Fabio Capello makes for an easy caricature. Cartoonists enjoy his sizeable
chin, his narrow lips, the jut of his lower jaw. Some footballers can do a
fine, keenly observed imitation of his strut, his rather martial way of
addressing a practice session. But the mistake for any employee, as one of
them found out just over a year ago, would be to let Capello catch you
taking the mick.
Antonio Cassano did so, adding another episode to that footballer’s catalogue
on how to mess up a career. In Spain just over a year ago, Cassano was
entertaining some of his Real Madrid colleagues with his Capello act,
mimicking the authoritarian, brusque manner in which Capello names his first
XIs before matches and going on to suggest Capello had certain special
favourites. Cassano by all accounts does a good Capello: so he should, they
were together for several seasons at Roma and were reunited at Madrid. After
his little mime, however, Cassano never kicked a ball for Madrid in La Liga
again.
“I guess that was the last straw,” Cassano recalled. “After that, I was out as
far as he was concerned.” A shame really, because this maverick footballer
and occasional martinet of a manager had combined well when Cassano was
thriving at Roma. The memories now, though, are not good. “I still speak to
some of the Real Madrid players,” said Cassano, now of Sampdoria, “and they
tell me they are all much happier this year. There was a bit of a depression
there with that guy [Capello].”
There had also been celebration. Under Capello, the depressed Madrid players
won their first league title for four years, a campaign in which Cassano had
little involvement. Nor did Ronaldo, at least for the second half of the
season, Capello having sanctioned his January transfer to Milan. Capello
thought Ronaldo was overweight and wasn’t committed to losing any. Ronaldo
has not had much good to say about Capello, though his judgments are not
quite as sour as those of Cassano, who greeted the news of Capello’s
appointment to the England position thus: “With all the luck he gets, he
might win something with England. He’s always had superb squads when he’s
won things, but he’s also been very lucky.”
He would not be the first man to mutter about Capello being a lucky head
coach, nor the first to point out that wherever he has been - exclusively to
elite clubs - he has carried with him into negotiations a long and costly
shopping list of players. And Cassano would not the first to find his
relationship come to an end rancorously. His story could be a parable on why
it’s not a good idea to fall out with Don Fabio; so might Paolo Di Canio’s.
Di Canio, the maverick’s maverick, found himself at Milan at about the peak
of his long and varied career when Capello, setting a trend that would
spread through elite club football for the next 15 years, was assembling a
large and gifted squad. Di Canio felt piqued one preseason on being left out
of the XI for a friendly. He told Capello so. They argued. Di Canio called
him “dick-face”. Di Canio left, setting out on a journey through five
different British clubs, some moments of brilliance, but never again such a
proximity to greatness as he had known at Milan.
Others have crossed Capello and thrived elsewhere; Edgar Davids for instance,
albeit via fits, fisticuffs and spurts. Ronaldo may come good. But they both
learnt who was the boss.
Everybody in Italy has learnt, too, and even beyond. The postman delivering
mail to Capello’s apartment in Lugano, just over the Swiss border, yesterday
told reporters that, though his preference was for the cool style of the
former Italy manager Marcello Lippi, he recognised Capello as a real
“caporal”, a sergeant-major.
It would be wrong to imagine him a grudge-bearer whose vanity extends to
pig-headedness. In the same period as Cassano and Ronaldo fell out of favour
at Madrid, so did David Beckham, although his marginalisation, just into the
new year, would be down to his having agreed a contract to play in the
United States. Capello valued Beckham the footballer enough that the coach
would rescind his January decision never to select him again once he was
committed to joining the LA Galaxy. Beckham would be forgiven, and
appreciated, by his boss.
