Will Capello be successful?

[Fez of Mahrez]

"With Capello you can start dreaming of winning something again. He'll give you the best chance you have had for ages, a better chance than Sven-Goran Eriksson did."

Former Italy coach Dino Zoff

"He has always been a winner wherever he has gone. Fabio thinks about England as the mother of the game and the teacher of football."

Capello's former assistant at AC Milan Franco Baldini

"I have known Fabio Capello for many years. I was his opponent in Serie A for 10 years. He is a very good man and manager. Capello is one of the best managers you can find."

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who is now at Manchester City

"This man will not suffer fools. He will drop people. Not only is he a good tactician, he is a good psychologist."

Former AC Milan and England striker Mark Hateley

"He's a person I know very well. He's a great professional with unquestionable credentials to do the job. He has a very distinct style of play. As far as the language barrier, I remember a manager's meeting in Switzerland and he was speaking in English. I actually think he speaks it quite well."

Tottenham boss Juande Ramos

"Capello is ideal for this job. If England are capable of winning something, I truly believe Capello is the man who will bring it out in them."

Arrigo Sacchi, who Capello succeeded at AC Milan in 1991

"He is a great manager. He is a good worker and has clear ideas what to do. He is a winner. If you want to express something it is not easy as I found out. But he has experience and I am sure he will handle it."

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez

"Capello certainly fits the bill with all the titles he has won at all levels of football. He has proved himself to be a winner with success everywhere he has been."

England midfielder Frank Lampard

"You do not see him laughing much - he is moody. But he knows what he wants. You have to go his way or you will get in trouble."

LA Galaxy manager Ruud Gullit (won the European Cup while playing under Capello at AC Milan)

"Even when Jose Mourinho was in the running I believed that Capello had even more charisma, talent and experience for a challenging job like this one.

Former Chelsea and Italy striker Gianfranco Zola

"I think he can win the World Cup with England and make them into a team feared and respected throughout the world. He is one of the best."

Juventus manager Claudio Ranieri

"He is a difficult guy. He is a professional and is very demanding but I believe that this is the thing that England need."

Former France international Marcel Desailly (played for Capello at AC Milan)

"He just oozes class and he has got the gravitas to take any job in the world. He has a fantastic lot of talent to choose from and I'm sure Capello will have England as one of the top nations in the world again."

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish

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Your thoughts?

[Nath]

Bring Back Mclaren Campaign Starts Here.

It's Christmas.

Nearly....

[WetFlannel]

i hate capello, as he thinks hes god... good manager but i just hate his attitude

[James.]

I seem to be in a minority but I feel entirely unconvinced by his appointment. To me a major part of the reason we have been unsuccessful over recent years is because the team has not played to the classic strengths of the English game. Namely pace, strength, direct passing and pressure at a high tempo. Capello is not going to get the team playing like that. He is a tactical manager with a focus on defence, the classic Italian ideals. I'm not sure that our players have the tactical awareness to fully appreciate and apply Capello's methods. In some respects it may be akin to teaching someone a new language - you struggle for quite some time before things start falling into place. Do we have enough time and enough ability to learn?

Capello has little experience of the English game as well. Some may see that as a positive as he brings a completely fresh outlook however we are looking for immediate effect, in particular a strong World Cup qualifying campaign. Capello's lack of experience with English players as well as the obvious language barrier could be another stumbling block.

Lastly I question his achievements. Has he ever had to work with a struggling club? All of his successes have come at established domestic footballing giants. England is a struggling nation in need of overhaul. Is this placing Capello in a situation he won't be used to?

I have no doubt he is an improvement on Maclaren but these doubts have left me underwhelmed by his appointment. What is particularly frustrating is that it looks like he will have an all Italian back room staff. My strong preference is always for an English manager to coach the national team. Are we really thinking about fostering English managerial talent in the long term by failing to appoint someone like Pearce or Shearer as an assistant where they can learn from Capello?

Capello has my full support and I bloody well hope I'm proved wrong. I hope the winning mentality rubs off on the players as that is one thing that is not in doubt when it comes to him. He is a winner and won't accept anything less. I just hope that's enough to overcome the potential obstacles I've highlighted above.

[Joe.]

I reckon so.

I think he'll give us the spark we've been lacking for the last few years. Hopefully he can kick some of these players into gear and we can push on and get some success with him.

We live in hope.

[Koke]

Capello is a quality world class manager who has won silverware everywhere he has gone. Despite his style of football which is being desribed as being horrendously boring, he has won titles with Roma, Juventus and more recently Real Madrid. In this Madrid's case he was up against a masterclass Barca side and yet he beat them.

He can handle egos and footballers who think the world revovles around them. My only concern is he's always worked as a day-to-day manager and I'm not sure how he'll do with a national team.

Overall, I'm optimistic that he'll get us back on track. He probably won't win us anything, which isn't a failure by any means but at the moment we need someone to sort out the mess we are in. Maybe not the long term fix but since Hiddink and Scolari both rejected us and considering the other candidates who could have gotten the job, then this is a great appointment by all means.

