He has won titles with AC Milan, Juventus, Roma and Real Madrid; this sentence alone makes him a front runner for the England job. His calm, almost ice-like stature in the dugout is world renowned, as is his uncompromising way of dealing with players and press alike. All good qualities in a man who is being touted as the favourite for the toughest job in world football.

I'm not convinced, though, not even in the slightest. Undoubtedly, this man will win further trophies with a very successful team who are prepared to pay him at lot of money (the FA are apparently willing to stump up an astronomical £5million a season contract for him). But I really can't see what he will bring to the table which will develop the national team into a world-beating force.

For starters, the guy doesn't speak much English - this has been a topic of hot debate recently, as many see this as only a minor chink in the great man's armour. Personally, I see it as a major reason for not hiring the guy. He may have all the tactical nous that is required to compete at such a high level, as well as the ability to make game-changing decisions and the guts that go with it. But without the ability to communicate and relate his ideas to the people who will actually be charged with carrying out his well-thought out and detailed tactical plans, this point of fact becomes completely null and void.

'Can anyone actually tell me the last time you saw a team prepared by Capello that didn't operate with a 4-5-1 and included two sitting midfielders?'


This leads me on to my main argument; can anyone actually tell me the last time you saw a team prepared by Capello that didn't operate with a 4-5-1 and included two sitting midfielders? Why do you think the Real Madrid management gave him the boot after winning the league? I can tell you it wasn't because they didn't like the look of him, it was solely down to the fact that even with the highly-entertaining and grossly-overpaid gaggle of footballers that Madrid posess, they played like a typical Italian team and only ever beat the Getafes and the Recreativos (no disrespect) 1-0 or 2-1.

Surely after the Sven saga, who was berated for playing such negative tactics (in hindsight, bring back the balding Swede, no?) we will have even less patience with a manager who insists on enforcing such negative and dull tactics, thus further wasting the talents of the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, SWP and so on.

My point is that obviously Capello is a world-class manager, and has the trophies and track record to prove it. However, if we were to employ him as the manager of England, he will only bring a negative style of play that will instantly attract media criticism, and therefore produce another McClaren situation all over again.

We need a manager, English or not, who will create a system of play that fits around the players, and which doesn't just incorporate high-profile players because they earn £120,000 a week at their clubs (**cough**Lampard **cough**).

If Brian Barwick and his team of minions had a few brain cells to rub together, they could see that employing a non-speaking, negative-thinking manager would be the final nail in all of their long overdue coffins.