Capello ended up a disaster, England will not mourn him

ON PAPER, Fabio Capello was England's most successful manager, with a win rate 66.6 per cent and only six defeats in 42 games, four of them in meaningless friendlies. But few will remember his reign as a golden era for the national team and his legacy will forever be tarnished by two words... South Africa. In short, he was a disaster.
 
Going into the 2010 World Cup, the Italian could do no wrong. He was the man who had made England great once again. But the traits that defined him - his aloofness and disciplinarian approach - soon became sticks with which to beat him when it became apparent that his tactics weren't working and the players weren't responding.

England limped into the last 16 of the tournament where they were mauled by Germany, and subsequently the media.
 
"The sheen and authority which surrounded him had begun to crack," says Alistair Magowan of the BBC. "In the aftermath, Capello repeated the excuses of his predecessors. His team were too tired after an energy-sapping Premier League season."
 
Then came what Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph described as the "dismal moral hokey-kokey" of the captaincy and finally the Italian's resignation after John Terry was stripped of the armband for a second time. Amid all that England qualified for the European Championships but Capello was damaged goods.
 
Now he has gone, the knives are out. Simon Barnes of The Times says Capello treated England as "a kind of retirement job".
 
"You could see that his heart was never in it. He never got the hang of English footballing culture; for that matter, he never even got the hang of the English language.
 
"Capello goes with a brilliant record in qualifying groups... But it is at the big tournaments that you earn your salary and, in Capello's only one, he led England to humiliation."
 
He was stubborn, despite promising to blood fresh talent and introduce a new system after South Africa, and often hasty in his judgment of players says Hayward in the Telegraph. "Michael Owen was bombed almost from the start and Micah Richards has felt the frosty air of the manager's disapproval.
 
"One tournament, £20m-plus in wages and one second-round appearance. This is the epitaph of the Capello years... Few will feel they knew him well and almost no England player will mourn his departure."
 
The FA must take some of the blame, says Martin Samuel in The Daily Mail. He says it is "four years down the drain". After trying and failing dismally to “buy” the World Cup by paying the Italian a fortune, England are left high and dry, without a manager.
 
Someone who can lighten the mood is now required, says Oliver Kay in The Times. "Capello won matches, but failed to win - or rather won and then lost - the hearts and minds of his players and his employers as well as large sections of the supporters and media. The challenge now for [FA chairman David] Bernstein is to make the appointment that will restore optimism for Euro 2012 and beyond."
 
But right now there is little light on the horizon. "Capello's decision to walk last night makes the whole adventure of his appointment a sorry story of missed opportunity and colliding professional values," laments James Lawton in The Independent. "The result is that English football is made, once again, a laughing stock." ·