Planet Soccer

Capello should think of re-starting his career in a professional league instead of joining the sinking ship the National Team is.

Well John, I have disagreed many times with you but I have to say that as an avid fan of the Premiership and England you are absolutely right. If the so-called stars can't produce as a team they should not be included. We constantly hear the players state that they are privileged to play for their country yet they play with little conviction. There is no doubt that allot of the players mentioned in your recent articles are very good with their clubs but they clearly do not have the heart and, in many cases, the mindset to play at the world level. A group of prima-dona's will not compete against teams that are made up of fierce competitors at the world level. There is no doubt that a coach of Capello's stature is what England needs but can he alone change the pompous culture that exists in England's soccer community?.

Mr McClaren started his doomed reign exactly as you have prescribed Mr. Capello should; by dropping David Beckham from the team. Granted, Beckham is over rated, but is still one of the top dozen English Midfielders and should still have been in the squad. Both Capello and McClaren found out that trying to make a name for yourself by benching handsome players is not a conduit to success. Capello only won La Liga with the heroics of a returned Beckham (after threatening to never play him again), and if McClaren had spent less time trying to stamp his name on the team at the beginning (when they dropped all those crucial early point to put them in the hole) that final game against Croatia would have been meaningless. If McClaren had not idiotically dropped the starting keeper for their final match, or tried to play as a defensive shell, they could still have squeaked in. If anything, they need to hire a boring manager who plays the team in a standard 4-4-2 and is not trying to reinvent football.

i'm not even a fan of Italian football or even a fan of Fabio Capello but give the man a call! if anyone can sort out a team of whining over payed pretty boys (Gary Neville excluded, he's Herman Munsters stunt double) it's going to be the iron fisted Italian ..

forget Jose, forget Big Phil, forget any English manager in recent memory, get Capello in here to sort out this mess .. we don't need a media savvy mouth piece beaking off to the press .. a coach like Capello can show a team of one off "stars" how to play like an actual team ..

I would go with Mourinho over Capello but either would be good. I only lean closer to Mourinho because he has more experience playing the English style of football while Capello's career has been in Italy and Spain.

It should also be pointed out that although Capello did put Beckham in his place he later said it was a mistake.

I think you must be joking about Crapello being the man for England.

He is must famous for selecting the player with his own favour, no matter how suck Zaltan was, he will play from min 1 to the enod of the match. See what he had done in Real Mardid, just luck make them the champion. It's the player's effort and nothing about him. His time had passed.

With the team of spoiled and overrated players of England, no one can help them. Putting Crapello in there will be just another disaster.

The structure that capello forms on the pitch is called the vertical vertebrae structure, 1 excellent goal keeper, central defender, defesive midfielder and a lethal striker. It is the reason Real Madrid won its 30th league tittle with him for his second straight season at madrid. He had Casillas, Cannavaro, Diarra and Emmerson, and upfront Van Nilsterooy. Im not saying it was because of those players he won the league, but on most of the games madrid played, those players were on his 11 all the time. Capellos success on all teams he has coach has depended on that structure. Capello was cirticized alot because of his style of play at madrid, and eventually let go by the merengue club. The reason was simple, the style of play didn't fit madrid standards. I think the same thing will happen to capello if he goes on to coach england. He will probably construct a decent team for competions, but the fans wont be happy with the style of play. England is a offensive, fast, and physical team. Their game depends on long balls and alot of running. They should consider other offensive style of coaching such as mourinho, and escolari. Those two would be better candidates for the job. Capello should coach again in italy or the national team.

You want a coach who will stamp his authority over the primadonnas...how about Otto Rehagel, he took a bunch of unknowns from Greece and won the Euro! Not to mention his club success in Germany.

England needs a disciplinarian, and a German like Rehagel is more suited for the problems of England than a star coach like Capello or Murinho.

As for Scolari, he barely qualified for Euro 08 with a stacked Portuguese team. He would just be more of the same, stack the team with stars and hope they play nice together.

NOT CAPELLO.THE BEST MAN WOULD BE VAN GAAL.GREAT COACH EVERYWHERE HE HAS BEEN.ALMOST WON THE THE DUTCH LEAGUE(2)WITH AZ ALKMAAR.EVEN LIPPI IS A LOT BETTER THAN CAPELLO.HOW ABOUT GARY LINEKER,TREVOR BROOKING OR BRING BACK HODDLE.THREE GOOD ENGLISH CHOICES.CAPELLO IS GOOD BUT NOT GREEAT.

Capello is good but not great??? Capello would be a disaster??? Are you guys for real? John is right, the FA should run to hire Capello. He is a proven winner (look up his fantastic record). He has won a scudetto with Roma (Forza Roma) which is comparable to winning 3 in a row with Juventus. Real had won nothing for three years until he came along. Van Gaal (let me remind you that Russia the team he coaches lost a key game to Israel and blew their chance to control their own destiny). Ultimately, I hope England go with an English coach, so that they continue to crash out early of major tournaments or better yet, not qualify all together. England will not be missed at the Euro, hope that they don't qualify for South Africa as well.

