Fabio Capello Appointed England Manager

Fabio Capello has finally been confirmed as the new England manager signing a four year contract reportedly worth around £6m a year.

After Jose Mourinho ruled himself out of the job it was only a matter of time before the FA got their man and there is no doubt that Capello is definitely the best man for the job from the candidates available his record at some of the biggest clubs in Europe and the World is a truly outstanding one so much so that you have to say that on paper he is the most successful boss ever to be appointed England manager he is exactly what England need to make an impact on the international scene after failing to qualify for Euro 2008.

The appointment of Capello has been met with some criticism from a minority of managers and players who wanted the appointment to be an Englishman this argument does not carry much water as we have just had an unsuccessful Euro 2008 qualification campaign with an Englishman in charge it is sad but true that there are not as many top English managers out there compared to years ago and of the possible English candidates who have not publicly ruled themselves out of the job probably only Harry Redknapp would be a credible one but if the top four clubs in English football Manchester Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool were to change their managers anytime soon you can bet that the replacements would not be English.

The search for the new England boss has also been dignfied in comparison to last time when it descended into farce so credit mst go to the FA for that.

The vast majority of fans appear to be satisfied with the appointment and believe that Capello is the best man for the job his first game as manager will be a friendly against Switzerland at Wembley on 6 February 2008.

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The Decline Of Homegrown Talent

In the last twelve years the percentage of English players playing in the top tier of English football has declined to such an extent that English players are now in the minority every week in the premiership.

1995-96 English players 65% Foreign players 17%
2007-08 English players 36% Foreign players 51%

This is not an attack on foreign players because the cream of the many foreign players have no doubt played their part in making the premiership what it is today which is arguably the best and most exciting domestic football league in the world however if the trend continues i fear it will have serious long term effects on the English national team.

After England failed to qualify for the 1994 world cup all the talk was of developing the game at grassroots level and introducing football academies well the academies are in place but the problem is at many clubs the talent that they are producing just do not get many opportunities this is no doubt due to the many foreign players in their path.

Cricket was faced with a similar problem years ago and was quick to recognise that measures had to be introduced to limit the amount of overseas players each team could field although i suspect realistically that would never happen with football simply because of the huge amounts of money the premiership generates these days.

In their defence some managers claim they would like to sign more English players but they are unable to do so as because they are in such short supply the transfer fees they command are vastly inflated hence the influx of cheaper overseas talent it is the old classic catch 22 situation.

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The Next England Manager

With England failing to qualify for next summers Euro 2008 tournament it was inevitable that Steve McClaren would be sacked indeed the appointment of McClaren itself was somewhat of a farce with the FA trying and failing to get their first choice of Big Phil Scolari.

This time there must be no settling for second best we need the best man for the job and whether people like it or not that will probably mean a foreign manager because there is not a great deal of top quality English managerial talent around these days and not surprisingly after the farcical way the FA handled the interviews the last time round messrs Allardyce, Curbishley and O'Neill have all publicly said that they are not interested in becoming the next England boss.

With managers seemingly queuing up to turn down the job through the media there has at least been two big name managers that have apparently expressed an interest in taking up the post namely Fabio Cappello and Jose Mourinho both of whom would surely be quality appointments although there seems to be conflicting reports of the extent of the special ones interest.

The current betting has Mourinho as the clear favourite followed by Cappello with the best placed English manager so far being Portsmouth's Harry Redknapp.

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