Remarkable changes in Capello – I hope we see remarkable changes in his team

I’m going to Wembley this afternoon to watch England take on Switzerland in the Euro 2012 qualifier. It seems I’ll be watching a relaxed and happy team being managed by a relaxed and happy manager.

Changed

It certainly seems that things have changed dramatically since England’s flop in last year’s World Cup. The old disciplinarian style of Capello has become a thing of the past as he admits mistakes, talks of great relationships with the players and let’s them go on holiday and mess around in training. It is hard to imagine that this is the same man who arrived in the role and demanded total discipline.

The mistakes Capello admits are in relation to the build up to the World Cup and he says that he has learned from them.

“I learned a lot at the World Cup. I learned the players are rather tired at the end of the season and you don’t need a lot of games before the first game of a tournament.”

Relationships

The great relationships with players came about after Capello had to make peace with Rio Ferdinand after stripping him of the captaincy and handing it back to John Terry,m apparently without telling Ferdinand.

“We shook hands, the relationship is fantastic. I told him what really happened when I decided to make the decision to give the armband to John Terry. He told me what he thought in this period. The relationship is perfect. We spoke personally and privately.”

The most surprising announcement from Capello was that he feels the England players are better now they’ve had a holiday and that he thinks this is the way forward.

Surprising

“They returned happy and I needed to stop the training sometimes because they were too happy. They were happy to be playing with the ball after one week away. They were playing like children! If we play the Euros they will go to holiday and after we will start preparations for the Euros. I think being on holiday is good, they recover their focus, their mind energy. It is really important when you have to stay focused for a long time. They will have a minimum of 10 days or two weeks on holidays. I trust them to be good, why not?”

Stories about what players get up to mean that any of us could tell Capello why it might be a risky plan to trust the players to be good!

Great

This is all good news. There is little doubt that Capello is a great football manager, his record speaks for itself. What he has found is that his old fashioned disciplinarian ways have not worked with the current billionnaire, superstar players. The manager giving them a little leeway and trusting them might just have some noticeable results.

I certainly hope so because I want to see a good game today and I want to see England win in style. I don’t want to be in that position whereby I have to make the nightmare decision fans face of booing or not booing!!