Early Doors - Your morning briefing blog

Guantanamo Bay with a Michelin-starred chef

Tue Feb 05 08:59AM

Early Doors isn't saying the England squad are a bunch of scruffy oiks, but when a manager who makes his players put on a shirt and turn off their mobiles for dinner is accused by an insider of creating "a military camp", you have to wonder.

Fabio Capello's other "boot camp-style" rules include turning up on time for meetings and not stuffing yourself with room service. Blimey. Early Doors would rather take its chances at Abu Ghraib.

The Italian's old-fashioned love for order and responsibility must be good news for the captaincy hopes of Rio Ferdinand: Party Liaison.

Rio was the brains behind Manchester United's now infamous Christmas bash which, in common with Capello's England squad, imposed a ban on WAGs.

Capello may be tempted to overlook the alleged boozy excess that ensued, and give Ferdinand credit for his considerable organisational skills.

If Rio can lay on a multi-venue 20-hour knees-up, surely he can orchestrate a simple offside trap?

"He calls me and a lot of the other players by our surnames. His coaching staff call us by surname as well. That's the way it is," said new teacher's pet Ferdinand, R.

With Capello's English still rather tentative, it must have been a considerable relief to the coach when Gabriel Agbonlahor pulled out injured.

But for all the fevered discussion about the captaincy, it is surely one of the most overhyped and overrated jobs in football.

As far as Early Doors can tell, all the man with the armband really gets to do is guess which way up a coin lands and exchange triangular pennants with his opposite number.

- - -

Didier Drogba claims he was stripped of the African Player of the Year award after refusing to make the trip to Togo to collect the gong.

The Chelsea man now says he doesn't want to be considered for future editions, sobbing: "This award has lost its value".

Drogba's side, you may recall, were busy preparing for their African Cup of Nations quarter-final against Guinea.

As a result, the award went to the much less good and much less African Fredi Kanoute, a former French Under-21 international hailing from the Lyon area but who now plays for Mali.

The African confederation are not the only ones to impose a mandatory attendance requirement for their award-winners.

The Asian Player of the Year is subject to the same rule - and fair enough, you might say. If you're going to pick up a prestigious honour, you should at least turn up.

So how come, when the gong was presented on a quiet Wednesday evening last November, Saudi Arabia's Yasser Al-Qahtani was the best player who happened to be passing by the auditorium on awards night?

Where was Shunsuke Nakamura? Where was Park Ji-Sung? Where were all the Aussies - Cahill, Viduka, even Lucas Neill would have done.

Well, that evening also featured eight Champions League games, plus some Premier League action. There was UEFA Cup the following day.

And where was the award ceremony? Oh, that's right - Australia.

- - -

In light of the racist abuse hurled at Lewis Hamilton, Early Doors would like to join the media in condemning the land of Spain, all its inhabitants and anyone who has ever eaten tapas or ordered a San Miguel.

First it was the England football team, now the inflatable-donkey-waving, flamenco-dancing, Siesta-taking, sangria-slurping, half-finished-hotel-dwelling, chorizo-eating Manuels are having a go at our Lewis.

The only wonder is they arrived at the track in time to abuse him, what with the obvious threat to punctuality posed by their knackered Seat Ibizas and three-hour post-lunch naps.

Early Doors repeats: there is no room for racism in sport.

In all seriousness, every country countains a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. Slagging off Spain out of hand is hardly the right way to fight prejudice.

Although you have to wonder how a bunch of blacked-up morons with 'Hamilton's Familly (sic)' printed on their t-shirts were allowed into the track.

As acts of premeditated fan idiocy go, it was right up there with the Inter Milan ultras who set fire to a scooter and threw it from the top tier of the San Siro, or the Norwegian farmer who offered to sacrifice a goat before kick-off at a Tromso game.

- - -

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "He has addressed us all on English. Surprisingly good English, too." Fabio Capello on Rio Ferdinand. No, wait...

FOREIGN VIEW: Marca trumpets: "The golden era of Spanish football begins here!"

BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE OF THE DAY: The Daily Sport salutes Cristiano Ronaldo on his 23rd birthday with a montage of his alleged former conquests and 23 fascinating facts including: His favourite colour is white.

COMING UP: England's Under-21s are in action later, but first we have live streaming of a very strong France 'A' side versus Congo! Watch video of Clichy, Flamini, Sagna, Diaby and even some non-Arsenal players right here from 5pm UK time.

• E-mail this story
• IM this story