They are but twice a decade, and so for that reason, World Cups always seem forever away. But for Fabio Capello and England, South Africa is more then just on the horizon. The Italian and his English Lions are staring face-to-face with what could prove to the biggest three months of their lives.
Less then a month ago England fans were asking if yet again before a major tournament, the media were going to prove to be our downfall before a ball had even been kicked. John Terry’s alleged infidelities prompted ‘experts’ to make predictions on what the future held for the Chelsea captain and the lasting impact it would have on the England side. For many it was already game over. Terry, Mr. Untouchable at Stamford Bridge, had betrayed his teammates and as a result there was no chance of him wrapping his hands around football’s biggest prize.
How wrong these so called critics and professors of the beautiful game, who sit, pen in hand each week ready to note the slightest mishap of one of the country’s best hopes, were. I fell in love with football as most of my generation did throughout the Euro 96 tournament. The three lions at Wembley against Holland, when Shearer and Sheringham tore Denis Bergkamp’s side apart to the tune of Jonathan Pearce’s now infamous commentary. Ever since that tournament, England has lacked something. A cutting edge? Maybe. A natural goalscorer who frightens the worlds best centre halves? Maybe. A manager who not only rules the dressing room but can also gives the pressroom a dressing down? Definitely.
Whilst the papers, TV and Radio stations frenzied around for interviews with Max Clifford and Vanessa Pernocell, and while photographers waited for a shot of Toni Terry at Heathrow and John Terry playing away (in football terms) at Hull City, Fabio Capello poured himself another glass of fine wine and put his feet up in Geneva as he recovered from a routine knee operation, a million miles away from the apparent meltdown of his England side. And when the Italian strolled through the arrivals gate at Heathrow, with his suitcase neatly packed onto his trolley, looking unfazed by a greeting of a thousand camera flashes, no one foresaw the awesome impact his silence was having.
John Terry quite simply had the week from hell. However, perhaps not in quite the same sense as any ‘ordinary’ adulterer. Let me be clear; not for one moment do I want anyone to read this and assume I hold England’s football players to any kind of higher purity and moral standard simply because they take home £100,000 a week for doing relatively little. Not on your life. In fact, if anyone thinks John Terry was receiving text messages from Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard condemning him for what he did to Wayne Bridge you have a seriously good opinion of the current breed of professional footballers. Be under no illusion, any texts JT did receive were more along the lines of ‘You idiot, how did you get caught!’ Instead Terry’s week was torturous because for all his off-field antics, he is a natural born winner. The thought of being denied the chance to have his photo in the history books, lifting the trophy with the cross of St George draped over his shoulders, of having the next five decades of England supporters bringing their children up into football showing them photos of John Terry lifting the World Cup trophy as we were shown the images of Bobby Moore, was a real source of heartache for him.
For too long, England fans and the media have complained that player power was too much in England. Under Keagan, the most inept manager of England (even worse then Graham Taylor) up to that point lacked the courage to drop misfiring players for fear of their wrath. This continued under Eriksson too. David Beckham was commander-in-chief of that particular squad. The Swede more content with his paychecks then tournament progression. And after Luis Philippe Scolari rejected us for fear of the media (what ever gave him hat idea) came the donkey under the umbrella in Steve McLaren.
Credit where credit is due, he dropped Beckham as captain and from the entire England squad. If ever there was a statement of who was boss look no further then a man who embarrasses the most famous football player to walk the planet. Trouble was, when he realized he had nothing better and so had to recall Goldenballs, he was not only undermined but also looked completely hapless. He then made the cardinal sin of walking out of a press conference before it had even started telling the media ‘to write what you want’. McClaren must have wished the next day’s headlines were in Dutch! They never made for pleasant reading and the pathetic sight of him drinking tea under an umbrella at Wembly while his side flopped out of the European Championships before Umbro had even had time design yet another Red England shirt that looked exactly the same as the previous ten, was pathetic in every sense of the word .
Needless to say then that Capello’s mandate for change when he was interviewed for the job was to address the disciplinary issues of the England side. In one of his first press conferences, Capello was asked whether he felt he was fortunate to inherit a squad littered with world-class players. The former Real Madrid manager asked the journalist who he thought was world class before following it up with a statement that proved, Gerrard had not registered the same amount of goals per game ratio internationally as he did in the premier league, same with Frank Lampard. Crazy too when you think the opposition more often then not is the likes of Andorra and Kazakhstan. John Terry world class? He hasn’t won the Champions League said Capello. Wayne Rooney? Good but on the same level as Messi and Kaka? Not according to the new manager.
