Arise captain Rooney! What Capello must do now to turn England around

By Robbie Savage

Published 23:03 01/07/10

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After watching England’s struggles at the World Cup it’s no surprise Roy Hodgson quickly agreed to become Liverpool manager.

Hodgson and Harry Redknapp were both linked with Fabio Capello’s job but they’re both better off leaving the Italian to it.

Harry’s got a brilliant young Spurs team to take into the Champions League and Roy will use his experience, intelligence and tactical nous to improve the Reds.

It’s a great time to be Liverpool boss as he can hardly do worse than Rafa Benitez last season.

But it’s a bad time to be England manager and Capello will now have to earn every penny of his £6million a year.

England’s ageing Golden Generation have failed again and at best it’s a Silver Generation waiting in the wings to replace them.

One thing Capello has in his favour is the Euro 2012 qualifying group of Wales, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

I know this is a bad time to talk about easy groups but England’s Under-21 side would be able to get out of that one without any problems.

And that’s the gamble for Capello - whether to go for the security of letting the old hands like Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and John Terry stay on for the Euros or rebuilding now for the next World Cup.

Lamps will be 36 in four years’ time, Rio 35, Stevie G 34, JT 33.

Those numbers suggest Capello should start from scratch right away but the sad truth is that none of the players coming up are fit to lace the boots of those four Premier League greats.

There is a lot of potential in the likes of Adam Johnson, Jack Wilshere, Jack Rodwell and Tom Huddlestone. I’m less impressed with some of the other names I’ve seen bandied about as potential England saviours.

And not many of the whole lot of them are guaranteed regular starters for their sides.

It might be time to fudge it and keep the old guard for the first couple of friendlies - which I predict will be sparsely attended - and qualifiers while we see who can stake his claim week-in, week-out in the Premier.

I would do two things immediately, though. Get Wayne Rooney to explain honestly what went wrong with him in South Africa, then give him the captain’s armband and build a side around him. He is the one world-class player England will have left in a year or so.

And second, I would tell Aaron Lennon not to worry too much about that picture of him smoking a cigar and having a beer back at the hotel after England got knocked out against Germany.

Many pros will have a pint after a defeat - you can usually find us crying into it.

What I can’t ever tolerate is people laughing and joking following a loss, and that’s why I found the picture of Ashley Cole and Ledley King doing just that far more annoying.

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Brilliant to see Oldham taking a chance on my mate Paul Dickov as their new manager.

Dicky is one of the nicest people in the game- unless you’re playing against him. His spirit, enthusiasm and football knowledge will more than make up for his lack of coaching badges.

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