Sunday Supper supported the England football manager, Fabio Capello, even after the dismal World Cup, even after most of the British press had already scapegoated him for England's greater failures. In the past, I have spoken out in support of Capello when the vultures elsewhere circled. No more. England will win nothing with him in charge. Then again, England will not win anything until the retirement of most of the senior members of this present 'golden generation'.
Capello has handled the England captaincy issue with all the thoughtfulness of Basil Fawlty. Firstly, he rightly strips the undeserving John Terry of the captaincy because of his off-field behaviour. Then, the armband is tossed around like it is the central prop in a game of pass-the-parcel, before it is snatched out of the hands of the slightly more deserving Rio Ferdinand and placed back into the hands of Terry.
This episode does nothing to promote the belief that Capello is dealing with the challenges of the England job with rationality. He has gone from an authoritarian figure to someone who does not seem to know where he is anymore. In the meantime, England stumble on towards Euro 2012 qualification (though Montenegro could still have something to say about that) before the inevitable collapse when coming up against better-organised opposition of similar ability in the Euro 2012 finals.
I do not envy Capello. I cannot bring myself to cheer on the likes of John Terry, Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney (to name three), let alone want to manage them. If I had to choose between Brentford winning League One or England winning Euro 2012, send the League One title to west London now. Despite this, I have come to accept Capello is not doing a very good job, so perhaps now is a good time to put him, and us, out of our collective misery.