For every England fan who had sighed miserably when they left work on a Friday evening to go home, looking forward to a weekend of relaxation and Barclays Premier League football, only to find it was international weekend which probably meant another underperforming, useless display in front of a Wembly crowd who had paid well over the odds for tickets to watch lackluster, chess-like football, a new era had broken. Capello wanted friendly games away from home against the worlds best. He got them. England played Spain, France, Holland and Brazil away from home. The best England’s ‘world class’ players could manage from these four fixtures was a draw in Amsterdam. The other three, all defeats.
Needless to say, Capello’s initial vindication of England’s part-time Gallactico’s was spot on. On the field results had spoken. If England were to win the world cup, then Capello’s mandate for change would have to be enacted on and off the field and the Italian would start with ‘discipline.’
Summoned like a schoolboy to the headmasters office, insistent upon players referring to him not as ‘boss’ or gaffer’ but as ‘Mr. Capello’ and ‘Sir’, the shrewd tactician negotiated John Terry’s fall from supremacy in 12minutes by doing what no one predicted he would.
Buses and trains stopped running the traffic came to a standstill, postman temporarily went on strike, the Prime Minister called an emergency session of parliament, her majesty the Queen came back early from walking the corgis, planes made emergency landings and Geordies put down their pints. John Terry had been fired in Godfather-like style but England’s new ‘big boss’.
It was a decision that sent shockwaves through, not only the football world but also the British showbiz scene. In an age where footballers wives are yearning to be glamour models, TV presenters, fashion designers and professional socialites by hanging off their husbands fame and fortune, the news that there was someone even bigger and more powerful who was willing to take their prestige away without hearing the case for the defence, brought Britain to an almost standstill and newsrooms buzzing with the excitements of unpredictability.
Yet who wasn’t fazed? Capello. On arriving back at his London house later that evening he was asked how his day at been by a pool of journalists at the foot of his stairs. “Busy” he replied with a smile on his face and a swagger in his step. Lets not forget, Fabio Capello made David Beckham train with the reserves for 7 weeks while he was at Real Madrid because he signed a pre-contract agreement with LA Galaxy. Capello is a man who has managed the best and brought down the best, and in his opinion, if that is what it takes to ensure England success he was willing to do it again.
Perhaps even more startling was how Capello, just 24 hours after the biggest footballing story since Glen Hoddle ws sacked over comments about the disabled, the England manager boarded a plane to Warsaw for the draw for the 2012 European Chamionship qualification process totally unfazed by the world’s most intrusive media. Seeing Capello’s command of the British media when he came out for his post-draw reaction, he stood toe-to-toe with the land’s biggest names, looked them in the eye, never shirking, and told them they would not be getting answers to their John Terry questions. It was a monumental moment in recent English footballing history. The men who are responsible for the demise of Premier League and England managers year after year, finally put back in their place by a man who has his eyes set firmly on the bigger picture.
There was a fear that even if Capello stripped Terry of the armband, that he would still run the roost in the dressing room. Whoever was made captain would always really be subordinate to Terry. But we learned something else here. Almost like Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford where no matter who wears the armband, no one is bigger then the manager, Capello is doing the same with his England. No voice in the changing room is louder and more powerful then his. No player gives better motivational speeches, or fires up the players better then Fabio himself. Rio may wear the armband now but that does not make him above the law as Shearer was under Keagan, Beckham was under Eriksson and Terry under McClaren.
What we are seeing is an England team who now has one sole focus going into the world cup; football. Wayne Rooney has proved against AC Milan that he is not only capable of taking on the best, but right now he is the best. There is competition for places in the England side like never before. Peter Crouch realizes with Darren Bent finding form at Sunderland, that when he gets his chance he needs to take it, so he bags a brace the first chance he gets.
Who really knows if England will win it again but one thing is for certain under Capello, they are in it again. Like all sides that win major competition, England will need luck and they will need to be 100% at the top of every game they play. But in Capello we trust. We trust that if there is an opening, if a team is there for the taking like Brazil in 2002, like Portugal in 2006, Capello is a good enough tactician that he will spot it and make sure England exploit it by picking the side he deems right for the game, not what the players or press dictate. There is no doubt we have some of the best players in the world right now, but perhaps what makes England different going into this World Cup is that there is a focus like never before and truly world class manager.
The story after Euro 2008 was of a Spain side that for so long had under achieve. A nation who had the potential to be devastating on the world stage, but always managed to choke. The same has been said of England since Italia 90. Football is the language of of this country. It is the topic of conversation in pubs and bars from the Quayside in Newcastle to the docks of Portsmouth. The Premier League brings a nation to a holt every Saturday at 3 o’Clock. We are a nation where more people know Jeff Stelling’s name then Gordon Brown’s. Football was our gift to the world. In South Africa, Fabio’s England perhaps, might just bring it home.
By Gavin Callaghan
