Capello reflects on first year in charge

December 29, 2008

England manager Fabio Capello has played down comparisons between his current crop and England’s 1966 World Cup winning squad as he looked back on his first 12 months in the job.

Under Capello, England have won each of their World Cup qualifying games and the football odds has them down as one of the favourites for the 2010 tournament as a result. This, in typically English fashion, has led some people to compare the current set of players and manager with that of 1966.

However, speaking about Sir Alf Ramsey, Capello admitted that to ‘arrive at the level of Ramsey’ is still a long way into the distance. The Italian revealed that he would love to be as highly thought of as Ramsey in the future, but for the sake of English football ‘not after 40 years’.

To be honest, this all seems rather ridiculous and is typical of the English attitude to football. A bad run of form and everyone is protesting and claiming the players don’t care enough. Then, a decent run of form leads people to suggest that this squad can win the World Cup in under two years time. Talk about one extreme or the other!

In all fairness though, Capello has had a very good first year in charge and the team has moved forward. The team signed off from the former Real Madrid managers’ opening 12 months in the job with a victory in Germany, after all.

One of the main things that has improved according to Capello is the atmosphere inside the camp. There were some who suggested that Steve McClaren was too close to the players for them to respect him. Whereas Capello says that he prefers to be a friend of the players ‘at a distance’.

He went on to say that one of the most important aspects to management is ‘respect’ and that it is important that the players know that Capello is the leader of the group.

Overall, Capello is definitely earning respect from every football fan in England. He has brought the feel good factor surrounding the national team back and everyone is looking forward to the 2010 World Cup. As for his comparisons with Ramsey, well that is a little premature! Ask me again in August 2010!

By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting

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