Fabio Capello likes collecting things. Paintings, furniture and allies. We
know all about the oriental sofas and expressionist scrawls he’ll leave
behind, but what of the assembly of trusted souls he has chosen to travel
with him to Soho Square? Interest in Capello’s four-strong backroom team
stems partially from the fact their contracts push the overall value of the
deal to something approaching £30m, three times the estimated worth of the
artwork that lines the walls of the manager’s Milanese residence.
Much more than their cost, however, it is the inner circle’s professional
currency that intrigues. What do they bring to Capello and what will they
bring to England? As we seek to form our own impressions of this supporting
cast, a useful starting point would be reiterating that the main act would
not have come without them.
One of the few sticky moments in what all sides portray as relatively serene
negotiations came with Capello’s insistence that room on the FA’s expanding
list of employees, and financial obligations, be found for Franco Baldini,
his sporting director at Roma and Real Madrid. Given that the role,
essentially that of a director of football who oversees transfer activity
and acts as a conduit between manager and president, seems specific to the
club game, there was doubt in FA ranks as to what Baldini would actually do,
when and why.
They appear, eventually, to have been persuaded by Capello’s vision of the
Tuscan as a latterday Renaissance diplomat, employed to identify the best
fresh talent to bring to his master’s court and facilitate the peaceful
coexistence of the many egos already present there (Baldini, unlike Capello,
speaks excellent and confident English). The decision to endorse his
appointment, in a thus far undesignated role, may, though, have been driven
by a decidedly more practical motivation; without Baldini, there would
probably have been no Capello.
The idea of the pair coming as a package is a relatively recent one, but there
is evidence to support their conviction that their association is mutually
beneficial. The symbiosis of their relationship was first in evidence at
Roma, where Baldini’s ability to sweet-talk high-profile players into
signing found a devastating complement in Capello’s instinct for managing
and exploiting both them and their talents. The hardening of ambition and
discipline that went on backstage in a previously chaotic, resentful
environment was just as crucial to a first Serie A triumph in 18 years as
any of the on-field gems cut by a revitalised Francesco Totti, a refocused
Gabriel Batistuta or the simply refined Walter Samuel and Christian Chivu,
both brought in by Baldini, then taken on by Capello.
The sporting director, himself a decent midfielder with, among others,
Bologna, Bari and Pescara, can cite equally inspired pickups at the other
end of the market from that inhabited by the proven grandees mentioned
above. Mancini, the Brazilian wide man occasionally, and cruelly, confined
to the full-back areas, and Simone Perrotta, the holding midfielder who now
has a World Cup winner’s medal, both flew too low to appear on many people’s
radar, but Baldini perceived and engaged their potential to positive effect.
His success in the transfer market is cast in even more flattering light by
the fact it came at a time when the concept of free trade was hardly popular
in the Italian system. Baldini was an active, and vocal, denouncing witness
to the nefarious hold that former Juventus managing director Luciano Moggi
had over the flow of players, influence and favours in the domestic game
long before it was exposed in last summer‘s scandal, resigning his position
at Roma when the club suggested he tone down his opinions in public.
Capello’s decision to leave the Olimpico for the Delle Alpi in spring 2004
both saddened and angered Baldini, often described by the Italian press as
the “antiMoggi”, who learnt of the shock move when Capello sat down to front
an introductory press conference on national television. The manager invited
him north, but received short shrift.
His bond with Capello was, however, strong enough to recover and the pair were
reunited for a single season at the Bernabeu last year. Baldini’s style was
cramped somewhat by the presence of Predrag Mijatovic, Real’s “other”
sporting director, conspicuously aligned to president Ramon Calderon, and
consequently against Capello, but his influence and imagination were obvious
in banker signings Ruud van Nistlerooy and Fabio Cannavaro, and more
speculative acquisitions such as Fernando Gaga, the Argentina midfielder.
The Liga title duly arrived. “About January, I realised that Fabio had won
the dressing-room back, and that the rewards would follow, and I was right:
we won the title,” Baldini would later recall. “But by that stage I was on a
collision path with Calderon.” If Baldini and Capello are drawn to one
another by their similarities (both are artistically minded and require
little prompting to pay homage to their own abilities), Italo Galbiati fits
into the picture by offering a contrast. Those who know the 70-year-old
Milanese, Capello’s assistant at Milan, Roma and Real, deem him a gentler
counterpoint to the boss’s direct personality. “Fabio is only like that in
his work,” Galbiati points out. “He has two characters; serious at work and
fun away from it. Every player wants to follow him, and you know why?
Because he makes them champions.”
Through every possible means, it seems. Massimo Neri, the fitness and
conditioning coach who has been with Club Capello since Roma, is another
expression of the manager’s obsession with maximising returns from available
resources.
The Spanish press, notorious Italophobes, praised him for producing the
fittest, strongest Real side in recent memory.
It is tempting to speculate that, of all the backroom staff, goalkeeping coach
Franco Tancredi might have the least enviable task, considering both the
form and confidence of the recent incumbents and the lack of credible
alternatives in the Premier League. Tancredi, who kept goal for Roma when
Liverpool beat them on penalties in the 1984 European Cup final (“If I see
[Alan] Hansen, [Bruce] Grobbelaar or [Graeme] Souness, I‘ll tell them I want
a rematch”), is accustomed to finding rather firmer building blocks upon his
arrival: at Juventus and Real, his past two jobs, the incumbents were
Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas. “But this is a country that gave the
world [Gordon] Banks, [Peter] Shilton, [Ray] Clemence, it can only be a
stimulating job,” the 52-year-old was moved to argue yesterday.
This first team picked by Capello could end up being his most important.
Capello’s backroom boys
ITALO GALBIATI Galbiati, was a member of the Internazionale squad of
the 1960s that won Serie A three times and the European Cup twice. He became
a youth team coach at Milan, forming part of the management team under
Capello. The pair have been inseparable since, with Galbiati seen as ‘good
cop’ to Capello’s ‘bad cop’
MASSIMO NERI Neri played in Serie C before landing his fi rst job as a fi
tness coach at Lecce in 1985-86. Capello employed Neri at Roma in 2001 and
has worked with him ever since, taking him to Juventus and Real Madrid. Neri
is widely credited with transforming physical training, and fi tness, at
Madrid
FRANCO TANCREDI Tancredi made more than 200 appearances for Roma from
1979-1990 and was a penalty-saving specialist. He was Italy’s No2 goalkeeper
at the 1986 World Cup. After retiring as a player, Tancredi became a
goalkeeping coach at Roma, where he remained until 2004 before following
Capello to Juve
Coach stop
If you want real xenophobia towards a foreign manager, look to Australia, who
have made Kiwi Robbie Deans their rugby union coach. Ex-player Peter
FitzSimons isn’t happy: ‘To those who say it isn’t humiliating, let me ask
how we would feel if things became so grim for the All Blacks they were
obliged to ask one of our coaches to take the tiller?’