MAYBE THEY SHOUND ASK SIR ALEX FROM MAN U HE KNOWS MOST PLAYERS.

Hey Big Show, The ship has already sunk. You have to understand that with coaches like Capello, Mourinho, Lippi, Scolari, etc., at this stage of their coaching careers, it is all about ego. How much bigger of a ego boost would it be to lead a failing and fallen team like england to the 2010 finals and achieve something (even final 4 would be seen as a unbelievable coaching job). Also, the money would be better than anywhere else in the world, and I bet this type of individual would actually enjoy the media attention, rather than abhore it!

Capello's mentality is defend with 8 and attack with 3. Italy's has been known for their defending style of football, not attacking. I dont know if any of you recall the finals in mexico 1970 where brasil went up against the best defense in the world at that time. Again in 1994, they met in the finals and the match had to be dicided on penalty kicks. But if you look at both games, italy depends on defending and counter attacking almost the full 90 minutes. England is not a team that sits back and waits for their opponents. Englands football is fast, long ball passing, and very physical. I think that england won't be able to adapt to capello's style of coaching and eventually will result in not qualifying for south africa 2010. I think te EFA should scratch out the posibility bringing capello, and look at other possibilities of adapting a coach with an offensive mentality. Alot of people want mourinho, and I personally think he would be englands best choice. But you also have to look at portugal, scolari has already said that after euro his contract is finished. So I'm pretty sure mourinho wont let the possibility of coaching his country into south africa 2010 slide by . The EFA has a tough, very tough job in choosing the right coach that will guide england on to the next major football tournament.

Coaching choices aside, you did not seriously call Michael Owen ineffective for England! Injury-prone, yes, but ineffective? He has one of the highest scoring rates of any English national team player (Peter Crouch has a better strike-record, but in fewer games and weaker opponents). Steven Gerrard also turns in excellent performances as long as he has defensive cover (Barry or Hargreaves) and no Lampard. Trying to squeeze Gerrard and Lampard into the same midfield has been the problem for years. I'm no Beckham fan, but the man has provided so many quality set-ups recently that it's hard to exclude him. In the past World Cup I called for his exclusion, but his recent form would at least justify a spot on the bench.

"CBC's soccer expert"!!!
Why don't you just let Don Cherry write the soccer blog?
Even he would make more sense than this ill-considered guff...Gerrard, Ferdinand, Owen... "old" guard - hello!
The talent is there, the management has been woefully weak. Capello has no experience in the English league and the press would eat him up - Mourinho has, plus the track record in Europe and the attitude to go with it.

The problem with english soccer on the international stage is that they play english style soccer. England should pay attention to the other successful countries and see that the patient possession style wins games. The last time I can recall that england was relatively successful was when they had the likes of Paul Ince and Paul Gascoigne...and where did they play at the height of their careers..ITALY! Even in the world cup the only real bright spot fro england was Owen Hargreaves...and where did he play...Germany! Give Capello a go:)

You're an idiot. Look at what Capello did at Real - nothing. Not a single title with all of those brilliant players.

The man that you're thinking of is named Jose.

And you call yourself an "expert" - psssh.

John answers: Real won the Spanish league title during Capello's most recent tenure as coach with the team.

Capello in Real Madrid did what he had to do to win.He knew that by sitting Beckham would hurt his ego in order to get the best of him and he succeed. That is a smart coach and I think that's what England needs right now.

Fabio Capello as England manager would be the most misguided of choices!

Simply put, Fabio Capello NEEDS the English national job; England DOES NOT need Capello! The man, although distinguished at the club level, is far too confrontational in approach and style, lacks command of the English language to even build a rapport, and really doesn't possess the technical, organisational, and prepatory merits to build, develop, and guide a national side. The Italian FA knew this when they appointed Marcelo Lippi, so why should England gamble with the guy?

If there is any one manager GIFTED to manage England, it's Jose Mourinho. The man has vision and a proven track record at building success from the bottom up. He would bring an ethos and infrastructure to the national side not seen since Bryan Robson. More than strategy on the field is required to fix what really ails English national football, and even the English FA have conceded that it's Mourinho who knows how best to make it globally competitive, if not successful.

By the way, the only reason Capello and Real Madrid won the Primera last season was that Barcelona failed miserably in doing so.

P.S.: it's blogs like this that are turning away what precious little readership/contribution this CBC segment has left. Dull and uninsightful...way to go John!

John answers: I think Capello would be a better fit than Mourinho, because I feel you need someone far-removed from the English game and a coach who will not suffer fools gladly and doesn't think twice about under-achieving stars.

Capello would hardly be a gamble - he's won league titles everywhere he's been and is generally regarded as one of the best club managers in the game today. And for my money, Real deserved to win the Spanish league title last season.