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Posts Tagged ‘Capello’

• Rooney is one of the three best players in the world, Italian says
• I would not swap my job with Marcello Lippi, he adds

Fabio Capello has set the bold target of steering England to the semi-finals of the World Cup at the very least, thereby emulating the national team’s best performance at the tournament since the trophy was won in 1966.

The Italian has had to contend over the past month with injuries to key personnel and serious allegations over his players’ personal lives – one of them cost John Terry the captaincy – together with confirmation that the England team hotel had been bugged before last week’s friendly against Egypt. Yet those distractions have not doused his enthusiasm for a role he accepted a little over two years ago, with his basic target now to take the team beyond the quarter-finals, where Sven-Goran Eriksson twice came unstuck, in South Africa this summer.

“My job when I was manager of Milan, Juventus, Roma or Madrid was always to try and win and, for me, it’s the same now as England manager,” said Capello. “I am focused to find the best way and we are one of the best teams in the World Cup. We hope to arrive at the semi-finals, minimum, and then, after a lot of years, win the World Cup.

“We have a good team, good players and, at this moment, we think we can beat all of the teams because we can play at the same level of the best teams in the world. It is a surprise to see the attention on things off the pitch because, usually, my job has been to decide things on the pitch, so that is new. But being England manager is always a challenge. But the challenge for me is always important because, at my age, without a challenge, I’d just stay at home. I could go on holiday. I like the challenge. This will be one of the most important of my life.

“To manage England was one of my dreams and I’m really happy to have taken on the job. I would not swap my position with [the Italy coach] Marcello Lippi. I prefer to be England manager. I hope to play against Italy in the final but my shirt at that moment will be an England shirt.”

England have reached the semi-finals only once, in 1990, in the past 44 years, and Capello’s ambition is a concession that the Football Association and the supporters will be seeking evidence of real progress under a manager who signed a four-year contract worth around £26m.

A place in the last four at the summer’s finals would satisfy that with Capello admitting that Wayne Rooney – arguably the side’s one world-class player on present form – is key to achieving that much.

“Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney are the three best players in the world at the moment,” said Capello, speaking at the Laureus Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi. “Their styles are completely different. One is fast, one has lots of imagination. Rooney is more strong. He runs a lot and helps everyone, and this year he has scored many goals. I think he is one of the best, but those three are really young and they are the best players for the future. I hope he will be in the same form during the World Cup and that he will be fit and not injured because he is one of the most important players.

“Of those who are injured at the moment, I am happy because they are injured now rather than when the World Cup starts. Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole are out but the players who played against Egypt played very well and we have no big problem with defenders.”

Ferdinand has returned to the Manchester United line-up since the win against Egypt, and Brown is expected to be absent for up to six weeks with a metatarsal injury. Cole continues to make good progress in rehabilitation in the south of France after breaking an ankle during Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Everton, with the club confident he will return to action before the end of the campaign.

That will grant the first-choice left-back time to prove his fitness ahead of the naming of Capello’s 30-man provisional squad for the finals, on 16 May.

England have two fixtures, against Mexico at Wembley and Japan in Graz, Austria, later that month before flying to South Africa on 2 June.

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The England manager is not the worrying kind when it comes to tough decisions of his final World Cup selection

Fabio Capello has never been the type to agonise. Suffering is delegated to his rivals. The 3-1 victory over Egypt showed that the manager has made nearly all his decisions. He even went to extremes by concluding, for instance, that Joe Hart should not even come on to gain a little more experience. Robert Green was in goal throughout and the England manager feels it is essential for him to appear as often as possible in internationals.

Last year the manager announced that he knew who his goalkeeper would be and was obviously referring to David James. On Wednesday he was asked if there had been a change of heart. “Maybe,” he said with a smile. His general disdain for unnecessary experimentation was underlined by a refusal to make full use of his allocation of six substitutions. He confined himself to five changes. It looks as if only routine maintenance of the squad is envisaged between now and the World Cup finals. This probably underlines his practicality. There are no searing newcomers to whom he could be drawn irresistibly.

