Sunday 12th February

Well, at last much of the furore about Fabio Capello has died down, and maybe a little time for some quiet reflection.  And what does a woman, and especially a woman like Catherine, know about football.  Not a great deal I would agree, but then what does anybody really know.  All I do know is that there is far too much money in the game, and that is one of the reasons that it creates such headlines, and also why at times it seems that the world has gone just a little bit mad.  I really do not know if Fabio Capello was a good manager or not; his record is a bit mixed; yes, he did get us to two Tournament Finals, mind you we normally do get there anyway, but the performance in South Africa was distinctly under par, even by our abysmal standards.  Who knows he may, had he stayed, have taken us on to win the European Championships, but it seems that anyone who by their own admission will be leaving after that, doesn’t have the same will to succeed as someone who will have to prove their ability to perform in the job however that particular campaign goes.  There was also always the language problem; whether Mr. Capello got his messages across succinctly to the players I do not know, but in any interviews he was clumsy and inarticulate and almost comical.  My biggest gripe though, is why anyone should be paid the ludicrous sum of six million pounds a year to be manager of England; they only play a handful of games a year after all; how hard can it be.  And it isn’t as if he does it all single handed, he has a huge team behind him, one actually wonders how he manages to fill in his week.  Even Managing Directors of large companies are seldom paid this sort of sum, bonuses or no bonuses.  Whoever the FA eventually pick, and can you imagine them not offering it to ‘Arry now, they should change the salary to reward success and make the manager work for the money.  The three most important abilities of the successful candidate should be, to be able to get the best out of every player, getting the players to work as a team, and being a bulwark between our voracious press and their expectations in order to just let the players play.  It really doesn’t matter what they know about football, because there will always be sixty million people watching who are sure they know better anyway.  Good Luck Harry, you’re gonna need it.