I'll support him all the way. But I still have hell of a lot of unhealthy hatred towards the FA.

[filbertway]

I'm not going to make a comment after the Mclaren comments I made.

[davieG]

£4mill a year plus whatever his 4 man team gets plus the token Englishman amounts to a massive a sum of money over £10mill a year I would imagine; I hope whatever he achieves is worth all that!

[andyh1884]

I have no doubt he is an improvement on Maclaren but these doubts have left me underwhelmed by his appointment. What is particularly frustrating is that it looks like he will have an all Italian back room staff. My strong preference is always for an English manager to coach the national team. Are we really thinking about fostering English managerial talent in the long term by failing to appoint someone like Pearce or Shearer as an assistant where they can learn from Capello?

I think the FA would ideally like this situation but are a) wary of what happened last time when we appointed a foreign manager with a younger englishman as assistant and b) really don't want to fu ck things up with Fabio by trying to dictate who he can have as backroom staff & having him tell them to get bent & not taking the job.

[Zingari]

how can a man whose name tranlates to "beanie hat" not be successful

[davieG]

I think the FA would ideally like this situation but are a) wary of what happened last time when we appointed a foreign manager with a younger englishman as assistant and b) really don't want to fu ck things up with Fabio by trying to dictate who he can have as backroom staff & having him tell them to get bent & not taking the job.

But aren't they doing just that according to SSN in addition to his 4 Italian assistants there will definitely be an an English coach whether Capello wants one or not.

[Asha]

Is it any coincidence Fabio Capello is an anagram of 'A cool flab pie'?

I think not.

[Fox You Forest]

Is it just me or does it not resemble the last appointment (granted he has been more successful than mcclaren ever will be) but he's second choice again the clearly wanted The Special One just like they wanted Big Phil last time.

I hope he does well but im slightly sceptical.

Also if he's on 4 Million a year ill help him learn english for £50 an hour

[andyh1884]

But aren't they doing just that according to SSN in addition to his 4 Italian assistants there will definitely be an an English coach whether Capello wants one or not.

Fair enough, I hadn't seen that! Consider me told

[l444ry]

Our football has needed the Italian influence for as long as I can remember. Winning comes first, second and last. Bollocks to the pretty football fans and bollocks to the crap British media. Bollocks to Lampard and Gerrard playing together and Crouch up top. Best appointment since Alf Ramsey I reckon.

[Fez of Mahrez]

Is it just me or does it not resemble the last appointment (granted he has been more successful than mcclaren ever will be) but he's second choice again the clearly wanted The Special One just like they wanted Big Phil last time.

I hope he does well but im slightly sceptical.

It's just you (in my humble opinion and all that bollocks)

[Nationwider]

He has the kahunas and the track record. A really good appointment in my book.

If he can't get us to a final in the next four years, then no-one can (probably maybe). Every England player should want to work with this guy as he wins trophies for fun.

[Staf]

I hope he is succesful he is a quality club manager lets hope he is a good international manager

[Micky Ruddle]

Time will tell.

Doesn't matter what shape or size they come in, as long as he has international managerial qualities which will take us forward, then fair play

[WetFlannel]

Record:

Italy:

Scudetto: 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96 (Milan); 2000/01 (Roma)

Runner-up: 2001/02, 2003/04 (Roma)

UEFA Champions League: 1994 (Milan 4-0 Barcelona)

European Super Cup: 1994 (Milan 2-0 Arsenal)

Supercoppa Italiana: 1992, 1993, 1994 (Milan); 2001 (Roma)

Runner-up: 2005 (Juventus)

Coppa Italia Runner-up: 1997/98 (Milan); 2002/03 (Roma)

Spain:

La Liga: 1996/97; 2006/07 (Real Madrid)

No denying its a pretty impressive cv, still wouldnt be my top choice though...

[davieG]

Fair enough, I hadn't seen that! Consider me told

The latest news is that it's his decision to have some English coaches so my turn to apologise.

[Dr The Singh]

The latest news is that it's his decision to have some English coaches so my turn to apologise.

I beleive he should have the coaching staff that he is comfortable with!!

Will he be a success, at 6 million pound a year, that is a success in itself!!!

[Fat Ron]

If we start to play entertaining football and get to at least a semi final in his first tournement (should we qualify) I wont care what nationality he is.

His credentials are there for all to see, lets just see him back it up with results.

[SamL]

The FA can't win really. Some people have been crying out for a top quality coach and now we're close to appointing one they're complaining that he's not English.

Top club jobs go to the person with the best CV not because of their nationality. Some might argue that the reason that we don't have any top English managers is because they are simply not good enough but I think that people like Curbishley and Allardyce need to prove these people wrong.

[Phube]

What annoys me is what the FA seem to be doing! The same thing our board did with Levein!

Trying to force someone else onto his team, a team that has been successful! You either want him, or you don't! Don't try and pander to the Anti-foreign brigade. Have courage in your convictions!!