Beckham was not quite a teacher’s pet, as some Milan players used to see Frank
Rijkaard when the Dutchman played under Capello in the early 1990s; or
Marcel Desailly, who succeeded Rijkaard in the anchor position of Milan’s
midfield. Rijkaard defends Capello against the accusation his teams are
dull. “I can’t understand where that idea comes from,” says the Dutchman,
now manager of Barcelona. “He’s an excellent coach and I’m sure England will
do very well under him.” Desailly remembers Capello with something close to
awe. “Capello is the ‘capo’, the chief. He was like a guru. Just a look, or
his presence on the bench, could drive me on.” Desailly remembers their
first meeting vividly. “I’ve never felt such a pressure as in my first
practice session at Milan. Capello didn’t stop watching me and after that, I
would say I’ve hardly ever come across a coach who knew me so well. If he
ever shouted at me, it was in private, man to man. My colleagues used to
joke I was his favourite, and I think maybe he saw in me a bit of what he
had been as a player: When he played, he was a tough midfielder, aware he
didn’t have the technique to be an artist. He can be quite superstitious. He
gave me the No 8 shirt, and I inherited it from Rijkaard. Each match, just
as we were lining up to go on to the field, he gave me a little tap on the
back, to stress the number on my back.”
Practice was earnest and the younger Capello – this was a dozen years ago –
would be animated. “When the football we were playing wasn’t hard enough for
his taste,” recalls Desailly, “he’d shout ‘Stop!’ and kick the ball away,
before finally screaming: ‘I want guys with guts!’ His strength is to know
how to keep his players under pressure. Even if your name was Maldini or
Costacurta, you were constantly pushed to your limits.”
And if your name was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, you would be encouraged to imagine
yourself as Marco van Basten. Ibrahimovic came under Capello’s charge at
Juventus, with a maverick-bordering-on-the-knave reputation, and prospered.
Ibrahimovic told me of Capello inviting him into his office, turning on the
DVD and leaving the Swede to watch goal after goal scored by Van Basten for
Milan. Capello left Ibrahimovic alone with his designated inspiration. He
would become a flair footballer with a much-improved finish.
At Juve, Capello found it almost as easy to drop the resident icon, Alessandro
Del Piero, as he would find it to leave out Beckham in his first few months
at Madrid. Del Piero gave the coach an unsentimental epitaph when Capello
left Juventus, who had been demoted as punishment for the misdemeanours of
some their executives, to Serie B. Capello then took a pair of his old
favourites with him to Madrid: the midfielder Emerson, who has been at three
different Capello clubs, and defender Fabio Cannavaro. At Madrid, he came
across several underused talents: Cassano, Guti and Robinho. He could not
quite do for Robinho what he had for Ibrahimovic and on the evidence of
Robinho’s fetching football under a different Madrid coach, Capello regarded
the Brazilian trickster with excessive suspicion. What he makes of Joe Cole
will be worth a close watch. Whoever he makes his No 8 should also feel
rather pleased.
The men who fought Capello ... and lost
PAOLO DI CANIO who played under Capello for Milan in 1994-1996 PreWest
Ham Di Canio had been signed by Capello from Napoli. Their spat came on a
tour of China in 1996. The forward was substituted during a game with a
China XI. ‘What the f*** are you doing?’ asked Di Canio. Capello tried
conciliation, then exploded: ‘Get the f*** out of my sight.’ Di Canio
snapped: ‘I’m not going to hang around here and look at your ugly penis face
any longer.’ Dead right. He was sold to Celtic
ANTONIO CASSANO Roma in 2004 and Real Madrid 2006-7 Cassano can get
moody when he doesn’t get his own way. At Roma, Capello invented the phrase
‘Cassanata’, which is still in use today for troublesome players. Capello
said: ‘The last time we had words he shouted at me then ran away like a
rabbit.’ Cassano was transferred to Real Madrid, but unfortunately for him
Capello soon followed. Cassano was suspended for disrespecting the new coach
and said to him: ‘Have you got no shame? I fought for you in Rome and this
is how you repay me?’
FRANCESCO TOTTI Roma 2004 Totti called Capello a ‘traitor’ when the
coach left Roma for Juventus in May 2004. They had argued about Capello’s
attitude to Cassano, with Capello suggesting Totti had been a bad infl uence.
