On Thursday, December 13 2007, Fabio Capello, age 61, was appointed by the FA as the next manager of England. Terms of his contract have still to be ironed out but are expected to be around £4m a year for a duration of 4.5 years. Capello becomes the first Italian to lead the Three Lions, and will be christening his long managerial career with his first appointment at the prestigious National Team level.

The official quote of Thursday evening from the English FA football site:

England update
13 December 2007

The FA have today given an update on the situation regarding the appointment of the next England manager.

FA Director of Communications Adrian Bevington said: “Discussions have continued throughout the day between The FA and Fabio Capello’s advisors.

“The FA Board has also today approved Capello’s appointment as England Manager subject to the successful conclusion of these contract negotiations. These will continue tomorrow.

“I want to stress that there are no problems and that we are going through the necessary process to reach a successful conclusion. Understandably, at this time, we are unable to confirm any media activity that may take place. We will provide an update tomorrow.”

In other words, it’s just a formality now.

One of the issues still to be resolved is the choice of Capello’s support staff. Quoting BBC Sport: “(…) FA chief executive Brian Barwick is keen to tie up the deal comfortable in the knowledge that the Italian intends to include English coaches in his plans, deciding who these should be at a later date. It is understood the 61-year-old wants to bring three or four fellow Italians with him, including his trusted aide Franco Baldini as an assistant.”

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Now, I could write a comprehensive post about Fabio Capello’s managerial experience and the repercussions of his appointment in the English press, but given that I’m getting ready to travel again on Friday, and that such an article is already neatly packaged on Soccerlens, I’ll just direct you there.

The Soccerlens article contains, among others, the following subsections:

1. Impressive Playing and Coaching Dossier
2. Voices of Dissent
3. Fabio Capello: “England Has A Mental Block”
4. Lack of English Language Skills
5. A Trail of Hasty Departures and a Few Rows
6. Interesting Commentary by David Beckham
7. Message of Change by the FA
8. Coaching Record According to Soccerbase
9. Coaches As He Played

Posted in English Premiership, Managers, Transfer News & Rumours |

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 7:46 pm and is filed under English Premiership, Managers, Transfer News & Rumours. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.