Very soon, this phoney war will end and we will discover the true complexion of Fabio Capello's England team.

As that day draws nearer, however, with each meeting we discover more about the man, his ambitions, his likes and dislikes. To the list of preferences when considering players can be added a band of gold on the fourth finger of the left hand; Capello believes a wife is a positive and settling influence on a young man.

Into his Room 101, meanwhile, go international footballers that are not guaranteed a place in the first team at their clubs because the England head coach feels that regular competitive football is essential to maintaining physical condition. A player such as Joe Cole, who may be marginalised at Chelsea under Luiz Felipe Scolari this season, would be right to fear an instant impact on his England career.

On another issue - Wayne Rooney's smoking habit - Capello was curiously indifferent, a stance that brought out sweat beads on the foreheads of his FA employers, fearful of their manager unwittingly being cast as the spokesman for a generation of English butt-heads. Capello later returned to clarify his position and the moral guardians were headed off at the pass.

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Capello's English is still hesitant and given his natural caution this can make him a challenging interviewee, but his answers are straight and largely informative. Sven-Göran Eriksson's observations were bland and barely scraped the surface of a problem, Capello at least tries to explain his thoughts, even if his struggles with the language limit the expansiveness of his replies. Asked about Rooney, again guilty of losing his rag in his most recent England appearance, against the United States in May, Capello grinned broadly and said: “I don't think it will be a problem. Rooney is just married, he will be better now. They find a balance when they are married.”

Further quizzed on whether he preferred his players to be married, Capello concurred, and did a lot of genial mugging that implied that Colleen would have her husband on a short leash. Then the subject turned to a recent photograph that showed Rooney drawing on a cigarette and Capello's lack of interest in making a judgment revealed that the difference between football people in Europe and Britain is not merely a matter of tactics or technique.

The fact is, smoking is not seen as the great taboo for a sportsman abroad that it is here. Johan Cruyff smoked heavily, so did Socrates, of Brazil, and Slaven Bilic, the Croatia coach, has been known to spark one up on the touchline. Last year, Bilic admitted being amused during his days with West Ham United and Everton that English players would react in horror when he lit up during social gatherings. “Then they would drink so much that they could not stand up,” he said. “Where I came from, no player would do that, but I know quite a few that liked a cigarette.”

So did Capello's team-mates during his playing days. “Many of my friends among the players smoked,” the Italian revealed. “It's a part of life and, with Rooney, a part of his private life, too. It really depends on whether he is smoking five, or 20.”

Obviously, like all managers, Capello would prefer his players to live as healthily as possible, but when he reappeared a short while later to make clear that he did not endorse smoking, it was plainly at the request of the FA, not because he had suddenly taken evangelically against the weed. Capello is married to a smoker, as, by the looks of it, is Coleen Rooney. If the couples ever double dated, at least Wayne would have somebody to keep him company on the pavement outside the restaurant.

Capello was at his most passionate when talking of the World Cup qualifying campaign, which begins with a cinch away to Andorra on September 6 and a crunch away to Croatia four days later. After the disappointment of not qualifying for Euro 2008, the public may be fed up with the claims made on behalf of England's footballers, but it would be wrong for the manager to add his voice to the negativity. Capello has long identified England's ailment as a crisis of confidence and he was rightly inspired by the way Spain shrugged off a similar affliction to triumph in Austria and Switzerland.

“Spain were the best team because they played with confidence,” Capello said. “It is not how it is for them usually but after the win against Italy, it was different. This is what England must do and I am sure we will. I saw Croatia in the summer and they played well enough, with spirit and pride in their flag, but I think we are ready to win against them now. They have a good team, play on the counter-attack very well and have good quality in midfield and forward, but I am sure we will qualify for the World Cup.”

To this end, there is one more friendly, against the Czech Republic at Wembley tomorrow week. Capello will name the permanent captain, believed to be Rio Ferdinand, the day before the game, and try to solve the riddle of England's front line 24 hours later. Now viewing Rooney as a second striker, not a leader of the line, Capello has a vacancy for a goalscorer and with Michael Owen absent, the pre-season form of Darren Bent, the Tottenham Hotspur striker, has caught his eye.

“I thought he played very well at the end of last year, too,” Capello said. “I also know that, two years ago, he was a very important player for Charlton and Tottenham spent a lot of money to sign him. Franco Baldini, my assistant, watched Tottenham on Sunday [in a 5-0 victory against AS Roma at White Hart Lane] and told me that he played very well. He is a possibility.”

As Capello was speaking at the McDonald's National Football Festival, a mischievous person might write that the England manager took time out from his busy schedule to give a thumbs-up to fast food, Benson & Hedges, crumpet and playing a Bent striker. The time is fast approaching, though, when this hiatus will be over and the state of England's football team will be a deadly serious business again. The thought of the visit to Zagreb next month should wipe the smile off more than a few faces.

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