Capello told Roma’s younger players not to use the Italian international as
a role model. ‘I told Daniele De Rossi not to follow Totti’s example, but to
live a healthy life and follow [Brazilian midfi elder] Emerson’s lead if he
wanted to achieve results’
ALESSANDRO DEL PIERO Juventus 2004-6 It would be hard to fi nd a more
popular player for Juventus than Del Piero, so the club’s fans grew angry
when Capello either did not start the forward or failed to use him for the
full 90 minutes. Del Piero was unhappy when substituted for the 26th time
and television cameras caught him mouthing ‘f*** off’ to his coach, which
led to the club refusing to talk to the media.
RONALDO Real Madrid 2006-7 Ronaldo’s weight has long been a problem,
but things came to a head with Capello in November last year after the
Brazilian had been constantly left out of the team. Ronaldo said: ‘It’s
ridiculous. You’re great when you score and fat when you don’t.’ Ronaldo was
transferred to Milan with Capello’s words, ‘Aren’t you ashamed of being so
fat?’ ringing in his ears
DAVID BECKHAM Real Madrid 2006-7 Beckham announced he would join LA
Galaxy at the end of the season. Capello was furious and said Beckham would
never play for Real again. This time it was the coach who backed down. Poor
results demanded Beckham’s return and he helped Real win La Liga for the fi
rst time in four years. Beckham went to LA, Capello was sacked by Real.
So what if Capello upsets people? Just count his medals ... Serie A
champions: Milan 1991-2, 1992-3, 1993-4, 1995-6, Roma 2000-1 (Juventus won
the title in 2004-5, 2005-6 but were stripped of the titles for matchfi
xing); La Liga champions: Real Madrid 1996-7, 2006-7; European Cup: Milan
1993-4; European Super Cup: Milan 1994; Italian Super Cup: Milan 1992, 1993,
1994, Roma 2001
How Fabio and the players can smash the language barrier
What England player says: Playing for England is the high point of my
career
What England player means: Playing for England means I might get a move
to Chelsea
Fabio says: Tu sei in panchi, Becks
English translation: You’re dropped, Becks
What England player says: I’ll play through the pain barrier for
England
What England player means: I’ve got a bit of a headache. Back to
Stamford Bridge/Old Trafford I go
Fabio says: La cosa piu' importante e' vincere
English translation: The most important thing is to win
What England player says: I was devastated when England didn’t qualify
for Euro 2008
What England player means: I can’t wait for my holiday in Vegas, Miami
and/or Dubai next summer
Fabio says: Michael, non ti sarai mica infortunato dinnuovo?
English translation: Michael, you’re not injured again, are you?
What England player says: We know the whole country is right behind us
What England player means: We know the country thinks that we’re
overpaid dilettante charlatans
Fabio says: Sono io il migliore
English translation: I am the fabulous one
What the FA tells Fabio Capello: You can bring in whomsoever you want
as your backroom team
What the FA really means: Can’t find something for Stuart Pearce to do,
can you?
What the fans might sing: C'e' solo un Fabio Capello /Non sei
capac
English translation: There’s only one Fabio Capello /You
don’t know what you’re doing
What the FA tells Capello: Welcome Fabio, you were always the first
choice to become England manager – just like Steve McClaren
What the FA should have told him It turned out that Jose was only
stringing us along and Harry had that run-in with the law Kiss up to the
manager: Ammiro il modo in cui Kandinsky utilizza l'astratto per
sottolineare la bellezza profonda dello spirito umano
English translation: I admire the way Kandinsky uses the abstract form
to emphasise the beauty of the human condition
Fabio capello is the best manager around and will demand discipline from the England players who have seemed rather militant until now. However, be warned Fabio's perception of 'good football' will not neccesary mean enjoyable to watch attacking football. When he was manager of Roma for example, the team had a very defensive style. This also goes for Real Madrid, where he was criticized after a poor opening in his first and only season incharge. It may mean England will have to settle for 1-0 results against teams like Slovakia. In my personal view this is a terrible idea and may mean that we have another Svan on our hands.
However despite his succcess I still think we could have found a home grown manager who would not only demand respect but do a better job than Capello. Steve Coppell, is the first manager that comes to mind.
SHAMOON, BLACKBURN, UK