FA and Fabio fault lines were there from start

There was a kind of inevitability in Fabio Capello's England reign ending in tears off the pitch.

When as a player he scored for Italy against Bobby Moore's England at Wembley, who'd have thought it'd be the Italian and not our World Cup winning captain that would coach the team one day?

Ciao e Grazie. Lessons learned?

One can well imagine the John Le Mesurier-style FA mandarins goading the firebrand Fabio on points of principle to surprise us all with his resignation.

I met Fabio by invitation at Wembley about a year ago. I knew of his "my way or the highway" approach to management - but face-to-face, I was struck by his simplicity and with reference to the England job, his foreignness.

Here was a Latin taking on the FA, an Anglo-Saxon church of football - and expecting co-operation throughout.

Fabio talked simply on his humble beginnings in a small northern Italian village and his strong-minded journey through football in beating a career-threatening injury as a youngster.
When the FA appointed Capello in the wake of the Steve McClaren debacle, he was hired for his incredible trophy haul in Italy and Spain. But nothing was taken into account with reference to how, where and when he won it.

Because Capello managed mostly Latins in a southern European environment. The instinctive group mentality of that culture played well with his "do what I say" instructions. Furthermore, those players were on wages a fraction of the level of our boys.

(Adrian Bevington of Club Wembley can talk all he wants of recreating the Spain structure, but the FA will never ape the group strengths of community which Spain has - and we don't have in the same way.)

Cry God for Harry, England and St. George!

So Fabio's proud and confident inflexiblity was always going to be gobbled up by our individualistic club-focused millionaires.

His stinging quotes to Italpress after leaving the job show he was always a square peg in a round hole:

"They really insulted me and damaged my authority. What really hit me and forced me to take this decision was the fact the much-vaunted Anglo-Saxon sense of justice, as they are the first to claim that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

In Terry's case, they gravely offended me and damaged my authority at the head of the England side, effectively creating a problem for the squad. I have never tolerated certain crossing of lines, so it was easy for me to spot it and take my decision to leave."

 

We're best without him, I know. Let the coronation of Harry Redknapp be arranged and with his arrival, let the basics about football come to the fore.

 

There's too much apparatus and apparatchiks at the FA spoiling our broth, and it's gone on too long. Disband Club England, appoint 'Arry and this time, do it without Sir Clive Woodward!

 

Remember Greece at Euro 2004. Simples.

Speed Inquest: Statement from wife Louise

The League Manager's Association have just issued this statement from the Inquest into the tragic death of Gary Speed.

Gary’s death and the manner of it, made Sunday 27th November 2011 the worst day of our lives. Throughout the nine weeks since, there have been some very dark moments, which we have all had to find our own different ways to endure.

Now, we have to adapt to the future without a husband, a father, a brother and a son; but Gary’s memory shines brightly in our thoughts and we will forever remember the wonderful times we shared with him and the deep love and affection he offered so freely within our close knit family.

Thankfully, out of tragedy some good often emerges, and we feel blessed to have such true friends who are helping each of us come to terms with the circumstances of our bereavement. Gary’s funeral was an occasion of great sadness and grief for everyone concerned but it was also a day where we were able to say farewell to him in our own personal and private way.

At this time we wish to reiterate our deep appreciation for the very generous and clearly sincere accolades paid to Gary and his memory by the public and all forms of the media. We remain especially grateful for the sympathetic way that the media has respected the family’s privacy.

The help and encouragement we have received from so many special individuals and organisations leading up to today’s inquest has been truly breathtaking and we must recognise publicly some of those concerned. The thoughtful way we have been treated by the Cheshire constabulary, which has been represented here today by Detective Inspector Peter Lawless. The considerate way today’s hearing has been conducted by HM Coroner Mr Nicholas Rheinburg. The practical help given in abundance by Melissa Chappell, whose support and friendship has been so much more to us than simply Gary’s professional agent. The invaluable life-line provided by the League Managers Association which has been there for us throughout. We are immensely thankful to all of you and greatly appreciate what you have done for us.

Finally, our thanks go to the FA of Wales which has arranged the Gary Speed Memorial Match against Costa Rica at the Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday 29th February. This will give everyone whose lives were touched and enriched by Gary’s achievements the opportunity to attend, celebrate his life and pay their final respects. We look forward to seeing you there


Click here for the current Top Story Soccermongery's all about your feedback, so write away, right away!

Can Mourinho's stock remain high long enough to win battle of succession at United?

Alex Ferguson in 1986

Since Sir Alex Ferguson announced "three more years" just before the shock defeat to Blackburn, the spotlight on succession at Old Trafford has intensified. The three-nil defeat at Newcastle doesn't help Fergie either.

Fergie cites good health and vigour for staying on. He's just turned 70 having completed a quarter-century at Old Trafford in November. Winning is a great tonic and he does seem in rude health.

