Eurosport - Fri, 14 Dec 17:21:00 2007
"The appointment of Fabio Capello is another show of disrespect to English managers. We keep using excuses about their lack of experience, but the fact is no other major country would let a foreigner come in and take over their team.
Imagine an Englishman in charge of Italy - it is inconceivable. It wouldn't even occur to Italy, France or Spain to look for someone from outside.
The whole thing is ridiculous and quite embarrassing because we are essentially saying that we are a second-rate football nation by appointing a foreign manager again.
At international level, the most important thing is to have a manager for whom the badge means something and the players know that.
How much experience do you really need? Juergen Klinsmann and Marco van Basten have done great for Germany and Holland with very little experience. But they are men who will always get respect in the dressing room, in the same way that Stuart Pearce and Alan Shearer do for England.
If you need help tactically, you can have an experienced backroom staff. Guys like Terry Venables and Bobby Robson have done this in the past but I don't think their expertise was used properly.
Players don't need to be coached at international level. They already know how to play football, they just need to be told how their opponents are going to approach the game and how to change their game accordingly.
Can the players look Capello in the eye and believe in him? I don't think they can believe in him any more than they would Pearce, a man who loves his country and has given so much for the national team.
He knows what it is like to play for England, what is required, and there is not a player in the country who does not have the utmost respect for what he did in his playing days.
It is true that Capello has a great track record at club level, but so did Sven-Goran Eriksson from his time at Lazio and Benfica. But both men were able to spend a lot of money bringing in top players wherever they went. With England you cannot do that.
People look at this appointment as a step forward for England, but aren't we just repeating the mistakes of the past?
You have to wonder why Capello would put his reputation on the line to take on a challenge that is so different from what he has done before. There is no evidence that he is a great lover of England or English football.
He is 61, and perhaps it appealed to him to pick up £6.5 million a year to do what is in many ways a part-time job without the everyday stress of having to play 50 or 60 games a season. It is a cushy deal - he will get vast sums of money, win lose or draw.
I was at the BBC Sports Personality ceremony last weekend to see Sir Bobby Robson receive his lifetime achievement award, which was tremendous.
It was a very different event from the last time I went in 1993. That year Manchester United were up for team of the year, but lost out to the England rugby team - I think it was because the Beeb were trying to keep the rights to show their matches and it all got a bit political!
But this time it was at the NEC and I have never witnessed anything like it before. The ovation for Sir Bobby was incredible.
I stopped clapping in the middle because I thought it was all going to slow down but it didn't, and I had to start up again. I wish we had got a chance to listen to him speak for longer.
I have talked about people who instantly command respect and he is at the very top of the list. It was just a shame there were not more people at the presentation who played under him at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, including the captain for most of his tenure, Bryan Robson.
Football has changed so much I don't think there will ever be another Bobby Robson. Money has altered everything - it is hard to find honest people who live in the real world.
All the top managers have great man-management skills, like Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp. They know their players personally and can tell who needs a kick up the backside and who needs an arm around their shoulder.
Modern players have been cut off from the rest of society and don't seem to have the same life experience. They go straight from playing into management, and then they are not given the time to develop those crucial human skills.
Teams are impatient and have the money to go for a high-profile quick fix from abroad instead of giving managers the chance to hone their abilities in exactly the same way that players need time.
It does not bode well for the future of the England team, and I fear it could be some time until we see an Englishman in charge again."
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