More than a few points to say about this decision.
Firstly, I'm dismayed that the FA and the press has managed to oust the most successful manager of England ever. Capello has the highest win record of any England manager ever. His qualifying record is almost flawless; even at the World Cup where it is generally regarded that he underachieved, he reached the round of 16 and was only beaten by a resurgent German team.
The only possible criticism that anybody can have about Capello is sociological and driven by the Fleet Street boys' agenda to get their bessie mates in big roles. Those who pay attention to the sports writers or anyone who has sat down with them for more than a minute will know what I mean by that. Harry WILL get the job, just as the press put Hughes in the City job despite his only redeeming qualification is that he was born in England. I'll go into more detail here if necessary.
Apparently, talking to the Italian press was a slight, or backing an innocent man (and Terry IS still an innocent man) was a slight, or his English was a slight or a bunch of other non-footballing reasons. I honestly could not give a flying fuck about any of these. He's the national team manager, I care about how he does on the pitch.
Football wise, he managed 42 games and had a bad performance in maybe 5 of them. A couple of them were in South Africa at the World Cup, but since then he has handed debuts to Johnson, Wilshere, Walker, Dawson, Jaglieka, Carroll and made guys like Hart a regular. He is filling his remit of bringing through a new generation after the World Cup - exactly what the press and board wanted. During this time he qualified for the Euros without losing a single game. Based on this alone, he was a resounding success.
More to the point though, English football is a complete fucking laughing stock again. We've just sacked (and he WAS sacked) one of the greatest and most successful managers of all time who had a nearly untouchable record at international level. He has won leagues, Champions Leagues, cups, the lot.
We will appoint a bloke who once won an FA Cup that cost the club its financial solvency.
You see, what people don't seem to get is that we are not very good at football. We haven't been for a long time. Quarter finals or so are about our "level". History mainly bares this out. Expecting us to rampage into any tournament is ridiculous nonsense that has no factual basis.
We don't have the infrastructure. We don't have the coaches or the coaching facilities. We don't have the backing of the clubs. Most of all, we don't have a national footballing identity to show us to play in a certain way, and the only thing that we have that approaches this was out of date in the 70s. When 'Arry gets the job, he will try to use this and will fail miserably, yet again providing laughs for the whole world at how pathetic we have become. Can you imagine Arry's kick n rush brand of 4-4-2 football against the Spanish? Fuck me.
The FA have worked tirelessly to try and address these faults. The coaching qualification pathway has changed, we are focusing players much more on Futsal and they are building a new National Football Centre. This is great news for the national team in 15 years, but not much good now.
The Spanish and Portuguese started their infrastructure building around 1995. The Germans started theirs in 2002. It takes a long time for the tree to bare fruit. This is definitely against the agenda of the press who in a world of 24 hour news, talk radio and online editions want everything now, now, NOW. This is also why successive England managers have been forced out by the press; almost every manager since Ramsey. Sir Bobby wrote in his book that he left because the press were calling for his head. Then he went to PSV, Benfica and Barca, won a shitload of titles, trained the next generation of coaches and revolutionised the game as he was doing so. But he wasn't good enough for the Little Englanders who demanded that he win everything in sight every year.
The FA are fucking flakes. They remind me of a drunk virgin teenager desperately trying to cop a feel at a party. In the end, because of their needless desperation and desire to please in the most sycophantic way, they'll be going home and having a wank. In fact, this is quite a good analogy for the state of English football at a national level in general.
I was talking on Twitter to Liam about this not 10 hours ago and couldn't believe that anybody at the FA would be retarded enough to remove Capello from his position. This is not the actions of a set of people who are thinking about the long term health of the game.
So....what now?
Well in a perfect world when picking a manager, you generally pick the guy who has achieved the most. Unfortunately, I don't somehow see the FA begging Steve McClaren to take on the role. Outside of this is Hodgson who the press will never accept (and they are the ones who essentially make decisions for the FA). I'd quite like someone like Stephen Constantine or particularly Bob Houghton but nobody cares who these highly influential, talented and successful coaches are so they won't be getting it.
If we go over English only and allow British, I'd like someone like Brendan Rodgers or Paul Lambert; two guys who are both young, hands on coaches who have achieved a lot in a little amount of time, are tactically aware, have a vision of a style of football and have excellent records in developing young players and getting the best out of older players. But they aren't fashionable either, so they won't get it.
If we allow foreigners, I'd take Mourinho or Hitzfeld, both managers who have achieved a shedload in their career and would relish the England job.
But we're not going to do any of this. We're going to appoint a bloke who took a team in 4th to 4th spot whilst spending £200m to do so, has a very dodgy record with corruption and has never achieved a single thing in 30 years of the game because his mates in the press talk him up and idiots believe that this is talent. He has achieved less than Sam Allardyce, who apparently is a national joke despite bringing in training and coaching methods WAY ahead of their time and turning perennial relegation candidates Bolton into a contender for UEFA Cup spots.
