It’s looking pretty likely the England F.A. will hire a foreigner to replace Steve McLaren, though if you ask me, they should’ve leaned a little harder on Jim Grobe. From the Independent’s Jason Burt :
The search for the next England manager has taken dramatic steps forward with the Football Association interviewing Fabio Capello (above) for the post “ while Jose Mourinho is set to hold talks in the next few days.
The two men had emerged as the outstanding available candidates and the FA have responded to their overtures. Indeed a meeting has already taken place with Capello. The 61-year-old held talks with the FA in Milan last Friday at which he outlined his plans for the job and who he would want as part of his staff.
It is understood that, if offered the post, Capello would recruit Franco Baldini, his long-term right-hand man who has worked with him at all his clubs, as his assistant while there were also discussions about including Gianfranco Zola as part of his coaching team.
Considering Zola, a former Chelsea striker, is partly to mitigate against the fact that Capello is still not fully confident in speaking English, and is concerned that this may count against him “ although his grasp of the language is not as poor as has been portrayed.
Capello is available having been sacked by Real Madrid at the end of last season despite winning the Spanish title – 10 years after he last won La Liga with the same club. The Italian’s career is studded with such honours, having won league titles with every club he has coached – from Milan, where he won four Scudettos and a European Cup, through to Juventus – where he also had had a distinguished player career – and Roma. He’s the only coach to have completed the feat with three different Italian clubs. To add to his achievements Capello is a former Italian international, who scored the only goal in his country’s victory over England at Wembley in 1973.
Capello still has a column in the Spanish sports daily newspaper Marca and recently said that England’s problems were more “psychological” than “technical” and that the players suffered from a “mental block” when it came to appearing for their country. There is no doubt he would have the force of personality and strength of character to take on the role although his style can be unbending and abrasive. He certainly does not pander to ego. The functional style of football his teams play may also cause a concern although given England’s lack of success that, as with Mourinho, may well not be a priority.