OT- Capello Quits England Job
Capello today quits the England National Team. He was supposed to leave before the 2014 World Cup anyway but not before Euro 2012.
What's really amazing is that Capello never seemed particularly loyal to any captain before including Terry removing the captain's armband once before from Terry for maybe sleeping with a teammates partner. Apparantly it's not okay to punish a player before a trial if it's a racial complaint but it is okay if it's adultery.
According to Wiki since 2008 England has had 6 captains under Capello (Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Beckham, Rooney, and Lampard). I don't get where this suddenly loyalty to Terry is coming from (and I'm a Chelsea fan who loves England's Brave John Terry).
Favorites to take the job seem to be Harry Redkanpp (Tottenham), Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid), Stuart Pearce (England U-21 and Team Great Britain), Alan Pardew (Newcastle) and Roy Hodgson (West Brom).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/08/fabio-capello-resigns-england-manager-live
February 9th, 2012 at 8:25 AM ^
Do you watch soccer? England produces some of the most talented footballer in the world, they just can't seem to play together. Over the past few years they have produced some of the best players at their individual positions. If you follow football, you don't do it very closely. Talent has never been the problem for England.
February 9th, 2012 at 8:42 AM ^
No, talent IS the problem. England has a shallow pool of top-flight players (in truth, the talent pool for the country is smaller than that of the Netherlands, a country 1/14th England's size).
Ashley Cole is a great player. Who's his backup? When Terry and Ferdinand are out, who are the replacements? Chris Smalling? Feel confident about that? And who is the right back?
The midfield, outside of Gerrard, is short of attacking players with technical ability. Beyond Rooney and (sometimes) Walcott, who can score goals at international level?
England has a group of 9-10 proven international players. Beyond that are question marks and players who wouldn't sniff Brazil's 8-deep roster. England lags far behind other top nations in developing top-level players with technical skill. You compare England's talent pool with Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Italy (let alone a couple of those countries in South America) and there is no comparison.
February 8th, 2012 at 5:26 PM ^
About time. Hello: Guus Hiddink?
February 8th, 2012 at 5:33 PM ^
I don't think he's likely after what happened with Turkey. However, he has normally been a boss wherever he's gone and he has English ties which should help. I wonder if Guus would give his former Captin Terry the armband back. That'd be a funny thing to see.
February 8th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^
I was kind of joking because his name always comes up and he's currently out of work. I'm convinced Cappello has dirt on the Queen, how else could he have survived that long.
February 8th, 2012 at 5:56 PM ^
Capello's track record and the lack of a clear alternative kept him in the job for 4 years. But he hasn't been awful. England did make it easily through UEFA qualification for the 2010 World Cup (going 9-0-1 in their group) and then making it (but playing poorly) through to the Round of 16 in South Africa. Yes, they got beat badly by Germany but Germany did the same to everyone except Spain and England was badly hurt by the Lampard non-goal goal. Euro 2012 qualification wasn' pretty but nor was it terrible. Capello was clearly experimenting with new players and new formations and England still didn't lose a match.
Capello has been a meh English manager and has certainly not lived up to the expectations of his hiring but before Capello England had McClearen who failed to get them to Euro 2008, Eriksson who always squeaked England into the quarter-finals but it was always ugly and took a last chance goal to get them there, Keegan who didn't get England past the group stage in 2000, and a serious more of mediocre results from Hoodle, Venables, and Taylor. Not since Robson in 1990 has England done anything special in Euro or the World Cup. I think having a general good success rate was good enough with Capello's resume to keep him in the job.
It is amazing how poor England has been the last 20 years. The golden generation went 0-5 in big tournaments and now England is stuck with the last few "golden generation" players and a handful of young players that have developed independently of their entire generation. Seriously, who does England have that is any good that is under 30 and older than 25 besides Rooney? They seem to have 5 years where nobody developed into a special player except Rooney.
February 8th, 2012 at 6:10 PM ^
I think a good option would be Jose Mourinho. As much as I hate him, he could do wonders for the English team. Plus, I am a Liverpool supporter and am terrified that he is going to end up at Chelsea (if/when they fire Villas-Boas) or Manchester United once Fergie retires. I know England doesn't want a foreigner, but he could win pretty much anything with them.
February 8th, 2012 at 6:20 PM ^
The problem with England isn't the managers - they've had Erikkson and Capello and they haven't made the breakthrough.
Their problem is that, unlike France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc., their players are uncomfortable on the ball, technically inferior, and too reliant on brawn. There are simply not enough young high quality English players coming through the ranks who are playing high level soccer. If you get beyond the top 5 or 6 English players, nobody seriously concerns other top-level nations.
Whereas a country like Germany or Italy has a pool of 30-40 very good experienced players playing in important teams, you just don't have that in England, and THAT is the problem.
February 8th, 2012 at 6:41 PM ^
England has good players, they just don't develop them. All of the countries you mention have leagues where most of the players are citizens, unlike the EPL, and their national teams do a lot more experimenting with line-ups. England plays the same 15 guys all the time.
February 8th, 2012 at 6:42 PM ^
England made the semi finals at Euro '96 and the '90 World Cup, and they made the quarterfinals at Euro 2004 and the World Cup in 2006, 2002, and 1986. They qualify for virtually every tournament and usually make it out of the group stages.
A team like Argentina hasn't made the semi-finals at the World Cup since 1990. Spain didn't make the semi-finals between 1950 and 2010. Italy and France both got knocked out at the group stage in South Africa.
It is very hard/rare for even the top countries in the world to get much farther than England has in most tournaments. They just deal with more English-speaking tabloid coverage that reaches us here and we are often more familiar with their players/managers.
And you can't play Frank Lampard in the middle of a 4-4-2.
February 8th, 2012 at 6:31 PM ^
England is so ridiculous about this. Kevin Keegan fails, they need a foreigner. Eriksson fails, they need an Englander. McClaren fails, they need a foreigner. Now, they need an Englander.
February 8th, 2012 at 6:12 PM ^
Holy crap how did this happen
February 8th, 2012 at 6:11 PM ^
Ugh my first double post
February 8th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
'Onest 'Arry Redknapp has been shilling for the England job since approximately forever. I can't imagine he won;' get it, which puts my beloved Spurs in quite a bind. Redknapp has been a good match for Spurs and it's hard to get the right manager-club combination. I hope they find someone good, but after the failed Ramos revolution I'm scared of the possible outcomes.