But just as the England job is dubbed a poisoned chalice, United is whatever the opposite of that is: a refreshing glass of water on a summer's day perhaps -  it's an urgent requirement for those with wildblood..

O'Neill at Sunderland: contender for United job.

Of the two perennial frontrunners, one's sharpened his credentials just by taking a high profile job in the Premier League; the other jokingly referred to a return to a big stage in England in two years, made days before Fergie's seemingly unprompted remark.

I talk of course of Martin O'Neill and Jose Mourinho. O'Neill, whose sheer force of intellect and personality light up wherever he goes, would be a Sunderland hero with Europa League qualification or a trophy. The Roker Roar's been on mute since they left Roker.

Mourinho is the itinerant winning machine. So portable and successful in England, Italy and now Spain at the world's most glamorous club stage. His Midas touch is so powerful, he even got an assist in Andre Villas-Boas' big chance at Chelsea just by being young Portuguese and winning at Porto in similar fashion.

As with Inter, Mourinho's got to wrestle with the best Barcelona of all-time, but as in Italy where Milan and Juventus were beaten off, who'd back against the Portugeezer?

The Special Two

United must learn from their own history though. They've attempted to replace the irreplaceable before. When Sir Matt Busby left, United scrambled round for the right man, a decision at which they repeatedly failed, ending in tearful relegation.



So how to replace the greatest club manager of all time? well, it's got to be someone who consigns United's immediate regime to the past while continually winning at the same pace. A contradiction in terms surely not lost on the Old Trafford ownership. 

Chin up. Mourinho's eyeing Old Trafford

But in reality, it's no different to the way Fergie runs United now. He enjoys the win for a couple of days, then sets the clock back to zero ready to conquer again.
And in both leading candidates, they have the capacity to create distracting tabloid headlines to focus on the hype of the present and ensure the past is the inspiration not the millstone.

Yes, there's other candidates I've not mentioned here: David Moyes, Josep Guardiola, even Eric Cantona's name gets chucked in occasionally, but why look further when there are two outstanding candidates with the all-round CV?

If Mourinho can maintain his reputation as the Special One, I take him to replace Ferguson when the Govanator calls time as Old Trafford's ultimate keeper of the temple.

With that stand named after Sir Alex and squad problems, will the opportunity come faster than the Special One thought?

Black Hole in Alan Hansen's education

Why are we forced to watch Alan Hansen on our screens as a Match Of The Day pundit?

Kick It Out, Kick Him Out!

I can't bear him anymore: to me, he represents the blunt, outdated instrument the BBC has become in these post Credit Crunch years. Not for profit; not for us either.

I'm of a certain vintage so I remember him as a player, but millions of under-40's don't. Is there someone else Auntie could find with a more contemporaneous spin on the game? Point of information: Hansen retired from football before the Premier League years.

Yes, he won nine league titles with Liverpool, but he wasn't considered good enough to be part of Scotland's World Cup squads either in 1982 and 1986. He was a good club player in a brilliant team. A sort of 80's Steve Bruce.

Lazy and complacent, Hansen's long-institutionalised body language screams of the waged and entitled. I mean, what does he do in between Match Of The Days to justify his vast £1.5m salary a year? It looks like very little to me.

But he stooped to a new low when discussing the hot topic of racism in the game: he outed himself as an equally culpable ignoranamus that our Beautiful Game is populated with at the moment.

‘If you look at 25 or 30 years ago it was probably in a bad way - not as bad as some of the other nations on the Continent - but certainly there is always, always room for improvement.’ said the 56-year-old. Starting in the Match Of The Day production offices after the show, I say.

Lee Dixon, on set with him, visibly squirmed as Hansen added, ‘I think there’s a lot of coloured players in all the major teams and there are lots of coloured players who are probably the best in the Premier League.

Hansen and Lawro chew the footy fat.

"It's a generational thing", I'm told. "Older people I know would use the coloured word". Maybe.

But here is a so-called professional broadcaster, someone who operates in a metropolitan world of all peoples. Has he not embraced any of the zeitgeist of what's acceptable?

He's specialised in the nothing special for years: the BBC is a non-profit-making company; Sky Sports is - and that's no more clearly demonstrated in the differences between the quality of the pundits they use on their respective outputs.

For all Andy Gray's faults, he was a hard-working, incisive pundit, schooled by TV executives to feed us football insight we weren't aware of before. Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville are as credible and interesting as anyone on sports telly these days.

Hansen's gone from asset to liability in record time. While Hansen's doubtless got some columns of support; (you can't have been on-air for that long without any), I can't imagine any justification for renewal of his contract on anything like the terms he enjoys at the moment.

And I'd prefer him gone.  

Click here for the current Top Story Soccermongery's all about your feedback, so write away, right away!