Why my attempt to win a Capello call-up ended up in Row Z, by Martin Lipton
It didn't take long for Fabio Capello to make the same sad decision as Sven Goran Eriksson.
The odds on me getting an England call-up at the age of 44 were always long, even when every Premier League boss wants to withdraw their players ahead of the weekend.
But as I burst onto a return pass from Capello’s number two Franco Baldini, the goal begging, only to send the ball into the equivalent of Row Z, the dismissive laugh from the England boss shattered any remaining hopes.
“How can you ever criticise players when you miss one like that?” asked Capello, smiling widely. “I read what you write, how you say they couldn’t miss. And you do that...!”
It was the end of a dream that was always unlikely, one signaled by England’s previous foreign manager some six years ago, who rolled his eyes in disbelief after another session and asked, in mock exasperation, “Why did you try to play centre-half?”
Yesterday, just 200 yards from the rooms at the Hertfordshire hotel where the England squad were relaxing ahead of the game with Holland, Capello watched as his backroom staff put me and a few hand-picked guinea-pigs through their paces.
The session, put on in conjunction with England sponsors Vauxhall, was led by Capello’s fitness guru Massimo Neri, who found ways of stretching muscles I wasn’t sure even existed.
Baldini, who played for Bari and Bologna - and against Diego Maradona in his Serie A days at Napoli - took a back-seat as coach Italo Galbiati then led the football side of the session.
Galbiati is the unsung member of Capello’s team, a former Inter Milan player who has worked as the England manager’s eyes and ears at AC Milan, Roma and Real Madrid.
He too, found it easy to spot the imposter.
“You need to get closer to the ball, short,” he said to me. “So you can pass.”
“Like Barcelona?” I asked, drawing a look of pure horror.
At least I had some Italian backing as I filled in on the left.
Franco Tancredi, Roma’s goalkeeper in the 1984 European Cup Final - when Liverpool won on penalties - has had more solid lieutenants that yours truly.
But a couple of tackles, the odd interception and a headed clearance made enough of an impression.
Shame that Fabio wasn’t so convinced.
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