No manager who quotes Theodore Roosevelt (“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood”) can be dismissed as blinkered or xenophobic, but Gareth Southgate has genuine concerns about the appointment of Fabio Capello as England head coach. Not with his personality or credentials, but with the concept.

His question is straightforward: “What is the point of international football?” His answer is similarly direct. “I feel it should be our players, our manager, our coach, our kit-man and our faith healer, against the best of the rest of the world,” Southgate said. “I don’t see the point of having a national team, with a national anthem and patriotism and a foreign coach. It might as well be club football.” Southgate’s opinions offer an important balance to the coverage of Capello’s arrival. They could not be more valid. He is a young English manager working at a club, Middlesbrough, whose academy specialises in nurturing local talent. He won 57 caps, is passionate about his country and eloquent about everything. He can also admit to changing his mind.

“When Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed, my view was slightly different,” he said. “I thought that if a foreign manager can help us and if the right English person wasn’t available, then fine. But as I’ve got older, I see a different picture of things. You think to yourself, ‘What makes it different from the Champions League?’ Well, what makes it different is that you’re representing your country.

“No one from outside can have that same feeling. When I play for England, I would want an English manager. International football should be a reflection of your nation, whether England, Ireland or South Africa. If we haven’t got good enough coaches, we have to produce them, just as if we’d have to produce good enough players. We can’t bring in players from abroad, so we’ve got to develop.” Capello’s qualifications and record are not in doubt. “I’m sure we’ll be a better team, a more successful team, with Capello there,” Southgate said. “In terms of what he’s won and achieved, he’s more experienced and successful than the English managers around. Because of that and because we won’t know so much about him, he will have a head start and a longer honeymoon, but I just don’t think it should be about that.”

Just as Capello will not be permitted to select Cristiano Ronaldo or Cesc Fàbregas to sport the Three Lions, so the FA should have looked elsewhere, even to the detriment of England’s short-term prospects, Southgate believes. “In some ways, I find it strange that it’s allowed to happen by Fifa,” he said. “I find it slightly pointless. We may as well just have club football and let that be the end of it. Maybe that’s how it’ll be in the future.”

No criticism of the foreign influence in the Barclays Premier League is intended, quite the opposite. “What Arsène Wenger and José Mourinho have brought to us has been phenomenal and what we needed as a nation - the diet, fitness, coaching,” Southgate said. “There’s no one I respect more than Arsène because he’s embraced parts of English culture and a built a club based on English traditions and introduced all the foreign influences that have been positive to the game.”

Southgate concedes that the nationality of a head coach is a “minor” point in the grand scheme of the difficulties facing England and English football. “Does our league being awash with money breed players who are hungry to sacrifice everything to be at the top of their profession, or do we reward people too soon for doing too little?” he said. “Is our style of play suited to international football? Probably not, so you are asking players to forget everything they learn at the weekend when they go to a World Cup or European Championship.”

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