Fabio Capello’s journey to the England job began 8½ years ago, when he was first approached by the FA. Another approach followed a few years later, but again it came to nothing. Yet looking back through the archives one notes that Capello had never hidden his ambition, even in the unlikeliest of times.

In an interview in early 2005, during his first season at Juventus, he was asked what he felt was missing from his career. “I’ve always had this thing about England,” he said. “I don’t know why, but there’s a strong attraction. I may never get to fulfil it, but it’s an ambition of mine. There were times I came close, let’s say I hit the post. Other times, I had an empty net in front of me, but for whatever reason I chose to shoot wide. But one day . . .”

Back then Capello could not have known what was to come, and it is worth noting that the previous approaches had been made not by Brian Barwick, but by his predecessors. And yet, on that fateful night of November 21, 2007, when England lost to Croatia and failed to qualify for Euro 2008, he saw the misfortune of others turn into a ray of hope.

Capello was co-commentating on Italy’s meaningless qualifier against the Faeroe Isles (the Azzurri had already qualified) when news began to trickle in that England were two goals down to Croatia at Wembley. The commentator noted that defeat for England would probably mean that Steve McClaren would be sacked. Capello virtually announced his candidacy then and there. “Would I want the job? Absolutely yes. It would be a fascinating challenge,” he said, live on television.

Events moved rather quickly after that. Contact was made within 48 hours. Capello told friends that he believed that José Mourinho would be the biggest obstacle in his way. In terms of public opinion, he was probably right. Nevertheless, he continued his pursuit of the job, instructing Giovanni Branchini, the Italian super-agent, to represent him in his dealings with the FA.

Branchini sprang into action, albeit without courting publicity, as is his style. This enabled Capello to stay away from Barwick and the FA as they tried to resolve the Mourinho situation, while keeping negotiations alive via Branchini, who dealt primarily with Simon Johnson, the FA’s director of corporate affairs.

By Monday this week Mourinho had ruled himself out and at this point Capello was the favourite, yet he threw a spanner in the works by telling friends: “I think it’s down to me and Rafa BenÍtez.” It was typical Capello, who was trying to buy himself time. He wanted to deflect some of the attention and allow Branchini to seal the final details of his contract.

As it happened, few people bit on the BenÍtez story and Capello did not need the time anyway because Branchini had completed his work. Late on Tuesday night, the pair crossed paths near Milan. Capello was returning from Madrid, where he had gone to resolve administrative issues related to his old flat. Branchini was on his way to Tokyo to watch AC Milan in the Club World Cup.

Capello was handed the draft contract that Branchini had prepared and crossed the border into Switzerland and spent the night at his flat on the shores of Lake Lugano, taking an early morning flight to London yesterday, accompanied by his son, Pier Filippo, an English-speaking lawyer.

Capello spent about eight hours in the capital, meeting Barwick, Sir Trevor Brooking and Johnson. He toured Wembley, perhaps reflecting on how the home of English Football had changed since his famous goal there in 1973, when he scored the winner in Italy’s first away win over England. By mid-afternoon, Capello and Barwick were agreeing over almost everything.

Capello outlined his requests – among them that he be allowed to bring with him his long-time staff, Italo Galbiati, the assistant manager, Franco Tancredi, the goalkeeping coach, and Massimo Neri, the fitness coach. Galbiati is a tireless worker and mediator with the players who often plays the role of “good cop” to Capello’s “bad cop”. Tancredi is a former Italy player and Neri received many plaudits for his fitness work at Real Madrid last season.

Capello made it clear that he has no objection to including an English coach in his staff, perhaps someone who could be groomed for the full-time job. And he said that he is open for Gianfranco Zola, the former Chelsea forward, to be involved.

There was one unresolved sticking point, however. Capello wanted to include Franco Baldini, the former AS Roma and Real sporting director and one of his most trusted associates. Baldini’s expertise is in identifying transfer targets, supervising operations and signing players; in short, he is the prototypical director of football. According to sources, the FA was reticent over what his role could be, but Capello insisted that Baldini’s knowledge of football and players would be invaluable.

By mid-afternoon talks had ended without putting pen to paper but with the conviction on both sides that the deal was imminent. Capello returned home because he had engagements scheduled for today, but he made it clear that he is ready to close the deal, fulfilling the ambition that he had been nursing for nearly a decade.

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