Italian boss was the butt of Bullard and David Bentley’s jokes at England training.
Retired footballing funny man Jimmy Bullard has taken a swipe at former England manager Fabio Capello.
Bullard, who hung up his boots in October 2012, never represented the Three Lions, but he was called up to one of Capello’s squads in August 2008.
The 33-year-old, who was playing for Fulham at the time, was far from impressed with Capello’s training methods, claiming he had received better coaching during his time as a non-league player.
An extract from his autobiography ‘BEND IT LIKE BULLARD’, which is being serialised by the Daily Mail, reads: “I never felt Fabio gave the boys a lot of direction.
“For starters, his English was poor and it was very difficult to understand what he was going on about most of the time.
“The only thing he said that stuck was: “Let’s all attack together, let’s all defend together.
“Not terrible advice, but when I remembered that this was international football, the pinnacle of the game, I thought it was just a little bit basic. To be frank, I’d had better coaching when I was playing non-League.”
Bullard also says that he and former Tottenham Hotspur winger David Bentley used to mock Capello behind his back for his apparent resemblance to animated mailman Postman Pat.
An extract reads: “Bentley was also my partner in crime when it came to taking the p*** out of Mr Capello.
“I remember looking at the gaffer on my first day and thinking, ‘I can’t believe how much he looks like Postman Pat; it’s him!’ The only thing that was missing was the black and white cat.
“Because I was new to that whole environment, I didn’t want to make too much of my discovery so I did it on the sly and used it as an icebreaker, letting some of the boys know that we had a TV personality running the show.
“Bentley obviously loved it — ‘Wa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!’ — and when we were on the team coach, we sat at the back and started singing the Postman Pat theme tune.
“A few of the boys joined in — I think Rio, Ashley Cole and Jermaine Jenas might have had a quiet little sing-along — but most of the other dry lunches weren’t really up for it.
“Another daft scheme Bents and I came up with was seeing who could say ‘Postman Pat’ as loudly as possible within earshot of the gaffer.”
Postman look-alike Capello took charge of 42 England games, delivering 28 wins and eight draws.