Friday, 14 December 2007

Fabio Capello


Well, it looks like the FA are set to appoint Capello as the new England manager.

I've just got two quick points to make about this...

1) With regards to the language problem, I was listening to 5 Live radio the other week and they were talking about some of the problems up in Newcastle with Big Sam. A BBC radio Newcastle sports reporter was pointing to the fact that Allardyce doesn't talk to the BBC press as being a hinderance between building a relationship with the fans. The supporters disagree with his squad selection and player positioning, but there is no real forum for the manager to respond, explain and justify his decisions. Listening to the assistant is not the same. My worry is that a similar thing could happen with Capello.

2) Ideally, we would have an English manager, who would have a long term contract and could rebuild the team, give young players experience and build for the future. This would take time, and would result in England not doing so well in the immediate future -a transitional period. It worked at Arsenal with Wenger, BUT is unlikely to happen on a national scale because of the artificially high expectations of the fans and media who would not give them the time needed.

Any thoughts?

Steve McClaren



Saw this and thought it was great - a parody of Rhianna's Umbrella song for Stevie Mac.