Hello Fabio, arrivederci WAGs?

Does the arrival of England manager-in-waiting Fabio Capello spell the end of an era for the WAGs? Under Sven Goran Erikkson, football players' wives and girlfriends were allowed to run riot and the press were able to blame the antics of  Victoria Beckham, Steven Gerrard's partner Alex Curran and Wayne Rooney's girlfriend Coleen McLoughlin, partying and shopping in Baden-Baden, for the boys' dismal performance in the World Cup. The Steve McClaren reign was too short to gauge what might have happened to the WAGs if England had actually made it to next year's Euro competition.

But under the Italian 'Iron Sergeant', things will definitely be different: when Capello took charge of Real Madrid he famously ordered female staff to lower their hemlines and cover up cleavage because he felt they were distracting players. And his is understated and classic -  in contrast with the brash, bling look favoured by the WAGs.

Capello, a devout Catholic and family man who is being paid £6.5m a year by the FA to transform England's chances in the 2010 World Cup, encourages family get-togethers and clean living among his players. He is likely to view the WAGs' non-stop shopping and partying lifestyle as detrimental to the game and reduce the role of Coleen and Co to helping quell the more tawdry sexual exploits that dog English football.
 
"The new manager will need to adopt a WAG-free agenda from the outset," observes fellow Catholic and expat Italian Cristina Odone in today's Daily Telegraph. "The women will be banned from the dressing room, from training and from phoning their men." ·