I fucking despair at times, I really do.
Firstly, I'm dismayed that the FA and the press has managed to oust the most successful manager of England ever. Capello has the highest win record of any England manager ever. His qualifying record is almost flawless; even at the World Cup where it is generally regarded that he underachieved, he reached the round of 16 and was only beaten by a resurgent German team.
The only possible criticism that anybody can have about Capello is sociological and driven by the Fleet Street boys' agenda to get their bessie mates in big roles. Those who pay attention to the sports writers or anyone who has sat down with them for more than a minute will know what I mean by that. Harry WILL get the job, just as the press put Hughes in the City job despite his only redeeming qualification is that he was born in England. I'll go into more detail here if necessary.
Apparently, talking to the Italian press was a slight, or backing an innocent man (and Terry IS still an innocent man) was a slight, or his English was a slight or a bunch of other non-footballing reasons. I honestly could not give a flying fuck about any of these. He's the national team manager, I care about how he does on the pitch.
Football wise, he managed 42 games and had a bad performance in maybe 5 of them. A couple of them were in South Africa at the World Cup, but since then he has handed debuts to Johnson, Wilshere, Walker, Dawson, Jaglieka, Carroll and made guys like Hart a regular. He is filling his remit of bringing through a new generation after the World Cup - exactly what the press and board wanted. During this time he qualified for the Euros without losing a single game. Based on this alone, he was a resounding success.
More to the point though, English football is a complete fucking laughing stock again. We've just sacked (and he WAS sacked) one of the greatest and most successful managers of all time who had a nearly untouchable record at international level. He has won leagues, Champions Leagues, cups, the lot.
We will appoint a bloke who once won an FA Cup that cost the club its financial solvency.
You see, what people don't seem to get is that we are not very good at football. We haven't been for a long time. Quarter finals or so are about our "level". History mainly bares this out. Expecting us to rampage into any tournament is ridiculous nonsense that has no factual basis.
We don't have the infrastructure. We don't have the coaches or the coaching facilities. We don't have the backing of the clubs. Most of all, we don't have a national footballing identity to show us to play in a certain way, and the only thing that we have that approaches this was out of date in the 70s. When 'Arry gets the job, he will try to use this and will fail miserably, yet again providing laughs for the whole world at how pathetic we have become. Can you imagine Arry's kick n rush brand of 4-4-2 football against the Spanish? Fuck me.
The FA have worked tirelessly to try and address these faults. The coaching qualification pathway has changed, we are focusing players much more on Futsal and they are building a new National Football Centre. This is great news for the national team in 15 years, but not much good now.
The Spanish and Portuguese started their infrastructure building around 1995. The Germans started theirs in 2002. It takes a long time for the tree to bare fruit. This is definitely against the agenda of the press who in a world of 24 hour news, talk radio and online editions want everything now, now, NOW. This is also why successive England managers have been forced out by the press; almost every manager since Ramsey. Sir Bobby wrote in his book that he left because the press were calling for his head. Then he went to PSV, Benfica and Barca, won a shitload of titles, trained the next generation of coaches and revolutionised the game as he was doing so. But he wasn't good enough for the Little Englanders who demanded that he win everything in sight every year.
The FA are fucking flakes. They remind me of a drunk virgin teenager desperately trying to cop a feel at a party. In the end, because of their needless desperation and desire to please in the most sycophantic way, they'll be going home and having a wank. In fact, this is quite a good analogy for the state of English football at a national level in general.
I was talking on Twitter to Liam about this not 10 hours ago and couldn't believe that anybody at the FA would be retarded enough to remove Capello from his position. This is not the actions of a set of people who are thinking about the long term health of the game.
So....what now?
Well in a perfect world when picking a manager, you generally pick the guy who has achieved the most. Unfortunately, I don't somehow see the FA begging Steve McClaren to take on the role. Outside of this is Hodgson who the press will never accept (and they are the ones who essentially make decisions for the FA). I'd quite like someone like Stephen Constantine or particularly Bob Houghton but nobody cares who these highly influential, talented and successful coaches are so they won't be getting it.
If we go over English only and allow British, I'd like someone like Brendan Rodgers or Paul Lambert; two guys who are both young, hands on coaches who have achieved a lot in a little amount of time, are tactically aware, have a vision of a style of football and have excellent records in developing young players and getting the best out of older players. But they aren't fashionable either, so they won't get it.
If we allow foreigners, I'd take Mourinho or Hitzfeld, both managers who have achieved a shedload in their career and would relish the England job.
But we're not going to do any of this. We're going to appoint a bloke who took a team in 4th to 4th spot whilst spending £200m to do so, has a very dodgy record with corruption and has never achieved a single thing in 30 years of the game because his mates in the press talk him up and idiots believe that this is talent. He has achieved less than Sam Allardyce, who apparently is a national joke despite bringing in training and coaching methods WAY ahead of their time and turning perennial relegation candidates Bolton into a contender for UEFA Cup spots.
I fucking despair at times, I really do.