Fabio Capello

So they've appointed Fabio Capello as coach. Suddenly there are quite a few people who have spoken out against a foreigner appointment: Gareth Southgate, Mark Hughes, Harry Redknapp, Steve Coppell. I wonder whether it's justified, or rather a lament that so few English coaches are highly regarded that a foreign one gets the job automatically, and with so little forethought.

You can't completely blame the FA for wanting to act quickly. The last time, 2 coaches slipped through the net. One was Scolari who saw what the English media was like, and made a dash for it. The other was Guus Hiddink, who apparently balked at having to sit for a written test. Now it's a little hard to take the second excuse very seriously, even though people in some quarters have held it up as yet another example of the FA's incompetence. I guess once you have a reputation for incompetence you also get blamed for a lot of things that may not be your fault. Hiddink could have turned the job down to work for Abramovich and Russia.

Jose Mourinho has been blowing hot and cold to the FA. He is one manipulative person, and he has suspect morals. Witness the time when he caused a referee to receive death threats from Chelsea fans. Or the time when he falsely accused the Reading medical team of not tending to his goalkeeper soon enough. He is a great coach, but my impression is that he wasn't 100% set on the England job, but rather was making statements through the press in order to enhance his chances of getting the job if he deemed it suitable, and at the same time trying to find out as much about the job as he could. Eventually he made excuses and left, not wanting to be a part of it.

So when the time came to grab Fabio Capello, I don't think it's fair to blame the FA for being hasty. Grab your man when it comes down to it. He might have hesitated, he might have changed his mind if they hesitated. There are plenty of downsides to the job. Like Eriksson said, all you need to do as England manager is to win every game, not get paid much, and not have a private life. And I think that while Sven is a decent manager, he is no extrovert, and may have had a lot of problems with the media which affected his concentration. And I guess that both these guys would have made pretty good England coaches: both specialise in ugly but effective football.

As for what attracts coaches to the England job, we know that some of the better England managers of the last 20 years have had a passion for the job: like Bobby Robson and Terry Venables. One big reason for Sven's unpopularity was his perceived lack of passion for the England team. The obvious downside of appointing a foreign coach is that you're never fully convinced of his passion for the job. Just before Guus Hiddink took the Real Madrid job, he asked his friend Johan Cryuff for an opinion. Cryuff said, "If they're offering the Madrid job, take it - it's a logical move. It doesn't matter that you don't get much time off. Just work, take the money, and then get out of there." So I wonder if Capello is coming into the job with a "take the money" kind of approach.