* Winterbottom 28 Sept 1946. N. Ireland (a) Won 7-2
* Alf Ramsey: 27 Feb 1963 France (a) Lost 5-2
* Don Revie 30 Oct 1974 Czechoslovakia (h) Won 3-0
* Greenwood: 7 Sept 1977. Switzerland (h) Drew 0-0
* Bobby Robson: 22 Sept 1982. Denmark (a) Drew 2-2
* Graham Taylor: 12 Sept 1990. Hungary (h) Won 1-0
* Terry Venables: 9 Mar 1994. Denmark (h) Won 1-0
* Glenn Hoddle: 1 Sept 1996. Moldova (a) Won 3-0
* Kevin Keegan: 27 Mar 1999. Poland (h) Won 3-1
* Sven Eriksson: 28 Feb 2001. Spain (h) Won 3-0
* Steve McClaren: 16 August 2006 Greece (h) Won 4-0
What did you think of those managers ?
Myself, I don’t think Taylor, Venables, Keegan and McClaren should have managed England. None of those four should have been allowed anywhere near an England team.
Football’s a game of opinion and that’s my opinion.
Bobby Robson, I loved the guy. I had eight years with him at Wembley and saw all his games and all his press conferences and some of us would chat to him after the daily reporters had rushed back upstairs to phone in his quotes on their landlines, and then, quite often, I’d walk through to the Banqueting Hall with Bobby, and chat to a few faces there, jump on the tube be home in 20 minutes. I loved Bobby all through the Eighties and still love him today. I talked about him a lot and I wrote about him a lot and I followed what he did very closely. And my conclusion, after eight years, was : Bobby Robson could not pick an England team to save his life.
Later on I went to Bisham a few times during the Venables-Hoddle era. And I remember Keegan coming in after the Ukraine game to announce his squad for Euro 2002. I knew he was clueless. I knew in my bones that we wouldn’t do anything in Holland-Belgium. It was obvious and I said so long before a ball was kicked. I met Sven three times when he was a club manager and he conned me three times. Not many people con me three times.
But enough of ancient history !
I’ve only met Fabio Capello once but that was enough. He is a charismatic colonel, like George Graham. Both are strict and know exactly what they want.
In Italy, Capello didn’t really engage with journalists at all. Over a 20-year period, he did the opposite. He used a couple of pals to tell the fans what he was thinking. And that was it. In those 20 years, no reporter got to know him. He didn’t engage with them. He didn’t see that is part of his job.
He will not be interested in what has gone wrong. He won’t want to know about 90% of what’s has gone wrong in the last six years. He will tell the players to be a team. He’ll tell them that everyone has to sacrifice himself to the team. Win games, win ugly if you have to, win 1-0 and keep winning. If you play great and win 3-0, fine.
Capello has vast experience and he has time. We are not in Euro 2008 so he has plenty of time to put his stamp on the team. He has to get key decisions right and he will take as much time as he needs to get those decisions right. We’ve seen that already. There is no permanent captain but Gerrard wears thhe armband against Switzerland.
The new coach will tell the players the team 90 minutes before the game, just before they leave the hotel and drive to Wembley from Watford. So his line-up will not be leaked to The Sun and available to England’s opponents on the morning of the game. That makes sense.
Sure, the media crave stories, lines, quotes, promises about the future. But the important thing is what Fabio Capello does with his players and his relationship with them. He will command respect. He’ll tell his players what is required. They will be in no doubt about what he wants.
The period before September 2008 is a period of assessment.
He has to assess what he has and work out how to play, based on what he has. Meeting the squad for the first time, he will have had expectations. Watching them train for the first time, he will have had expectations. Watching England play Switzerland from the technical area, he will have expectations.
But he’ll never tell us what his expectations are. He’ll just think about what has to be done, discuss it with his inner circle, and figure out how England can win. Then he’ll tell his team to go out and win. Next game, win again. And so on.
The England team needs foreign expertise now more than ever because we have so few players. We have some centrebacks but no strikers, as Sven pointed out.
As I say, this is assessment time. In his first training session, Capello could see what wasn’t there. In his second training session, he could take a closer look at what wasn’t there. In his first match against Switzerland, he can take a real look at what isn’t there.
He will have to be pragmatic. We don’t have the flair of Gazza, the crafty creativity of Peter Beardsley, guys who can shape an attack. He will have to build very carefully with what he has after he figures out what to do with Rooney, SWP, and Joe Cole.
My first rule of thumb for managers is : watch what they do, don’t listen to what they say. Since Capello will not say much, that makes it easier to concentrate on what he does.
Juande Ramos is teaching Spurs to mark and if Capello does the same it will be radical. By the time the first World Cup qualifying game comes round in September, we might be able to mark. Imagine an England team actually marking their opponents in every game ! How good would that be? An England team that marks players and doesn’t give away stupid goals ? I’d love that. Wouldn’t you ?
It could be a big opportunity for David Bentley, who might be able to provide chances for Crouch and Rooney.
If Steve Stone can step up, David Bentley can step up. Stone, a Forest right winger who broke his leg three times, came into the England team and did very well for a while. A bit later, when he was injured and doing some radio at an England game, I spoke to him in the press lounge. I said his instant success had surprised people, since most reckoned it’s a big step up from club level. But Steve just said, “It’s easier playing with good players.”
Remember this : the most important thing is NOT the relationship between the media and Capello, although veteran English reporters who have covered nine World Cups may think it is.
Overall, he will be realistic. We’re not a producer country, like France, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina. Holland. We don’t produce a lot of great players.
Let’s get this straight. Let’s be crystal clear on one thing before we start : Fabio Capello is inheriting a squad of journeymen and one-dimensional superstars who failed to qualify for Euro 2008.
Despite that, I’m excited and intrigued. England will be different now. I’m sure he will be far better than Sven. Indeed, Capello promises to be the first good manager England have had since Alf Ramsey.
I met Alf once. He didn’t engage with the media either.