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Saying Arrivederci to Alessandro Del Piero - La Cosa Più Bella Che C'è

Italy - Calcio

Saying Arrivederci to Alessandro Del Piero - La Cosa Più Bella Che C'è

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The Good, the Bad and the Capello

The hard-nosed Italian manager's time as England manager was filled with many highs, plenty of lows and at times it was down right ugly.

The Good, the Bad and the Capello
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Capello’s reign as England manager may have come a shockingly abrupt end but will he be missed by many fans? The no nonsense Italian leaves the lavishly paid job with the statistically best win-to-game ratio of anyone who’s held the position.

Yet many supporters will not be sad to see the back of this controversial character, least of all the FA themselves. Their relationship in particular was often described as a “loveless marriage”, which shows the rapid deteriorate of things after such an optimistic start.

His time as the England boss can only be described as tumultuous. When it was good it was fantastic. The experienced coach looked set to help England achieve its full potential and finally the forever dubbed “golden generation” would finally win something. Gone were the laissez faire days of Sven and the shameful brolly of McClaren and instead we would have one of Europe’s most successful and seasoned coaches who had won at club’s like Real Madrid and AC Milan. Handling the intense pressure of the English media shouldn’t have been a problem for this pro.

That’s how it all began as England cruised through the qualification for the World Cup crushing notoriously tricky opponents like Croatia and everyone started to believe the impossible, that England might win the lift the Jules Rimet Trophy for the time since 1966. But soon those dreams were shattered.

It should be made clear there were cracks in the dream. Capello never made any effort to master the language of the country that he was paid £4 million to manage despite another Italian manager, Ancelotti, became almost fluent in English during his short spell at Chelsea.

More questions were raised after his squad selection for the world cup in South Africa, which included a recently internationally retired Carragher, a rarely fit King and omitted the hat-trick hero against Croatia, Walcott. What followed was one of the worst world cups any England fan has had to endure which culminated in England’s heaviest defeat to Germany. Throughout this Capello continuously rejected all calls to change his flawed system.

Although his reputation and respect in the eyes of the public may have ruined his time with England was not over and at one point it looked like he might have been able to repair some of this damage. He was introducing the next generation of English talent in the likes of Wilshire, Jones and Welbeck and eased the nation into the Euros 2012.

Yet, controversial Capello undid all this good work by supporting his skipper Terry despite the charges of racial abuse the Chelsea player is facing. There is no disputing the fact that the FA did undermine Capello when they took the captaincy once again from Terry without consulting their manager. But they could not have let Terry go to the summer tournament as an ambassador for his country with those charges hanging over him.

Capello’s comments criticising the FA were the final straw in this incredibly strained relationship. If he had continued he would never have been able to command the respect of his new captain and his already badly damaged relationship with Ferdinand would have been unworkable.

Glancing at his record you could argue that Capello did a fine job as the England manager but nobody really cares how well their country does in qualification as long as they qualify. Capello’s overpaid time over here will be only remember for the final failure for the “Golden Generation” in the tragic World Cup campaign.

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