Capello was wilfully content after beating Egypt. There was a determination to believe that John Terry had done well, if only to imply that the defender has got over the loss of the captaincy. This was an extension of the previous obstinacy when he had purported to see nothing amiss when Chelsea lost 4-2 to Manchester City. No such chastening lapses occurred at Wembley, but it would be an exaggeration to state that Terry had been his old self.

He always has been a little slow and it is a tribute to his understanding of the centre-half role that he seldom allows opponents a clear run. Egypt, however, did get chances to sprint at him. A comic incident also suggested that his concentration is still in convalescence. The first involvement by Terry was a misplaced pass to Wes Brown that went for a throw-in.

Whatever Capello really made of the Chelsea player’s showing, he has evidently come to the conclusion that everything will fall into place. The Italian is seldom tormented by doubt. There will be 30 players in an initial party that will be trimmed to 23 for the World Cup. He had two dozen on hand at Wembley and six clear candidates were absent.

Phil Jagielka, following knee surgery, has now had a couple of appearances from the bench for Everton. Capello should also be able to consider the injured Ashley Cole, Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand and Aaron Lennon for the finals. Aston Villa’s Gabriel Agbonlahor has the challenge of the England manager’s interest.

Once Capello does see value in a player he can be tenacious in his support. Theo Walcott has had a thin time, but the value of his speed is not overlooked, particularly when Lennon’s pelvic injury is proving slow to clear. The England manager pardoned Walcott’s mistakes. “When you don’t play a lot of games and then have the chance to start,” said Capello, “you want to do impossible things. But he is important because he is one of the fastest players on the right wing. I remember the performance of Theo before he was injured. He has time to recover [his form].”

Capello was benign towards even the malfunctioning Jermain Defoe, who squandered his first England start in 16 months. “I know they can play together,” the manager said of the striker’s pairing with Wayne Rooney, “but some things did not go the way I wanted. With Peter Crouch, we played differently and the movement of the players was more harmonic.” Capello has benefited in the past from the combination of Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey and he is under no pressure to break up the pairing. Crouch’s impact, in which two goals took his international tally to 20, came as a substitute against Egypt.

Without naming Portsmouth, the Italian emphasised the progress that followed the transfer to Tottenham last summer. “Crouch has improved a lot,” said Capello. “English teams like Spurs do not always play long balls. A long time ago, when we started, it was always long balls for the head of Crouch. Now he always tries to play the ball. It was a maximum of one or two touches [against Egypt]. It is not easy to win the ball back from Crouch.”

The attacker took the equaliser against Egypt slickly, even if he was offside at the other goal. Between those strikes Shaun Wright-Phillips scored with an effort that ought to have been saved. England, in short, were spasmodic and the subdued contributions from Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard were unsettling. Capello badly needs to see the revitalisation of those midfielders, although it is not obvious how that is to be achieved.

The manager demanded a higher tempo for the second half, but that very British approach from the Italian may not succeed at the World Cup. There is much still to trouble Capello. Everton’s Leighton Baines was allowed the full 90 minutes and, on his debut, thereby became the default left-back. Nonetheless, England will be severely diminished if some sort of setback keeps Cole from the World Cup. In general, there is a fragility and patchiness to the resources that not even Capello can cure.

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The booing of the former England captain has become the new Mexican wave

The demonisation of John Terry has reached the stage where people are heckling him without knowing quite why. Something to do with that woman and the reserve left-back. England’s sacked captain was being booed by Premier League crowds long before Wayne Bridge said not-on-your-nelly to the World Cup. What we have here is disapproval as a kind of new Mexican wave.

Captain Sensible is a role Fabio Capello identified this week as one he urgently wants to see filled by the injured Rio Ferdinand and the third man down the line of illusory power, Steven Gerrard, who must have been overjoyed to be given the chance to repeat stock phrases in press conferences about responsibilities and role models.

Gerrard will hand the armband back to Ferdinand with all the reluctance of a childminder hearing a parent’s ring on the bell when an upset toddler is screaming the walls down. For Terry, on the other hand, it is mortification in ribbon form, flashing around the pitch on another man’s biceps. Life would be much simpler if he could get it back and resume his East End guv’nor role.

After a consoling word from Sir Dave Richards, chairman of the Premier League, Terry lined up for the ceremonials four from the end rather than in the old meet-and-greet position. Lord Triesman, the Football Association chairman, moved to clasp his hand in upright, arm-wrestling mode, but then thought better of it, tapping Chelsea’s skipper on the arm, as if His Lordship felt His Pariah’s pain.

This solicitous gesture prompted the thought that Terry is close to entering the next phase of his trial by fire, when the mob stop taunting him and admire him for his resilience, his “quiet courage”, as they did, in another context, with David Beckham, many months after he had been hung in effigy outside a London pub. Beckham is easily the England centre-back’s best bet for advice on cultivating an appearance of dignity and making it work in one’s favour.

Terry needs it, too, because the booing of his name before the kick-off was followed by persistent jeering that was dark and disdainful and took 20 minutes to subside. A core of (Chelsea?) supporters tried to drown this hostility in cheers, which created the dissonant soundtrack of a previously admired bulldog leader being at once encouraged and condemned less than a hundred days before a World Cup.

The disconnect in Terry’s brain that allows him to treat emotional turmoil as nothing more serious than an annoying squeak under the bonnet of a Bentley conceals damage below the surface. Despite Capello’s insistence that his centre-half’s form is unaffected, Terry was bamboozled by Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez at Stamford Bridge on Saturday and passed straight into touch on his first contact with the ball in this 3-1 victory over Egypt.

It was wishful thinking on Capello’s part to believe that spending a week in Dubai with his deceived wife, having the England captaincy taken off him inside 12 minutes and then being held responsible for Bridge’s international retirement would not affect Terry’s equilibrium on some level. Not forgetting Bridge’s refusal to shake his hand at Chelsea and Capello’s subsequent declaration that Terry would not be captain again on his watch, which was accompanied by a sermon about kids and how England players need to show them a path through life.

On the evidence of this tussle with the best team in Africa, Terry retains his outcast status in the eyes of his manager and many England fans, who have developed a generalised antipathy to hedonistic and narcissistic conduct. Terry always exemplified the lionhearted geezer persona many England fans have always warmed to, so you would think it must have taken a lot for them to turn on him, when it really only took extra-marital slap and tickle, plus clear evidence of greed in the way he chased every buck that could be wrung from his position.

So the question for Capello, for England, is how long Terry will be locked out in the cold before being allowed back inside to his basket. Booing serves no purpose beyond allowing fans to feel righteous and they soon tired of it. For the England coach, meanwhile, there is the inescapable knowledge that successful teams are built around strong centre-back pairings. With Ledley King plagued by knee trouble, a Terry-Ferdinand partnership is England’s only fully credible combination for a World Cup quarter-final against a top-five nation.

Neither Matthew Upson nor Joleon Lescott consistently attains the standards needed to nullify the world’s best strikers. The slip by Upson that led to Mohamed Zidan’s first-half goal was attributable to the continuing farce of a £757m stadium being home to such a bad pitch, but the point remains: Terry is the best stopper in the English game.

After the interval the ex-captain was more vocal and demonstrative than the stand-in, but when Gerrard was withdrawn the armband passed under JT’s nose to Wayne Rooney, then Gareth Barry. Another few weeks of shame and then a weird kind of sympathy will kick in.

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Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott has told Fabio Capello he does not mind where he plays for England.

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• England manager says good behaviour is paramount
• Steven Gerrard says squad will follow Capello instructions

Fabio Capello has warned his England players that they must make sacrifices off the pitch over the next three months to avoid any repeat of the recent controversies that have threatened to deflect the national team’s attention from this summer’s World Cup finals.

The Italian pinpointed the wealth lavished on young players in the modern game as the root of the problems which have flared up too often to wreck the reputations of the likes of Ashley Cole and John Terry, his deposed captain, over the past month.

The England manager will seek evidence that standards have not slipped on the pitch against Egypt this evening having reminded his squad of their wider responsibilities with the team’s first game in the World Cup, against the United States, only 100 days away.

“The private life is a big problem for some players, but also a big problem for their clubs and, in the end, for me,” said Capello. “It’ll be really important that the players, in this last period [before the World Cup], are careful in their own private lives at every moment. These are important players and they have to be an example to the children and all the fans. For that reason, they have to stay careful and sacrifice something in their lives.”

Asked whether he was being unrealistic by expecting players not to give in to temptation off the pitch, the England coach said: “Why? We hope not, no. I remember in Spain, players would go to the disco and sometimes drink something, but they did not have big problems with different players, different girls, different women. These are young players, young boys, but rich boys… this is the problem.

“It’s not only here that it is a problem. In Italy, in Germany, in Spain – in every country where football is so important, like it is here – it’s the same problem. But I think the next three months will be OK for all my players.”

The ruthless sacking of Terry proved that Capello does not merely deliver empty threats, as the players acknowledged following his warning before training on Monday. “All the players take it as read what the manager says,” said Steven Gerrard, who will captain the side tonight for the first time in two years. “We understand what he wants from us. We listen and take note.

“The manager’s talk was short and sweet and told us to focus on the football. He reiterated that we have responsibilities as players both on and off the pitch. We are in the spotlight but we’ve got to behave. Everyone is aware of that. The manager has taken the decision to take the captaincy off John. It’s a tough job being the England manager and you’ve got to make big decisions. He’s done that and we all follow.”

Terry will start this evening’s match against the Africa Cup of Nations winners, the first of three friendlies before England begin their World Cup campaign in Rustenburg on 12 June, with Capello urging the Wembley crowd not to barrack the former captain.

The Italian, who will name his provisional squad for the finals on 11 May, insisted he was unperturbed by the recent uncharacteristic errors that have crept into the Chelsea centre-half’s game, mistakes that led to goals for Everton, Internazionale and Manchester City most notably.

The England coach is expected to speak with Terry individually before kick-off tonight, the pair’s first tête-à-tête since their 12-minute meeting at Wembley last month during which the defender was relieved of his duties. “Usually, I speak with a lot of players individually,” said Capello. “His training has been really good, and his form is without problems.”

The Italian added that he still hopes City’s Wayne Bridge will reconsider his decision to retire from international football ahead of the finals, but expressed some concern over the continued absence of his new permanent captain, Rio Ferdinand, who is recovering from yet another back injury.

“I went to Manchester and met him, and spoke with Sir Alex [Ferguson] and I know what’s happened,” said Capello. “I spoke with [the United chief executive] David Gill at Wembley and he told me it’s not the same problem. He told me this. I don’t know. I hope he will be fit in a short time because he needs to play. Only when you play games can you find good form.”

Capello will finalise his selection today but is moving towards reinstating Rob Green in goal and offering Leighton Baines a debut at left-back in the absence of the injured Ashley Cole. Theo Walcott, who has not played for his country all season, will earn a ninth cap with Capello having taken the Arsenal winger to one side to pep his confidence and urge him to position himself wide on the touchline against Egypt tonight.

Gerrard added: “This game is a fantastic opportunity to show the fans and everyone around the world that we’re still united, we’re still one, we’re still a strong team and we’ve got a very good chance come the summer.”

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• Capello not concerned about Chelsea defender’s form
• Manager keeps door open for Wayne Bridge and Joe Cole

Fabio Capello has challenged John Terry to still be a leader within the England squad despite losing the captaincy and called on fans not to boo the Chelsea defender against Egypt tomorrow. There are fears of a fans’ backlash against Terry at Wembley but Capello echoed Wayne Rooney’s words in urging Three Lions supporters not to hound the player.

“I think the fans have to support every moment,” Capello said. “You have to understand that privately some players were not so good, but on the pitch it is different. We wear the England shirt and it is really important they help us every moment. I hope that tomorrow the crowd help us and do not boo him.”

The England manager, speaking before the friendly at Wembley, said Terry had trained well and that he had spoken to him about his future role with the national team. “He knows that he will not be captain and he is like the other players, he is training very well,” the Italian said. “He will be like the other players. I’ve spoken to him and I said ‘you have to be like a leader’.

“I am not worried [about Terry's form]. I saw the games he played against Internazionale and [Manchester] City. He played a normal game and always when they lose the journalists try and find something about their most important player.”

Capello added he would not change his mind and give the captaincy back to Terry over the coming months, despite going back on his word when he let David Beckham play for Real Madrid again when the two were at the Bernabéu.

“Beckham and Terry are different things,” he said. “Beckham was a technical [football] decision, Terry was not. I have spoken to the players. They have to recreate the spirit of the group and the team, and they trained today with a lot of focus and I was pleased because I saw the same thing as I did in November [for the game against Brazil].”

Capello said Wes Brown will start at right-back but that he has not decided on who should play left-back.

Wayne Bridge has said that he will not play in the World Cup and Capello was asked what he thought about the Manchester City full-back and Terry not shaking hands at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. “It’s not my problem,” he said, before adding that it was not too late for Bridge to change his mind. “The door for a lot of players is open and if they want to come back here the door will always be open. Not just for Bridge but for all the players.”

Capello also offered encouragement to Joe Cole, who was not included in the squad this time. “I saw the games he played after his injury and he played only so so, but the last game he played very well. He has to play more games like that and then he will be here,” he said.

Ryan Shawcross has been in the headlines since his tackle broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday and Capello urged him to try to forget about the incident as soon as possible. “I selected him before the Stoke v Arsenal game,” the Italian said. “I thought the tackle was really hard, it was a strong tackle, but not that he was out to get the leg of the other player. I spoke to him for the first time now. He’s young and it’s a bit different for him but I’m happy for him to stay here and he needs to forget that tackle.”

Of tomorrow’s opponents, Egypt, Capello said: “Its not easy to win the Africa Cup of Nations three times [in a row] if you are not a good team. Egypt have good organisation on the pitch, their players know what they have to do at every moment and tomorrow will be a test for us.”

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• Terry sacked as captain after failing ‘to set an example’
• England manager will ask Wayne Bridge to reconsider

Fabio Capello has told John Terry that the Chelsea player will never captain England again while he is in charge and says he has not given up hope of Wayne Bridge returning to international duty.

The England manager stripped Terry of the honour following revelations of the defender’s alleged affair with the mother of Wayne Bridge’s young son.

The speculation surrounding Terry’s relationship with Vanessa Perroncel proved to be so hurtful for Bridge that he now feels his position within the England squad is “untenable” and has no longer made himself available for international duty.

Capello is still hoping Bridge will change his mind. However, the manager has made it perfectly clear it will not be at Terry’s expense, even if there is no way he can ever be restored to his former status.

“Until the World Cup, John Terry will not be the captain again,” said Capello. “After the World Cup? If I remain as England manager? I think not.

“I asked for the captain to set an example for the young people; for the children and the fans. What he did was not good. I told him this and he understood.

“But I took the decision only because of what happened with Wayne Bridge, nothing else. I didn’t ever consider taking John Terry out of the squad, just as I didn’t decide to take Wayne Bridge out.

“And I don’t believe the other players will have lost respect for him because they know his leadership qualities.”

Capello has never really understood the English fascination with who captains the team. To him, it was perfectly straightforward Rio Ferdinand should step up, just as Steven Gerrard will take over against Egypt on Wednesday now the Manchester United man has been ruled out with a back injury.

Equally, past experience makes it easy to stress Terry’s role within his squad essentially remains the same.

“In Spain or Italy, the captain is the oldest player or the one with the most caps,” said Capello. “Here it is different. You look at the captain in a different way.

“To me, being a leader is more important than being the captain. John Terry is a leader. I have asked him to be the same. He will be the same. He will be a leader without wearing the armband.”

Stephen Warnock and Leighton Baines will be given the chance to take Bridge’s place next week.

Once Wednesday’s game is out of the way, and the dust has settled on Bridge’s meeting with Terry at Stamford Bridge, Capello hopes the full-back will look at the situation again.

He will doubtless speak with the 29-year-old, as his assistant Franco Baldini has already done, to try to emphasise that Bridge’s perception of the situation does not square with Capello’s.

Not that the Italian is guaranteed success. After all, he approached a far more straightforward problem in trying to persuade Jamie Carragher he did have a worthwhile role to play with England and met with a straight no.

“We all look at life with a different vision,” said Capello. “It is his opinion that it is better for the squad that he is not there. I think he could stay with us without a problem. I don’t think it is in the best interests of the squad at all for him not to be there. But it is his decision, anything else is not important.”

For someone renowned as a strict disciplinarian, Capello seems remarkably laid-back in his attitude to player behaviour, which seems to be spiralling out of control.

Asked if he worries about it, he shakes his head. There is only one thing that bothers him.

“There things are not good for the fans or the players. But I am not concerned. I hope when I decide the squad the best players are fit. This is what concerns me. Not these problems.”

And not the Wags (Wives and girlfriends) either.

Capello could hardly have failed to notice the parade of glamorous females on show in Baden-Baden during England’s last World Cup campaign.

The Bafokeng complex, England’s base for this summer’s tournament in South Africa does not offer much in the way of outside interests, and as Capello is not interested in anything that goes on outside that area, wives and girlfriends are not on his radar.

“I know it was the virus of the last World Cup,” said Capello. “I hope it won’t be like that again.

“I don’t know where the Wags will stay. Out of the training ground is far enough for me. What happens outside the training ground and outside the pitch is not important.”

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Now Egypt seem poised to play a walk-on part in the next episode of the John and Wayne Show

Fabio Capello may have offered a master class in “crisis management” last week but England’s coach is now being asked to perform football’s equivalent of pushing a boulder up a very steep hill.

Sacking John Terry as national captain is one thing – replacing Ashley Cole while conducting running repairs on the rest of England’s crumbling defensive wall is quite another.

The Italian will have to compensate for Cole’s absence when Egypt visit London next month. The African champions promise to be appreciably less ring rusty than Wayne Bridge at Wembley. That is, providing Capello can persuade Bridge to replace Cole at left-back and thus play alongside his one-time best friend, John Terry.

Such is the power of Premier League football that soap-sudded accounts of Terry’s alleged affair with Bridge’s former girlfriend have made headlines across the Middle East – although the Cairo press tended to be rather more interested in the Chilcot Inquiry – and now Egypt seem poised to play a walk-on part in the next episode of the John and Wayne Show.

John Wayne would probably have told Bridge that victimhood was unbecoming, before challenging him to refuse to let Terry wreck his private life and a long cherished World Cup dream.

The Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini, has told his left-back precisely that, so Capello, a man of few personal words to his players, may well let his compatriot serve as England’s unofficial psychologist before shepherding Bridge back into the fold.

Presuming Toni Terry does not do severe damage to her husband during the “compassionate leave” he has been granted from Chelsea – the centre-half yesterday flew out of Heathrow – Capello’s role will be to ensure, that once ensconced inside England’s training base near Watford, the two defenders prove capable of “compartmentalising” their lives. Or, as Glenn Hoddle might have described it, “putting their professional heads on”.

Talking of Hoddle, Capello could do worse than reflect on his England predecessor’s suggestion that “pigs and troughs” represent international management’s natural rhythms. The loss of the world’s best left-back, Cole – added to the more minor affliction currently keeping out Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand’s back trouble and Terry’s private life – certainly does not suggest England are climbing towards a peak.

Neither is this the zenith of Terry’s career and the captain clearly has much to ponder as he doubtless spends part of the next few days walking the “Arab Street” – or at least pacing Dubai’s high-end shopping malls while Toni flexes the plastic.

