Capello slaps down Terry with holiday jibe

Fabio Capello has admitted he may have a few disgruntled players in his squad but reminded any of them thinking of complaining that they are not on holiday.

Reacting to former captain John Terry’s revelation of discontent in the camp over a range of issues from team tactics to the amount of time the players have to spend kicking their heels, Capello made it clear he had no intention of changing his approach in response to player pressure.

“Probably one or two are not happy but the majority are,” Capello said.

“One player is not so important compared to all the others. The group is more important. For this reason it is no problem. We are here to play at the World Cup, not for a holiday.”

Having vowed to raise his concerns with Capello, even if that meant upsetting the Italian coach, Terry was persuaded to keep quiet at a team meeting on Sunday evening.

Seizing the opportunity to reassert his authority, Capello confirmed that Terry had not dared say anything to his face and made it clear that he was not happy with the defender publicly pushing the cause of his Chelsea team-mate Joe Cole, who has not been involved in England’s first two matches in South Africa.

“If somebody wants to speak with me, he can speak,” Capello told the BBC. “I always tell the players they can speak but yesterday nobody did.”

He added: “Joe Cole is one of 23 players who are here but, when we speak about one single player, you have to respect the other players that played before.

“That’s the most important thing, the respect of the other players.”

Capello may have put Terry in his place, but he knows he needs the defender on the pitch in the absence of Rio Ferdinand and with the injured Ledley King and the suspended Jamie Carragher ruled out of Wednesday’s must-win meeting with Slovenia.

Matthew Upson will start alongside Terry in central defence in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, Capello confirmed.

The Italian’s view that England’s players were restricted by fear in their opening two matches has been disputed by both Terry and David James, but the Italian is sticking by his belief that they let the pressure get to them.

“It is a mental thing. When you are under pressure, big pressure, sometimes the legs do not work normally,” he said.

“It happened to me as a player but I think on Wednesday the team will be fit.”

The Italian is widely expected to quit if England fail to advance from their group and he is counting on the high stakes involved to finally trigger a performance worthy of the reputation of his star-studded squad.

“After this game we have no more chances. We have to win,” he said.

“The results have not been good but I haven’t seen the right spirit on the pitch for 90 minutes, only for five or six minutes. I hope in the next game the spirit I saw in qualification will return.”