Fabio Capello said Michael Owen’s England career is not necessarily over after omitting the Newcastle man from his squad again for the Kazakhstan and Belarus World Cup qualifiers.

But the manager’s history in Serie A suggests it’s going to be mighty tough for Owen to get back.

Capello was in charge of similar footballers during his stints at AS Roma and Juventus in Vincenzo Montella and Alessandro Del Piero.

Like Owen, they are small, fast technically polished forwards with highly prolific track records.

And, like Owen, they were consistently pushed down the pecking order by Capello.

Although a past-his-best bit player at Roma now, Montella remains one of Serie A’s all-time top scorers and he was at his peak at the start of Capello’s time in the Italian capital.

The coach’s insistence on using the tiring Gabriel Batistuta at the end of the 2000-01 season instead of the on-fire Montella smacked of pure obstinacy to many Roma fans at the time. (more…)

It’s not totally confirmed yet but it looks like David Beckham is joining AC Milan on a short-term loan deal.

The LA Galaxy midfielder, desperate to keep his fitness up and impress England coach Fabio Capello during the U.S. close season, is taking a big risk in coming to Italy.

Milan generally do not play with wingers, especially 33-year-old ones who have never had a great deal of pace and are in the twilight of their careers.

They brought in Ronaldinho, Andriy Shevchenko and Marco Borriello in the summer amongst others and there seems little room for a player who has no experience of Italian football and has been playing in a lesser league for a year.

After a dodgy start, they are looking like Serie A title challengers and coach Carlo Ancelotti, despite what exciteable chief executive Adriano Galliani says, may not want to rock the boat too much.

Does this mean Beckham’s plan to boost soccer in America has failed? Or is it a superb idea that will make sure he is on the plane to South Africa in 2010? (Assuming England don’t throw away a great start to qualification…)

Fabio Capello showed his worth with some inspired selections and substitutions in England’s 5-1 win over Kazakhstan and 3-1 victory in Belarus in World Cup qualifying.

With Joe Cole injured, Capello managed to fashion a way for Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard to play with each other while the introduction of Shaun Wright-Phillips helped on both occasions.

Click on the video above to hear Vlogonthepitch regulars Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley discuss the performances.

Has Capello got the balance right or would you pick some other players to make England even stronger?

Italy’s Marcello Lippi has equalled the record for the most Azzurri games without defeat and Fabio Capello’s England have managed their best ever start to World Cup qualifying.

We should also not forget evergreen Giovanni Trapattoni, whose modest yet undefeated Ireland side are just three points behind world champions Italy in Group Eight.

It is not sheer coincidence that these three coaches are getting results. There is a lot of talk about “a winning mentality” these days and although it seems a rather obvious commodity for football, the Italians have it in bucketloads.

Italy’s 2-1 win over Montenegro on Wednesday meant Lippi, over his two spells in charge, has equalled 1934 and 1938 World Cup-winning coach Vittorio Pozzo’s record of 30 games without defeat.    (more…)

England have made their best start to a World Cup qualifying campaign and Wayne Rooney thinks he’s playing at his best, so why haven’t Fabio Capello’s men been bragging about how they’re going to bring home the trophy in 2010?

What has been striking about the Capello era is a new sense of humility and realism that England players had long lacked.

Frank Lampard finally admitted last week that he and Steven Gerrard had failed to reproduce their club form when playing for England.

Rio Ferdinand said this week that the national team set-up had been like a circus until Capello’s arrival and that players had been obsessed by their celebrity lifestyles. (more…)

Supporters are in the firing line after incidents at this weekend’s World Cup qualifiers.

England fans were criticised by coach Fabio Capello and stand-in captain Rio Ferdinand for booing Ashley Cole after his mistake led to a goal in the 5-1 win over Kazakhstan. 

Wembley supporters have a habit of booing their own team in recent times and Capello was at least grateful they gave his side a reasonably easy ride in a goalless first half.

But with tickets costing a lot in these troubled financial times, do fans have the right to boo if the standard is not up to scratch? (more…)

Both are English, both are midfielders, both are top performers in the Premier League, both can’t play together for England…. Sound familiar?

The dilemma that seems a permanent thorn in any England manager’s side has reared its ugly head once more; how do you get Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard to play well together.

England’s World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan on Saturday look set to hand Chelsea’s Lampard and Liverpool’s Gerrard yet another chance to remedy the problem, but what can Fabio Capello do differently to make it work this time?

This week Lampard finally caught up with the rest of the nation in admitting that if he and Gerrard had managed to thread a pass to one another in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, England may have reached the finals in Austria and Switzerland.

However, he says the difference this time is tactics.

It appears the tactical leadership of former England managers Sven Goran-Eriksson and Steve McClaren stretched as far as ‘when one goes, the other one stays,’ but with Capello Lampard seems more comfortable with what is being asked of him.

