An unexpected bonus

I have to admit I honestly didn’t see this one coming.

Capello’s departure is nothing but a positive for England

When Fabio Capello flew back to England for a meeting with his bosses at the Football Association, I fully expected discussions to be heated. Capello was furious that the FA had removed John Terry as England captain and, in return, the FA were livid Capello had publically complained about their decision on Italian television.

However, I never for one moment thought Capello would quit. Have a tantrum and throw his Armani-clad teddy out of the pram, maybe. But walk away from the England job just four months before a major tournament? Of course he wouldn’t do that.

But he did, having apparently decided to put his principles ahead of his job. Despite the fact that his principles were wrong on this occasion.

Terry’s position as captain of the England team was untenable. He had to be removed. It’s true that Terry, like everyone else, is innocent until proven guilty. However, the very fact that he had the racism court case hanging over his head would have caused serious issues over the next few months.

To my mind, Terry should not only be stripped of the captaincy but also left out of the squad until he has proved his innocence. That is the sort of honourable move most public figures would make in similar circumstances – take time out to clear their name.

But Terry, a man who was not ashamed to fool around with a teammate’s girlfriend, knows little about the concept of honour. And as a result of his arrogance, his boss had been forced to fall on his sword (although the pain will have been somewhat numbed by his reported £2 million payoff).

Now here’s the thing. Despite the fact that England are now without a manager or a captain just 16 weeks before the European Championships, I am suddenly filled with renewed hope about our chances in Ukraine and Poland.

Capello’s departure, while not ideally timed (he should have gone after the 2010 World Cup debacle) is nothing but a positive for England.

Find me an England supporter who believed England were going to win the tournament this summer, and I will show you an England supporter who doesn’t watch a lot of football.

Despite having the best win rate of any England manager, Capello consistently failed to instil confidence among fans.

His man-management skills were highly questionable, his tactics rigid, and team selection often reeked of a man who didn’t really know enough about the players he was picking.

Not only did the fans never warm to him, I think it is fair to say he never warmed to them. Or his adopted country for that matter.

Yes, he did come out with the occasional soundbite about how proud he was to manage England. But £14,000 a day is enough to buy an awful lot of soundbites.

Yet it didn’t mask the fact that he was more than happy to escape to Italy or Switzerland whenever the opportunity arose.

His relationship with England was based entirely on money. He was merely a highly-paid employee, with no personal or emotional attachment to the job. And that is why I just can’t find any reasons to be downhearted about his departure.

England now have the chance to appoint a manager who cares about the team. Someone who has always wanted the job. Someone who can come in and tidy up the dressing room mess Capello has left behind.

And that man has to be Harry Redknapp.

The Tottenham Hotspur boss is the bookies’ favourite and I really can’t see the FA looking any further than White Heart Lane for their new coach. Redknapp wants the job, the fans want Redknapp and, thanks to his acquittal in the tax fraud case, there is little standing in the way of it happening.

To be honest, appointing any new manager at this point would give the team the lift they need. Most teams enjoy a ‘bounce’ when a new boss takes over, and in that sense the timing of all this is pretty perfect.

But most people are agreed that whoever does take over needs to be English. The experiment with foreign managers was probably the right thing to do, considering how English managers had failed in the past. But it didn’t work with Sven-Göran Eriksson and it hasn’t worked with Capello. An experiment that cost upwards of £50 million.

Michael Owen summed it up best when he tweeted on Thursday: “Surely we will stick to an Englishman as our next manager. And that should run right through the squad from players to tea lady.”

The stumbling block to Redknapp’s appointment, of course, is that minor detail that he already has a job. And, with Spurs flying high in the Premier League, chairman Daniel Levy is hardly going to let him go without a fight.

Having said that, Levy knows the England job, poisoned chalice as it may be, is not something Redknapp would be able to turn down. If he did, he would live with a lifetime of regret. So I don’t expect it to be anything other than a case of how much Spurs want in compensation.

Conceivably, Redknapp could do both jobs at the same time, at least for now.

Stuart Pearce will be in charge for the game against Holland later this month and then there are no more matches scheduled before the end of the domestic season.

So Redknapp could take over the Three Lions on a part-time basis while finishing off the season with Spurs.

In fact, that would be pretty much perfect. There is no better way of keeping your eye on potential members of your squad than watching them from the touchline, week-in, week-out.

The FA have said they will draw up a shortlist of candidates. But I believe that is just a ruse. If they had admitted publically that there is only one man for the job, then it would have allowed Spurs to name their price in terms of compensation.

It’s Redknapp’s job and the FA knows it. All we do now is wait for it to be official

It’s Redknapp’s job and the FA knows it, the fans know it, the media knows it and the bookmakers know it. Even Redknapp himself knows it. All we have to do now is wait for it to be made official.

And, in the meantime, I can enjoy supporting England again.

Interesting question

I received an e-mail from a chap called Ronnie Zammit last week asking me a rather good question about this month’s League Cup final.

If Cardiff City manage to beat Liverpool on February 26, he asked, will they still get a place in the Europa League?

Instinctively, you would answer yes, of course they will. Why shouldn’t they?

But the reality is, as Zammit pointed out, Cardiff are a Welsh team, not an English one. And that does sow a seed or two of doubt.

As far as I know the Champions League and Europa League places are awarded to a specific league, and not a specific country, so on that basis Cardiff would be entitled to their European slot.

However, I could be wrong.

Anybody out there know the precise rules on this one? If so, drop me a line.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade