'At my first England training session I was surprised because the players were really good!' How Fabio Capello is making the Three Lions roar

By Mike Walters

Published 23:00 23/10/09

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There were no grubby parasites from the BNP or lame-duck ministers on this Question Time panel.

Hours after David Dimbleby’s flagship talking shop became the soapbox for a deluded Nazi, a unique assembly of A-listers convened on the top table under ballroom chandeliers at the Economist Global Sport Summit.

Never before had the coaches of England’s three mainstream national teams - Fabio Capello, Andy Flower and Martin Johnson - shared a stage to cross-pollinate ideas before a select audience.

Three Lions, no weasels.

And Capello, his English now improving from just one Cornetto to a more assertive Tony Soprano, stole the show.

Godfather Capello soon had his audience of movers and shakers eating out of the knuckles on his iron fist when he warmed to a common theme of his England reign - discipline.

Where his predecessor Steve McClaren presided over Club England with pet names to maintain an air of false chumminess, Capello sends silver platters across the dining room if one of his players sends a text message under the table.

“It’s respect,” he said. “I cannot understand why 20 players should have to wait for two who arrive late. I don’t understand why players don’t respect the rules, respect the coaches and respect other people at work.”

Around the room, wise men nodded sagely in agreement. The room was full of rich men, powerful men, movers and shakers. Manchester United owner Joel Glazer and Arsenal director Stan Kroenke, two of the most silent men in football, were there. So was Dr Evil himself, outgoing Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.

They all listened intently as Capello revealed how he had transformed England from under-achievers to World Cup likely lads by working on their minds as much as their skills.

He said: “Every country where I’ve worked in club football has had a different style. Every city has its own different style, but being manager of England is a completely different kind of work to any other.

“As a club manager you can work every day with the same players, you can analyse the mistakes, speak with the players, change their style and work with them psychologically, which is very important.

“When I arrived here, I remember our first training session - and I was surprised because the players were really good! I thought, ’What has happened here, why are these players not going to Euro 2008?’

“And then, when they played against Switzerland (Capello’s first match in charge), I understood quickly enough. The same players who looked so good in training, played with fear, no confidence.

“I knew then that a lot of the team’s problems were in the mind, and step by step we have improved a lot since then.

“We lost our next game 1-0 against the French, and afterwards in the dressing room the players couldn’t understand why I was happy. They looked at me and thought, ’What happened? It’s crazy.’

“But I explained I was happy because we had played well for 35 minutes, and now the task was to play for 90 minutes in the same manner. They got the message and said, ’OK, we will try’ - and we improved in every game.”

When the debate veered towards cheating in sport, Ashes winner Flower insisted England captain Andrew Strauss was the ideal man to uphold the intangible spirit of cricket and World Cup hero Johnson blamed the influx of money into rugby for dark arts like fake blood capsules infiltrating the game.

And Capello’s eyes were on stalks when NFL legend Mike Holmgren, fourth man on the panel, revealed he had 17 coaches in his backroom staff at Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks.

“The last decision is always mine,” he said. “There’s only one boss.”

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