So maybe that is it. Lampard and Gerrard, both all-round inspirations at club level, need to be told what to do when they pull on an England shirt. It all seems so simple now doesn’t it?

Do you think that Lampard is making excuses simply to maintain his England place, or is Capello a genius about to unleash both players’ club form upon a soon to be sorry Kazakhstan?

Personally, I’d rather have Gerrard in the centre with Gareth Barry or failing that Jimmy Bullard!

PHOTO: England’s Gerrard and Lampard attend a team training session in London Colney, Oct. 7 REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

A clinical hat-trick in Zagreb on Wednesday and suddenly Theo Walcott is the answer to all England’s ills and Fabio Capello is worth every penny of the millions the FA pay him for his services as national coach.

At least that’s the line trotted out in most of the daily newspapers as talk of new era and new wonder kid dominated the back pages.

The 19-year-old Walcott certainly took his chances brilliantly against Croatia’s lumbering defence and Capello should be praised for opting to start the Arsenal player instead of David Beckham.

But amid all the euphoria there needs to be some caution. Croatia were rubbish, a mere shadow of the team that beat England twice in qualifying for Euro 2008. The hype appeared to have gone to their heads.

And England, castigated for a lame performance against the massed ranks of Andorra’s defence last Saturday, are far from the finished article with question marks over central midfield and goalkeeping still unanswered. They are also desperately short of quality cover for central defensive duo John Terry and Rio Ferdinand.

One great performance doesn’t make a great team. In 2001 Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England team thrashed Germany 5-1 in Munich. Yet they only scrambled in to the 2002 World Cup finals thanks to a last-minute equaliser by David Beckham against Greece at Wembley a few weeks later.

Real proof of an England renaissance will come in the matches against Kazakhstan and Belarus. Thumping victories over teams who will be set up to defend are by no means guaranteed and yet that is what the fans will be calling for.

Walcott, who ludicrously made the 2006 World Cup squad despite never having played  a Premier league match, has pretty much pencilled his name on the next few starting line-ups, banishing David Beckham to the sidelines.

The pressure now, however, will be to maintain the level of performance in the months ahead and prove he is no flash in the pan. As he will learn, there is no middle ground as England player. One minute a hero, the next an overpaid flop.

England play Croatia on Wednesday and you know what? It won’t be a surprise, or a disgrace, if they lose.

Why? Because Croatia are a technically gifted, cleverly organised, highly motivated international team, who beat England twice to reach Euro 2008 and outplayed Germany when they got there.

I also half expect it to happen simply because England are so terrified of losing.

This fear of failure pervades the national team. It comes across in the insistence on tactical discipline and conservative team selection even against the weakest of opponents (think Joe Cole against Andorra) and the consistent failure of the team’s senior players to be their confident, inventive selves while on England duty.

For a while it was the same with the England cricket team but recently things have changed. Here’s what Kevin Pietersen said last month after taking over as captain:

“The recipe for success I’ve tried to use is to be confident and play without fear. To express yourself once you go over the white line and trust your instinct and your practice.

“That’s what I want my lads to do, to play without fear. International cricket can roll into a routine of train, play, train, play and I want the guys to get the passion back.

“I think fear has crept in a bit. The more you fear, the more you worry about stuff instead of being a clear-thinking person.”

How English football could do with someone like Pietersen — a player or coach who could inspire the team, help them shrug off their fear and let their talent shine through, accepting the fact that sometimes it’ s not going to come off and that, yes, you can lose to teams like Croatia, with no disgrace at all. 

There’s a piece in the Guardian today suggesting that winning ugly might do Fabio Capello’s England a lot of good right now.

I’d suggest that playing well and losing might not be such a problem either.

PHOTO: Joe Cole (L) shoots and scores during England’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra in Barcelona September 6, 2008 REUTERS/ Eddie Keogh

It’s been easy to laugh at English football over the past week, what with the comings and goings at Manchester City, West Ham United and Newcastle United and then the national team’s depressingly familiar performance in a 2-0 win over Andorra on Saturday.

I suspect many fans will find food for thought in the comments of Greg Dyke, the former TV executive and board member at Manchester United, and now chairman of division three club Brentford.

“I think what’s happened to Manchester City in the last couple of weeks is farcical. In the end the fans will walk away,” Dyke told BBC London radio, adding:

“Premier League football is increasingly owned by people outside this country, managed by people outside this country and played by people from outside this country.”

Trouble is, the national team aside, it’s also fantastically successful.

As I said at the start, it’s easy to laugh at English football right now. But what about at the end of the season when two, three or four of the Champions League semi-finalists come from the Premier League?

Will that make it all OK? Or should real fans of English football be following the likes of Brentford?

FILE PHOTO: Greg Dyke leaves BBC Broadcasting House in London after his resignation, January 29, 2004. REUTERS/Hugo Philpott