Yes, it was 592 days ago when England were knocked out of the World Cup in South Africa by the Germans in what was a wholly embarrassing experience for the England team. Capello should have gone then, but he lingered on, until now.
It’s been a very forgettable reign for the Italian when you actually look at it. He was appointed manager way back in December 2007 holding the position for just over three years. In that time England have progressed from being a bland, under-achieving international football team to being a bland and even more under-achieving international football team.
Capello’s tenure will most notably be remembered for the World Cup campaign of 2010 where England were possibly the worst team in South Africa, with the exception of France of course. Other than that achievement he was responsible for the whole captaincy scandal, something that would eventually cost him his job.
It was in February 2010 when it emerged that John Terry, Mr Exemplary, had cheated on his wife with his team-mate Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend. Bridge quit the national side and Capello stripped Terry of the armband making Rio Ferdinand the full time England captain.
Now, Capello made many mistakes whilst at the England helm, but none were more momentous and frankly unbelievably stupid that the decision to strip Ferdinand of the captaincy in March 2011 for absolutely no reason, and reinstating John Terry claiming that he has served his “punishment”.
I don’t know what Ferdinand did to deserve his punishment. Capello didn’t think to call to even call him and let him know he’s no longer the captain. How cowardly is that?
Since that whole debacle John Terry has repaid Capello’s kindness in the only way John Terry can: by allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand of all people, during Chelsea’s match against QPR in October last year.
So why has Capello gone now? A misunderstanding? Failure? Well it’s largely seen to be because he and the FA could not reconcile over the removal of John Terry as England captain for the second time.
In fairness to the FA, their hands were tied on the issue. John Terry is going on trial after the Euros for racially abusing a black man in which there is substantial evidence in favour of the prosecution. Why is it being held after the tournament? Because Chelsea wrote a letter to the judge stating it would get in the way of fixture preparations. Excuse me, but why does that make any difference?
Would normal Joe Bloggs working in an office in Scunthorpe get his racism trial postponed because his employer would have problems covering his shifts? Hell no! He’d be thrown into the dock and processed immediately. He’d probably lose his job as well! What makes footballers so different?
Regardless of when the trial is though, there is no way that John Terry can captain the country when he’s accused of being a racist. What does that say about England? What does that say about their anti-racism campaigns? How can we put pressure on countries like Croatia and Ukraine for their issues with racism when we ourselves have a man accused of that very thing captaining our national side?
They had to take the armband from him; and it should have happened a lot sooner. It looks to me like the FA were waiting for Capello to take the armband from him, but obviously it never happened probably because he didn’t want to admit he was wrong in reinstating him in the first place. David Bernstein was forced to act.
And now, as expected, Capello has spat his dummy out, but instead of taking it up with his employer and leaving it at that, he went onto Italian television again and had a good old fashioned whinge.
“I thought it was right that Terry should keep the captain's armband.”
The final nail in his nail-ridden coffin.
From that point on the removal of Capello seemed inevitable. I thought they may have sacked him, as they should have done after the abysmal World Cup 2010 performance, but instead he walked. Perhaps he jumped before he was pushed.
The FA must take some blame for all this too however, it was them who gave Fabio Capello such a hefty contract right before the 2010 World Cup fiasco, forcing them to stick with him. I doubt if that contract did not exist he would have been in a job after the Germany game in Bloemfontein.
He really was an expensive mistake for the FA, but he’s gone now; just another unsuccessful England manager. It’s been a reign that promised so much but delivered nothing but a win over Croatia and a draw against Montenegro. He’ll always be remembered for that World Cup, and those consistent issues with the captain’s armband. There’s no question, after the Italian TV debacle he had to go, regardless of when the Euros are.
He may well complain that the FA went behind his back in removing Terry’s armband. I suppose now he knows how Rio felt.
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