The apparent lack of humility, soul-searching introspection or regret demonstrated by Terry in an interview immediately after the brutal, 12-minute meeting with Capello that led to his loss of the captaincy suggested that the Italian had made very much the right decision.

As he watches the waves crash on Jumeirah beach from the sanctuary of Dubai’s Le Royal Méridien hotel, England’s former leader could do worse than remember that adultery is punishable with a prison sentence in the United Arab Emirates.

Fortunately the United Kingdom is somewhat less medieval but even in the 21st century it is not always possible to divide the personal from the public. Capello’s problem is that unless he is confident Bridge and Terry can separate those uncomfortably entwined aspects of their lives, Egypt may become just the first of several sides to open up England’s suddenly less than Italianesque defence.

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Would an unfit Ashley Cole still be the best option for England, or should Fabio Capello select a less experienced defender?

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• Manager says Terry is ’still important’
• Capello says ‘time to move on’ from captaincy debate

Fabio Capello says John Terry, the deposed England captain, still has an integral role to play with the national team and will be one of his “most important players” at the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Terry was stripped of the captaincy in a meeting with Capello, the England coach, and the general manager, Franco Baldini, at Wembley on Friday, following a week of allegations about his private life. The 29-year-old is the first England player to lose the role over misdemeanours off the field. Having vowed to “continue to give everything” for his country, he will be buoyed by Capello’s public backing.

The Italian was in Warsaw for yesterday’s Euro 2012 qualifying draw. England were drawn in Group G with Wales, ­Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro but, much to the Italian’s frustration, Terry dominated the agenda.

“[The issue] is now all over, it is finished,” said Capello as he left Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science. “It is now time to move on. But yes, John Terry is still an important player for England. He is one of our most important players.”

Rio Ferdinand, who was appointed as Terry’s vice-captain in August 2008, will take over the captaincy. Baldini has telephoned the Manchester United defender but Capello does not intend to speak to him until the squad meets before a friendly against Egypt at Wembley on 3 March. Steven Gerrard will be Ferdinand’s deputy and Frank Lampard is expected to be next in the pecking order.

Capello said: “I want to speak about this question [the captaincy], but first I want to speak with Rio and the other players. I want to do that before everything – we will speak about the new captain then. I prefer to speak with the players first.

“When I was made England manager I decided on the captain, the vice-captain and the third captain. Everyone knows this. It has been a normal week for me. I spoke with John Terry – everyone knows why – but it was a private conversation.”

A fear remains at the Football Association and among those close to Terry that further damaging allegations over the player’s conduct could emerge during the build-up to the World Cup.

Terry, who captained Chelsea in ­yesterday’s 2-0 win over Arsenal, retains the support of his club. Last night he received the backing of a former manager at Stamford Bridge, Guus Hiddink.

“I loved to work with John and even in training I’d have to say to him, ‘A little slower because we have a game tomorrow’,” said the Russia coach, who spent three months at Chelsea at the end of last season. “That means he’s very ­committed. I know his spirit. He will fight back. But they had to make a decision and I’m sure Fabio made the right one.”

The Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, who faced Terry’s England in qualifying for Euro 2008 and this year’s World Cup, said: “John Terry is a tiger, he is a lion and [he] always will be for his team, there is no doubt about that. He is just a leader. Some players need the push of the armband to be a captain, to be an authority and gain that from the rest of the players and a leader for the rest of the team, but not John Terry.

“He has never needed that. He is a natural leader, anyway. He can still be that kind of player for England this summer in the World Cup. It will not affect him. That is the kind of man he is. He was the leader on the pitch for Chelsea right from the beginning, long before he became the captain of the club. It is the way he plays and he always will show that leadership on the pitch, whether he is the captain or not. Capello knows that as well.”

The draw for 2012 qualifying saw ­Scotland pulled out of the hat with the European champions, Spain, and the Czech Republic in Group I. Northern Ireland face the world champions, Italy, and Serbia in Group C. The Republic of Ireland join Hiddink’s Russia in Group B.

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