Gordon Ramsay used to be more famous for his swearing than his cooking. Legend had him down as a hard bastard who stopped only just short of putting his cooks in the casserole. Then it was revealed that his entire staff of 45 had followed him when he quit the Aubergine restaurant. It rather ruined the ball-breaking image, but there was always going to be more to Ramsay than pinning the sous-chef to the kitchen wall.

In much the same vein, we can be sure that there is more to Fabio Capello than the ogre of popular legend who punches Paolo Di Canio, who limits communication with his players to barked instructions and who orders British television camera crews off his land when they track him down to Switzerland.

If ranting and raving was all the Italian had to offer, he would not have won nine championships. His backroom staff, including one with whom he once fell out spectacularly, would not be following him to England whatever the wages on offer from the FA. And David Beckham would not be plotting a fitness regime in the hope of staying in the national team. He would be retiring quickly before he can be barked at once more.

Conducted in Italian and staged in a large conference room, Capello’s first media briefing yesterday was not the time or place to seek an intimate understanding of the new England manager, but we got several smiles and even a laugh when he was asked about the right hook to Di Canio. “It wasn’t me who threw the punch,” Capello said, “but I was there.” Perhaps he was holding Di Canio still for someone else to strike.

For those seeking to portray him as a man of unbending will, he certainly looked the part as he sat at the top table and exuded authority, but there was also moderation.

There was an acknowledgement that his authoritarian manner may have to be tempered in international football. “My behaviour will have to change,” he said. He quickly added, “as will that of the players,” just in case anyone thought he may be going soft.

Even a toned-down Capello will be far more severe than the England squad has become used to during seven years under Sven-Göran Eriksson, the least confrontational man in sport, and Steve McClaren. One of the players once rugby-tackled McClaren on the training pitch; under Capello, they are more likely to stand to attention. They would certainly be advised to call him Mr Capello on Day 1 in the team hotel.

Capello resolved years ago never to get chummy with players. He tells the story about how, in his early days as coach at AC Milan, he was shocked when Filippo Galli, the defender, snapped back at him in a dressing-room argument. This was the same Galli he had nurtured through the youth ranks and whom, until that point, he had regarded as a friend. He never again made the mistake of thinking that manager and player could be pals.

By the time he returned to Real Madrid last season, Capello would relay important managerial decisions with a flick of the fingers. When Antonio Cassano, Ronaldo and David Beckham were banished from the first-team squad and sent to train in the gym — Ronaldo and Beckham at the club’s behest rather than by managerial diktat — Capello did not deliver this news with an explanation but by pointing towards the running machines. It seems safe to predict that the days when experienced England players received a telephone call from the manager to tell them that they have been dropped may be long gone.

All of this will be welcomed by those who, rightly, believe that this generation of players has been pampered and indulged for far too long, but, as he acknowledged yesterday, Capello may have to adjust, if only because international football is different.

If he did not like the players at Milan or Madrid, he could replace them. With England, he is dealing with a limited pool even before he starts banishing those whom he regards as too soft or simply not good enough. The pool is so shallow that Capello is already said to have identified three or four players — Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard notable among them — around whom he will build the team. He will decide on a formation that suits those key individuals and then select the others not on reputation, or even on talent, but on their ability to perform a specific role.

Sources close to him have also indicated that he will judge purely on a game-by-game basis. Beckham could be selected in February, banished by April. The captaincy could be John Terry’s for the next six months and then Capello may decide it belongs to Gerrard, after all. By doing so, he expects to harden up a group of players who, in the previous campaign, were undone as much by lack of bottle as the inability to pass the ball to each other. “You have to deserve to play for the national team, not only with your performances for your club but showing the attitude that you want to be part of an important project,” Capello said.

He will use the carrot and not just the stick with which he is so closely associated. “A strict style of coaching is something that I can only apply if I work with the players on a daily basis,” he said. “If I see them for just one week, I need to find a new way of working. It is something I have already started thinking about and it will develop.”

There is more to him than a cold stare, just as there is so much more to Sir Alex Ferguson than the hairdryer. “Don’t get me wrong,” the Manchester United manager once said. “I’ll criticise a player at half-time or at the end of a game. But through the week the intention is to build up that confidence and belief. That is why I’ll never, ever be critical during a training session. All we say is: ‘Well done.’ ”

Beckham might dispute whether Ferguson’s recollection is entirely correct, but, as the former England captain said on Parkinson the other night, he has been afraid of all the best managers he has worked with, including his father, Ted, and his first coach at Ridgeway Rovers.

The fear factor certainly applies to Capello, who, in neither promising Beckham his 100th cap nor Terry the captain’s armband yesterday, had already set about keeping the England players on their toes.