England manager Fabio Capello insists he would not be concerned if Jose Mourinho was the Football Association's first choice to replace Steve McClaren in 2007.

The pragmatic Italian is experienced enough to know what discussions are undertaken before any high-profile role is filled.

The FA would have been failing to do their jobs properly had they not spoken to Mourinho, who was unemployed at the time, about the £6million-a-year role.

Whether that extended to an actual offer of employment, as Mourinho claims, Capello is not particularly concerned one way or the other.

"It does not matter to me," he said.

"Every time a club or a different national team decides to choose a manager, they decide to speak with a lot of managers.

"It's normal. It's not different."

Indeed there were claims Capello was approached to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson in 2006, only to turn the FA down.

"I don't like to speak about my relationship with the clubs, with other people," said Capello.

"These are my personal secrets. I will never tell you about what really happened in my career. It's serious."

The FA were quick to dismiss Mourinho's claim that he was "hours" away from becoming England manager.

"Fabio was our first choice for England manager," said a spokesman for the FA.

"We have made that clear from the outset."

Capello remains the main man too, although there are some aspects of his job many feel he has not devoted enough time to, notably his mastery of the English language.

After three-and-a-half years, Capello's English is still not sufficiently strong for him to grasp the finer details of questions he is posed, even if he insists it is perfect for the points he needs to make on the training ground.

"How many languages do you speak?" he challenged.

"When I speak with the players they understand everything and that is what is important in this job.

"If I need to speak about the economy or other things, I can't, but when you speak about tactics, you don't use a lot of words.

"I don't have to speak about a lot of different things. Maximum 100 words."