Capello's second chance

The English FA did not delve deeply on the Three Lions' abject performance in South Africa and decided to retain Fabio Capello as coach to lead the team to the 2012 Euro Championships in Poland and Ukraine.

When taking over from Steve McClaren after England's failure in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, many pundits had conceded that if there was someone capable of helping England end a 44-year wait to win the World Cup, that man was Capello.

The critics and the tabloids were in favour of his appointment.

The so-called 'golden generation' only needed a shrewd coach and a disciplinarian to triumph in a major international tournament, it was contended.

Capello's achievements at club level made of him an ideal candidate for reputedly the toughest coaching job in the world.

Before South Africa, all worked clockwork for the Italian mentor.

England were simply superb in the qualifiers and became one of the first national teams to reach the finals. Indeed, the squad flew to Johannesburg brimming with confidence.

Team captain Rio Ferdinand then got injured during training but that did not tarnish the team's build-up ahead of the big kick-off.

Nor did the speculation that Inter were looking to hire Capello to replace Jose Mourinho. The FA acted swiftly to sort out any loopholes in the national team coach's contract.

On the field of play, however, things turned sour for England.

Back-to-back draws with the US and Algeria immediately brought England down to earth. The hard-earned win over Slovenia in their final Group C qualifier was the Three Lions' only moment of joy.

Following that, Capello's team was beaten by 'old enemy' Germany 4-1 and that was that. England were out and all hopes of glory were dashed. Along with France and Italy, England were the biggest flops of the tournament.

Capello soon found himself fending off questions about his tactics and selections in South Africa.

It still remains a mystery why he decided to discard the 4-2-3-1 module, that had served England so well in the qualifiers, to switch to 4-4-2. There was even talk of mutiny at the dressing room with John Terry (perhaps still bearing a grudge against Capello who took the captain's armband off the central defender) reportedly being the rebel leader.

But, according to Capello, his players only misfired in South Africa because they were tired after a dour campaign and they did not show the same commitment as in the qualifiers.

Now, on the strength of the backing received from the FA, Capello has promised wholesale changes to revive England's fortunes. For many England stars, the 2010 World Cup was their final appearance in a major tournament. Capello has vowed to infuse new blood.

Despite the promises of a new beginning, the FA bosses have to admit that with the Italian as coach nothing did change for England.

In South Africa, the team was bracketed among the under-achievers as England failed to leave their mark yet again.

The Whites would always lose against the first top nation they encounter at a World Cup (vs Argentina in 1986, Germany 1990, Argentina 1998, Brazil 2002 and Portugal 2006). That negative trend did not change this time as well.

Capello did well wherever he coached before in his career.

But this time, 'Don Fabio' failed miserably. Now, his main task is to see that England won't repeat the same mistakes in Euro 2012.

Capello said he won't leave the England job half-baked and wants to prove his detractors wrong. He has to show that he deserves a second chance.