Let's get these England qualifiers over... then fire Capello regardless

By Oliver Holt

Published 22:59 31/08/10

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Fabio Capello should be fired as England boss next Wednesday morning.

It does not matter what the result is against Bulgaria at Wembley on Friday night. Nor does it matter whether England win, lose or draw against ­Switzerland in Basel on Tuesday.

It is obvious that it is over for Capello. Obvious that it’s been over from the minute the final whistle blew in Bloemfontein to signal England’s World Cup exit.

Capello should have gone then. He should have been fired before the England plane left Johannesburg.

At least that way he wouldn’t have needed to bother with the inconvenience of coming back to London. He could have headed straight to Lugano.

Everybody knows he should be gone already. The FA knows it. The England fans know it. The players know it. And most of all, Capello knows it.

It’s obvious from his body language. His enthusiasm for the job has gone. The energy and the vitality has been sucked out of him by the manner in which he failed to get the players to play for him in South Africa.

In the build-up to the friendly against Hungary last month, he looked like someone going through the motions. Like someone who couldn’t be bothered any more. He didn’t get off the Wembley bench. Didn’t celebrate when England scored.

Then he compounded his failure in South Africa by creating an entirely needless controversy over David Beckham. Capello didn’t need to say he believed Beckham’s England career had come to an end. He didn’t need to say anything.

Instead, he created an undignified mess that deepened the sense of siege around him at a time when he and the FA desperately needed it to lift.

Sometimes, when momentum builds against a manager, it is as if he cannot help but fuel it. The mistakes come in a rush, heaping wood on the fire, until he is swallowed by the conflagration.

It happened that way with Glenn Hoddle 12 years ago and now it is happening with Capello, too. There is a feel about him of a man dashing towards his end.

Perhaps wins against Bulgaria and Switzerland - wins that would be no mean achievement - will buy him some time.

But the reality is that six points, though they would be a boost to morale in a dispirited England squad, would only paper over the cracks.

The whole England set-up is in a barely disguised state of chaos. In the aftermath of the World Cup, the FA said they wanted a new English coach in place to assist Capello by the time these qualifiers came around. Where is he?

Capello also promised that he would bring in a group of young players to bolster the men who failed in South Africa. Then he stuck the best of them - Jack Wilshere and Jack Rodwell - in the Under-21s.

Did he mean any of what he said as he prepared to leave South Africa. Or did all those words just amount to a cynical attempt to save his skin?

The unavoidable truth is this: Capello lost his players in South Africa and he is not going to get them back. That just doesn’t happen.

Not today. Not in this era.

]The FA have, understandably, been thoroughly spooked by the rash of withdrawals of big names from the England squad for these games.

These are not friendlies we are talking about. These are crucial games and yet suddenly players who have walked through walls for their country in the past are not available.

It is hard to blame them. Playing for England is a great honour but Capello hardly makes it fun. He doesn’t even talk to many of his players and it is too late to repair the damage.

Sadly, Capello has lost the respect of many players and many future players.

Squad members came back from South Africa and talked with their club teammates about how badly Capello handled the tournament.

I’ve spoken to two future England players about it since the World Cup. They were wide-eyed about what they had heard about some of Capello’s man-management techniques.

FA chiefs have realised, belatedly, that retaining Capello as England boss will accelerate the mental drift away from playing for the national team that many players already feel.

Many within the hierarchy of the governing body who felt in the immediate aftermath of the World Cup that Capello deserved another chance are now reconsidering.

One defeat from these two games and Capello will probably go immediately. A win and a draw might allow him to limp on for a little longer.

But would that really be any good to anyone? The point is that Capello masterminded a flawless qualifying campaign last time so doing it again will prove nothing.

Beating Bulgaria and Switzerland would be one thing but history tells us that qualifying well counted for nothing when Capello took his team into a major tournament.

He is not the man for England any more. Let’s get through the next seven days and then swallow hard, dig into our pockets and cut our losses.

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