Capello has put England back on track

October 15, 2008

Rio Ferdinand talking ahead of the World Cup Qualifier in Belarus tonight has said that the England set-up was like a “circus” before Fabio Capello took the job.

“We became a bit of a circus, in terms of the whole WAG (wives and girlfriends) situation.

“People were worrying more about what other people were wearing and where they were going, rather than the team.”

The Manchester United defender who will captain the side in John Terry’s absence has said that there is a completely different atmosphere in the squad to what there was even at the World Cup in 2006 where the WAG’s were allowed to accompany the squad to Baden-Baden.

“It seems like there was a big show around the whole England squad,”

“It was like watching a theatre unfolding and football almost became a secondary element to the main event.

“When you step back and look back at that, you think like it was a circus.

“I’m not going to tell the other players what you should or should not do but I just think that, as a squad, we were a bit too open, going out in and around Baden-Baden, and probably had too much contact with families.

“You don’t get many tournaments in your career. To give yourself the best chance, you have to be focused.

“That then transposed itself into the team. This regime is very watertight. If I’m honest, it feels as if we’re going in the right direction.

“I don’t want to speak too soon but you can see we’re at the start of something and hopefully there will be bigger rewards than what we’ve had in the past.”
The FA was quick to follow up on Rio’s comments with Adrian Bevington saying:

“I fully understand the sentiment Rio is making. What I think I can say very confidently is that I don’t actually blame the players for that,” “In the end they didn’t pick the hotel, we did. They didn’t say that if your family wants to come and stay in a town 20 minutes down the road from the team hotel they can do.

“If we had been in a big city we would never have heard so much about this.”

England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 but Ferdinand said he has felt a change in focus with Capello at the helm with the Italian having a 100% record at the moment.

“It’s a very, very professional regime,”
“Very result-orientated. Very much like a lot of our clubs. The results come a long way before the performances.

“You see how he is on the training ground, in our meetings, that there’s a winning mentality there. That’s what he’s putting over to the squad he has in front of him. It’s about us taking that on board.”

Ferdinand also feels there is enough distance between the manager and the players something that McLaren was criticised for not keeping.

“Do you really know any managers? I don’t know the real Fergie,”

“When he comes to football, he’s probably a totally different person to when he’s at home with his wife and grandchildren.

“That doesn’t matter. They’re not here to be buddies, talk about old times or be great friends. They are here to win football matches.”

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