ability, I think it is an insult to every other English defender, that he can refuse to play for England between tournaments and then come out of retirement for the world cup.

This is amusing for footie fans who want a funny look at the world cup.

Don't forget that "Sir" Dave Richards is the same Dave Richards who,as chairman of one of Englsnd's historic clubs,Sheff Wed, presided over near ruination and that's not including the Hillsborough disaster.There must be a lesson here somewhere: prove yourself a failure then get rewarded with a succession of top jobs at the FA and Premier League.Sums up why the FA lost touch with reality ages ago. For what it's worthIthink Capello is the best thing to happen to the England team since the late Bobby Robson.

Oh,and I forgot to mention you can get yourself a knighthood for almost bringing one of the founder members of the Football League to extinction...congratulations, Mr Richards.

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

Willo wrote:
I wonder if those who appointment the England manager would consider employing a German for the job - or even a Scot!
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I don't see why they wouldnt, Ireland appointed an Englishman and he was their most successful manager ever

This seems like the FA repeating their mistakes. Note to FA: Don't negotiate a new contract with the manager just before a major tournament (I'm sure I remember them doing this with Sven)

If he turns out to be rubbish in the heat of battle, you then have to pay him off for the length of the extended contract that he's just signed, leaving you seriously out of pocket. How will the shortfall be clawed back? Increased ticket prices to England games in the future.

Leave him hungry, agree the terms of a contract that interests him, then tell him that it getting signed will depend upon his performance at the World Cup.

Reward tangible, proven success, not just the promise of success!

However good a manager Capello may be his team is simply not good enough to win the world cup. I think quarter finals is a realistic aim for them, semi-finals would be a real fluke. The likes of spain, Brazil, Argentina and Italy are simply light years away from England. England may look good against mediocre opposition (like every team they had in their group) but the moment they play against a team who can actually keep the ball they look completely out of their league.

hogynhwlffordd

'I think quarter finals is a realistic aim for them'
Really sticking your neck out here aren't you with this prediction considering that Eng have made the QF in the last 2 World Cups.
'semi-finals would be a real fluke'
Nope, not necessarily. Winning group C, a second round win against second in group D and a QF win against the winner of group A would seal a SF spot - hardly a real fluke.
A bit of luck may be required along the way but hardly a real fluke.
Granted real flukes do happen but not usually in Englands favour. Germany scoring a free-kick against England in a semi-final of a WC that ricocheted off of Paul Parker and just goes at the right trajectory to beat Shilton - now thats a fluke.

I've been to Uruguay recently and you would not believe how optimistic and happy they are about the WC and how they still talk about past successes.
Maybe the reason Eng aren't good enough to win the WC is because the fans don't deserve it. Based on most of the comments on this blog few would argue with that statement.
Why can't we just enjoy the fact that we just might make the semis for the first time in 20 years and be optimistic about that, rather than come on here to state that we are crap, everybody else is better and we have no chance of winning. Do these miserable sods have any idea how bloody wretched an outlook that really is.

With the media sharpening their knives, and odds of 13-2 that you are about to deliver anything other than "failure" in the next few weeks, I wonder how many people might not be concerned about their employment?

England qualified for World Cup 2010!!! Woooooooooo
Matches:
England 3 x 0 Belarus
England 0 x 1 Ukraine
England 5 x 0 Croacia
England 6 x 0 Andorra
England 4 x 0 Kazakhstan
England 2 x 1 Ukraine
Well anyway what a qualification.... HOLD ON A SECOND!
FACE it ppl England qualification is a joke! If England had played against REAL teams, England would be out of the world cup. England is just in cos they played against part time players. If England had played against: France, Italy, German, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Portugal... England would be OUT of the world cup. Before anyone ask I don mean against all the European teams.. I mean a qualifying where would involve just 3 of any European team mixed with the part time players!!! (as there were 6 matches in 2009)
BUT instead fifa gives a hand for England to qualify! I am not making any suggestion for the world cup winner, just saying that: I don think so ya will go that far!!!!! As many ppl say here: a quarter final is a very good result for England.

Why has nobody flagged up (overtly enough, anyway) that knockout football is unpredictable?

England will make the last 16 (and would be massively favoured to regardless of their group, largely due to having gained seeded status through, yes, those wins in qualifying). From then on, it's knockout football and anything can happen.

Having said that, I'm going to suggest that 'failure' would be not making the quarter-finals, 'success' would be going further than that, and another last-eight exit would be my central forecast and neither a success nor a failure. England are one of the best eight, but not one of the best four, teams in the world.

Being optimistic - and being aware that this is the first winter World Cup in a generation, which suits the English game as it's based around a high-tempo approach that works much better in these temperatures than in 30C+ heat as seen in previous World Cups - I think success is more likely than failure.

We have not even started the tournament yet and everybody is talking about how far we might get. Surely success is the operative word and not any other possible combination.
Yes, the manager is paid far too much money without any real proven success but the FA always seem to enjoy throwing money about on a good sounding name before any real achievements. I know that Capello has substantial track records in the past with other teams but surely some sort of bonus pay based upon success and moving forward is most relevant.
I do not care what kind of job this as all I know is that out in the real world, failure sometimes gives rise to loss of post and CERTAINLY NO HANDSOME PAY OFF. When will the FA grow up and realise the enormity of the situation.
2 year windows and break clauses are all inserted to protect the manager and not to afford any protection to the supporters and money payers!!!

David Bond should be ashamed of himself for the last paragraph he wrote about Englands under performing players.That is the sort of journalistic rubbish we have had to endure post '66.
Change the the record and write good stuff for once, because unfortunately most people take on board what you lot say!

Rio's injury, from the inside of the England camp, the beans are splilled. It's a cover up I reckon.

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

@ 72:

"journalistic rubbish"?

I'm afraid its just a reflection of most peoples thoughts. Why should he write 'good stuff' when its not true?

The FA is on the horns of a dilemma: should they call Capello's bluff by refusing to sack him (which, after his recent contract amendment, would now be ludicrously expensive) but it's what he really wants, or do they commit the England team to continued poor performances, and suffer the continued wrath of the England fans ?

All the evidence points to Capello's wanting to go (forget what he is now saying, if the FA believes he wants to stay, then sacking him will prove even more expensive). The truth is he wanted England to lose, why else would he a) select the wrong players (such as Heskey right at the end - a man who is known not to score goals ? b) force his key players to play out of position (such as Terry on the wrong side), and c) in a formation to which they were unsuited (such as the much-discussed Gerrard situation)

The extraordinery thing is that that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's speciatists (Lineker, Shearer and co) have all failed to spot that England's problem was not the competition, ie the US, Algeria, or Slovenia teams. England's campaign was thrown away by the FA, when they allowed Capello to re-negotiate his contract.

The answer is, of course, that he has to go, however expensive it turns out to be