So it looks like Fabio Capello will be the next manager of England - a coach who could make Sam Allardyce look like a football adrenaline junkie.
Capello is, and always will be, a coach who puts substance over style. He is not interested in gung-ho football, he is not even interested in open, attacking football. He is interested in winning football. Nine league titles and one Champions League success in 16 years. Not bad, not bad at all Mr Capello. Please sign here.
Yet, while the Italian is to Kevin Keegan what chalk is to cheese, you don’t hear many complaints about his impending appointment do you?
To be fair, getting anyone other than Steve McClaren in the hot seat probably has something to do with that, but I also think, because of the disaster of the Euro 2008 qualification campaign, we just want to get back to winning football matches rather than worrying about how we look while we do it.
It’s all well and good going on about entertaining football, but ultimately, we’ve not played particularly attractive football for years and we still haven’t won anything.
I have to admit, Fabio would not have been my first choice. Like most people, I thought Jose Mourinho would have been ideal. Then again, the Portuguese might have provided plenty of entertainment in press conferences, but he was hardly a cavalier tactically was he?
No, Fabio will do for me because he has, plain and simple, got a wonderful track record. He has won things everywhere he has been - AC Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid - and if anyone can handle the pressure and criticism which are inevitable baggage of the England job, it is the tough Italian.
His lack of fluent English will help in this respect because he may be oblivious to some of the harsher, more elaborate abuse which will be thrown at him by us media types. But on a serious note, this guy went to Real Madrid last year, sorted out the various egos in the dressing room, established his will on the team, despite opposition from fans and boardroom and won the league title.
He was sacked for his efforts mind, but if he leads England to World Cup success in 2010 and gets the boot for playing boring football, that’s fine by me!
There will still be pockets of opposition to his appointment. A mixture of jingoistic nationalists who demand the England manager is English and romantics who want to see England play open attacking football with the technical expertise of the Brazilians.
I’ll stick in the realist camp if that’s ok. We haven’t got the players to play like Brazil and, with the possible exception of Arsenal and Barcelona, no successful clubs sides play like that either. As for the “he must be English� argument, please, it was either Alan Curbishley, Allardyce or Steve Bruce!
Martin O’Neill might have been a decent shout, but, at this moment in time, if you want the best managers you have to look abroad. It isn’t ideal, but it’s the best way to try to end years of underachievement and deflation at major tournaments.
The Football Association are not a slick organisation, they do have far too many old men in suits dipping their bread in the gravy train, but I can’t really fault them with the way they have tried to clear up the mess of the McClaren era - albeit a mess they created in the first place.
England do not deserve to win things just because of the players we have got and we do not deserve to win things just because the Premier League is arguably the strongest domestic league in world football. Look at Spain, they’ve never won a major tournament and La Liga produces some of the best players in the world.
You have to earn the right to win things by a) having a manager who can respond to the challenges of international football and motivate the players b) qualify for major tournaments c) learn how to take penalties in a penalty shootout.
Capello will not suit everyone, England are not going to blow teams away with mind-boggling football, but they will be street wise, organised and ruthless. In other words, everything they weren’t under McClaren.
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