Friendship a dangerous game

Managers in top flight football have a very clear choice. Their managership style.

Some choose to be pals with the players, others prefer to keep their distance. Fabio Capello has obviously chosen the latter. So what does he get? Criticism about being dour and not having a relationship with his squad.Fortunately, the rather acid attack has come not from the England team but from new Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti who claims the Italian was surly when in charge of AC Milan in the early 1990s.

In his biography, Ancelotti alleges that Capello had no dialogue with his players, an allegation that has totally baffled the England manager. In fact, he says he doesn’t recognise himself from the description.

Neither will England fans. Since arriving, Fabio Capello might not have been a bundle of laughs or a man who jokes, eats and plays with his team. Unfortunately, other England managers have done just that over the years and looked where that got them and the side? Capello might not dance up and down the touchlines or slap his squad on the back every time they secure a win. But it’s obvious to all that he is the thinking man’s manager who demands respect and gets it.

Managers who become close to their players are dicing with a dangerous game. It’s always said there is no room for sentiment in business and the same applies to football. Managers are there to make tough decisions and the old pals act with the squad just won’t wash. Friendships between managers and players can only lead to trouble, jealously, recriminations and back-stabbing.

So far, Capello has managed to avoid all of this and conducted himself in the most upright of manners.Okay, he didn’t go out to dinner with the players at AC Milan or, perhaps even more crucially, with the journalists either. No leaks, no sneaky headlines in the press, no public arguments. If Ancelotti wants to regard this as being dour, that’s his perogative. Let’s see what sort of relationship he strikes up with Chelsea and where that will lead him if and when the going gets tough.

Capello is doing a great job for England and has lifted spirits. He also has a record second to none. A former professional footballer, he won the domestic league title with every club he has managed, namely Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid and Roma.

During his managerial career, Capello has become known as a disciplinarian and has no hesitation in clamping down on even his star players if he feels they are not pulling their weight. Given headlines in the past about England teams – from eating unhealthy breakfasts to playing cards and falling out of nightclubs at the crack of dawn – it’s just what we needed.

Capello gets a lot of money to do his job and he is earning it. He’s no stranger to public fallings-out as David Beckham found to his cost when at Real Madrid and that too sounds a warning to the England team. No player is too big to be brought down to size. Capello isn’t afraid to admit when he is wrong too and to bring players back into the team when he feels the time is right. Did Beckham ever believe he would get back into the Real Madrid team or even captain England again?

Capello may well have been touched with controversy during his career and made some ill-advised public comments but he remains unblemished and a family man. He deserves our respect alone for mastering the English language so quickly. Oh but for us Brits to speak Italian fluently!

Fabio Capello has already indicated that managership of England will be his last role and he intends to go out on a high. There would be few who would bet against it.