Fabio Capello; gilt edged record

Oh to be the England Manager. First you are lauded for your great sporting record and writers (er sorry journalists) pontificate on your tactical prowess to bring back the next World Cup/European Championship (depending upon the timing). Then even when you have won virtually single important competitive match they will still niggle away, upset players and generally cause a huge nuisance. However, Fabio Capello has been in the role for nearly two and half years and no journalist has yet to seriously damage his reputation as the England Manager. With a win ratio of 75% after 24 games that is the best by an England manager post war.  

Manager	England career	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win %
Walter Winterbottom	1946–1962	139	78	33	28	56.1
Alf Ramsey	1963–1974	113	69	27	17	61.1
Joe Mercer	1974	7	3	3	1	42.9
Don Revie	1974–1977	29	14	8	7	48.3
Ron Greenwood	1977–1982	55	33	12	10	60.0
Bobby Robson	1982–1990	95	47	30	18	49.5
Graham Taylor	1990–1993	38	18	13	7	47.4
Terry Venables	1994–1996	23	11	11	1	47.8
Glenn Hoddle	1996–1999	28	17	6	5	60.7
Howard Wilkinson1	1999–2000	2	0	1	1	0.0
Kevin Keegan	1999–2000	18	7	7	4	38.9
Peter Taylor2	2000	1	0	0	1	0.0
Sven-Göran Eriksson	2001–2006	67	40	17	10	59.7
Steve McClaren	2006–2007	18	9	4	5	50.0
Fabio Capello	2008–	24	18	2	4	75.0

    1.^ – managed the team on two separate occasions as caretaker manager
     2.^ – managed the team on a one-off basis as caretaker manager

Fabio Capello is a man with a superb footballing history. He played as a midfielder for Roma (1 Coppa Italia), Juventus (3 Serie A titles) and AC Milan (4 Serie A titles, 1 Coppa Italia). He made 332 appearances for senior clubs and scored 45 goals. He won 32 caps for Italy and scored 8 goals including scoring the winning goal against England when Italy beat them for the first time in competitive football in 1973.

His managerial record runs as follws:-

AC Milan       1991-96             4 Serie A Titles, 1 UEFA Champions League

Real Madrid   1996-97             1 La Liga Title

AC Milan       1997-98

Roma             1999-2004         1 Serie A Title

Juventus         2004-06             2 Serie A Titles

Real Madrid   2006-07             1 La Liga Title

England          2008-

Whichever way you look at that record it is first class, nay world class.

Managing the top sides in  Europe and repeatedly winning the league and cups demonstrating his ability for tactical brilliance and management.

He has taken swift, action when the John Terry affair threatened to tear the team apart with a few brief words and incisive action.

However, it is worth raising the question of how he is coping with the tremendous stress of being the England Manager on the verge of the World Cup. He bawled out the players for a lacklustre first half against the minnows of the Platinium Stars . Today he has scolded photographers taking shots of the medical centre (not sure what was going on inside but perhaps Capello feared the long range lenses might reveal something damaging such as treatment on a England player?)

Is the Stars incident because he was genuinely fed up with the way England Players seem to be coasting around the pitch. Yes, but did he purposely set up the game to puncture the usual England complacency in a more realistic setting than just on the training ground and where his words would sting far more in the glare of the world’s press? I think he has some real nagging doubts about certain key players and wants to keep them on edge to bring the best out of them. Likewise, I wonder whether his outburst with the photographers was to demonstrate his protection for his players or whether he was worried that his carefully preparations could be blown off course by a canny photo of a possible injury? I think his avuncular approach suggests he is protective of players but only up to a certain point. He is totally ruthless in his pursuit of victory. That’s why he is right for England.

Yet it will all come down to 3 games in the group stage, last 16, quarter final, semi-final and final (if we get through them all). That is just seven games to truly judge the managerial skill (given the players he has to work with) to turn a gilt edged club record into a solid gold international country record. We wish him and the team well.