Seems the latest man unfortunate enough to be lined up as Sven’s successor with England is Juventus’ Fabio Capello. Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport claim that Capello has been offered a four-year contract worth around £19million to take over after the World Cup.
Rarely do world class club coaches move on to take control of national teams, so our first reaction was to scoff. Fabio Capello? Winner of La Liga, multiple Serie A’s, European Cups, now moving into the firing line of the British media? Ha!
But after realizing how stupid we sounded for saying that out loud in the middle of the office, the idea isn’t quite as crazy as it first seemed. Capello has hinted at both an interest in English football as well as national team coaching, in November he said ‘I have always said that I would be interested in working in England.’ Following up in January with: ‘Coaching a foreign national side appeals to me. This would take up two to three months of my time and would allow me to travel.’
Interesting, no? Well it gets better, Capello also had a rather nomadic attitude towards his coaching jobs in the past. Coaching AC Milan, Real Madrid, AC Milan (again), Roma and now Juventus all in the space of 10 years – consistently showing a desire to take on new challenges rather than rest on his laurels. Having won pretty much everything possible in the domestic world, a World Cup would only cap off his career.
So that’s sorted then, Capello is the next England coach. But what can we expect from a second consecutive coach who wears glasses?
Capello is as proven a winner as is possible in football. What we won’t know is how he intends to play, his teams have gone from attacking delight (Roma) to an almost Chelsea-like fondness for grinding out wins (current Juventus). But as much as we all like to harp on about beautiful football, it won’t matter at all when John Terry lifts the trophies in 2008 and 2010.
Even better, Capello is as hard a bastard as there is in coaching. The media have been able to have their way with Sven as he’s generally a meek, quiet little man but Fabio is liable to reach out and choke any cheeky journalists into submission.