Capello joins inglorious list of the damned

By Ben James Feb 9, 2012, 14:14 GMT

London - With his resignation on Wednesday evening, Fabio Capello added to the pile of names broken by the job of England manager.

As the Channel 4 documentary that charted Graham Taylor's decline as England boss termed it, it may be that this is 'the impossible job.'

Since Alf Ramsey won the World Cup on home soil in 1966, no England manager has lifted a trophy, and almost all have left the job with their reputations battered.

Even Ramsey was booed by home crowds towards the end as they objected to his supposedly negative style of play.

In one of his last competitive game at Wembley, a 3-1 defeat to West Germany in the first leg of the European Championship quarter-final, he was made to look tactically prehistoric by the slickness of West Germany.

England's failure to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals, after being frustrated by Poland at home in their final qualifying match, then brought Ramsey's tenure to an end.

He was succeeded by Don Revie who, after several clashes with the autocratic chairman of the Football Association, Sir Harold Thompson, ended up quitting for a lucrative job in the Middle East, leading to a 10-year ban (subsequently overturned) for bringing the game into disrepute.

Ron Greenwood was a far less divisive figure, but he had to be persuaded not to quit by his players after being savaged by the media for England's poor performances in qualifying for the 1982 World Cup.

Next came Bobby Robson, now recognised as one of England's greatest coaches, but he too was hounded by the press, the Sun responding to a draw in Saudi Arabia with the headline, 'In the name of Allah, go!'

Taylor perhaps suffered worst, suffering a poor generation of players and an increasingly desperate sales war between tabloids, who competed to condemn him most harshly.

The Sun beat the Mirror in that battle, with their famous 'Swedes 2 Turnips 1', depicting Taylor's head as a root vegetable after England had crashed out of Euro 92 to Sweden.

Terry Venables got off relatively lightly, taking England to the semi-final of Euro 96 before quitting over the FA's unwillingness to offer him an extended contract, made nervous, seemingly, by an investigation into his business affairs.

Glenn Hoddle was made to look a crank for his use of faith healers, and eventually left after suggesting disabled people were suffering bad karma for sins committed in a past life.

Kevin Keegan came with passion and left in tears, resigning in the toilet after a 1-0 home defeat to Germany in which he admitted he had been tactically out-thought.

After the hot came the cold, Sven-Goran Eriksson initially introducing an era of calm, before his extra-marital activities and some ill-advised remarks made to a journalist disguised as a sheikh reduced him to ridiculousness.

Steve McClaren was supposed to restore British virtues, but he was tactically outwitted in a Euro 2008 qualifying defeat in Croatia, and mocked as the 'wally with the brolly' as England lost at home to the same opposition to fail to qualify for the tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

And so came Capello, the jaw-thrusting pragmatist. He achieved a greater win percentage than any previous England manager, and qualified them with ease to two tournaments, yet leaves to a general sigh of relief.

His abrasiveness and his refusal or inability to gauge with English football culture won him few friends, but there were genuine practical criticisms.

Why, for instance, was he so reluctant to travel to the north to watch players? Why was England's scouting of the World Cup opponents Algeria at the 2010 Cup of Nations so sketchy? What on earth was behind his bizarre selection policy in the friendlies that preceded the World Cup?

In South Africa, he seemed mystified by the demands of players, and unable to react to the stream of negativity that dogged the campaign: Wayne Rooney's poor form, perhaps related to tabloid revelations, John Terry's truculence, Gareth Barry's injury...

His departure was typical. He made a statement in Italian in Italy condemning a decision made by the FA. Why hadn't they consulted him? Why did he go public with his discontent? How could he not see the problems posed by an England captain facing charges of racially abusing an opponent?

Circumstances did for him, but his unyielding approach didn't help.

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