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He appears to be in total control, but fate – and injuries – will have their say in how the Italian is judged

Life is brisk under Fabio Capello and even the crises arrive early. The traditional disruption is supposed to afflict England later than this. There should be a benefit in extended recovery times, but a broken ankle will make it hard for Ashley Cole to be entirely ready for the World Cup finals. If Capello were to risk including him, the left-back could be the equivalent to David Beckham, who fractured a metatarsal in April 2002 and was not in perfect condition for that year’s tournament.

The present England manager wishes he could protect the remaining resources. “Wayne Rooney is in a magical moment,” said Capello. “I was speaking to Sir Alex and I told him, ‘Please rest him sometimes. I need him more fresh to play in the World Cup.’ But he is not the only one who is important for me and plays so much. John Terry and Frank Lampard play every game too – I will have to speak to Carlo Ancelotti about that.”

Capello is president of the League Managers Association and was relatively light-hearted while addressing the president’s dinner at Wembley yesterday. He knows that United and Chelsea must put their interests first and Terry misses tomorrow’s FA Cup tie with Cardiff only because he has flown to Dubai to address personal issues. The prospect of routine wear and tear affecting players will continue to unsettle Capello. Until Rio Ferdinand’s suspension ends he cannot know if the new England captain is completely over his back ­problems. Despite being peeved by the limited time to work with his ­players, Capello continues to be broadly optimistic. “On 11 July, I hope I will still be in South Africa,” he said, referring to the date of the World Cup final.

Should sympathy be of help, it is ­available in abundance from ­predecessors. Graham Taylor, Terry Venables and Sven-Goran Eriksson reminisced with ­occasional intensity at the LMA dinner. Their times as England manager have never left them. The spell in charge ­resonates most with Taylor even though his tenure preceded the others, ending in 1993.

He had been admired for his work with Watford and Aston Villa, yet matters over which he had no control were to have a lasting effect. Taylor, a good-natured and civilised character, reserves a searing, undiminished anger for one man. Karl-Josef Assenmacher was the referee when Holland virtually ended England’s hopes of reaching the 1994 World Cup with a 2-0 win in Rotterdam.

“David Platt breaking through, Ronald Koeman pulling him back,” said Taylor, reliving a critical moment and claiming, implausibly, that it does not “rankle” any more. “Fifa had gone on about this ­professional foul [issue], and the referee didn’t send him off. That bloody referee! If you want his name, number, where he lives, have a word with me. It’s something I think about now and then.”

According to Taylor, the German permitted encroachment at an England set-piece, but booked Paul Ince and ordered a retake of a Holland free-kick. Koeman converted it. “That’s when I lost my rag,” said Taylor. “I felt we were cheated and I never use that word. That referee never refereed again. He was taken off the list. I thought back then, ‘I would love to meet you again’ – and I still feel like that.”

Assenmacher had also disallowed a valid goal for Holland. He was indeed ditched by Fifa and his career at ­Bundesliga level also ended that season. Taylor ceased to be England manager in November 1993.

It will be no comfort, but he was at least spared the torment by shoot-out that afflicts others in the post. Does Venables dwell on the penalties that brought defeat by Germany in the Euro 96 semi-final? “I think about them most nights.” He cannot forget, either, the loss to Steaua Bucharest by the same method when he ­managed Barcelona in the European Cup final 10 years before. His team was incapable of converting any of their four attempts from the spot.

There are breaks in the gloom even with England and Venables’s loss to Brazil was the sole defeat in open play over a 23-game tenure. Eriksson, despite being tormented by shoot-outs, had the euphoria of the 5-1 trouncing of Germany in Munich. The Swede accepted the FA’s offer the day after Kevin Keegan resigned in October 2000, despite the fact that he was then in charge of the reigning Serie A champions. “If you win the Scudetto with Lazio as I did, you have a rather good life in Rome,” said Eriksson. “Some people thought I was crazy and Fabio Capello was one of them. I don’t regret it.”

He had not anticipated the scrutiny of his entire life that would ensue even though Howard Wilkinson, the caretaker manager in the wake of Keegan’s ­departure, informed him that it was a wonderful job “if you live in Paris”. ­Eriksson still appreciated the opportunity. “Those were wonderful years,” he said. “I am proud to have been England coach.” The job may be a hair shirt, but few can resist wearing it.

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• Millennium Stadium may be shunned in favour of smaller venue
• Toshack predicts nations will struggle to agree fixture dates

The Wales manager, John Toshack, will consult his players before deciding whether to play their home Euro 2012 qualifier with England in the Millennium Stadium or a smaller and more intimidating ground.

Wales are in the same group as Fabio Capello’s side in addition to Switzerland, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Holding the match at the Millennium Stadium, with its capacity of nearly 75,000, would mean more revenue and less headaches in terms of security.

Toshack, however, admits other options to consider are the new Cardiff City Stadium (capacity 27,000) and Swansea’s Liberty complex (22,000) where they host Sweden in a friendly on 3 March.

Toshack said: “Things have changed a bit recently for us. We have got two other stadiums now. We were well pleased with the treatment we got from the Cardiff people when we played Scotland there recently.

“Swansea have a new stadium as well and we have been treated well there and play Sweden there shortly. You have to consider the atmosphere factor as well. It is early days yet. We have a fixture meeting on 15 March when it will be decided what dates we play but you don’t have to announce the venue until 90 days before a fixture.

“I will be interested to get the players’ views on that subject as well so we have got a little bit of time to decide.”

Toshack concedes England will be favourites to qualify but believes the battle for second spot is wide open. “Looking at our group, I think it is the most wide open of all of them. England will be clear favourites but I think the other four nations are all in contention.

“Between the four of us there is not a great deal to choose at all. It is difficult for anyone to predict the positions the teams will finish in. There are no ‘gimme’ fixtures for anyone. England are favourites but none of the teams are superpowers.”

Toshack locked horns with Capello just once when rival managers in Spain during the 1990s, but believes he can lead England to a successful World Cup.

“I sat next to Capello on the plane on the way over for the draw yesterday and we had a good two and a half hour conversation. On the way back he sat at the back, I sat at the front and we never said a word.

“Seriously, I am sure there will be an awful lot of interest in the game and I can see them having a good World Cup as well. Hopefully they will come back with 10 injuries and we can pick them off in September. You never know. For our players, the prospect of playing England at Wembley is a terrific incentive. If our young players get more game time in, and progress as we think they are capable of, it will be great.”

Toshack’s main concern is that Wales have more luck with injuries than in their World Cup qualifying campaign. “When you look at us and England, we have 11 players who play in the Premier League and two of them are goalkeepers. You can see the difficulties we have with four or five injuries. We need a bit of good fortune on the injury front which we never had the last time around.

“If we make mistakes or pick the wrong team, or concede late on, that’s down to us, but we would just hope to have our best players available.”

Toshack believes it will be more difficult for teams to come to an agreement over when to stage fixtures given the new guidelines which allow weekend games to be played on Friday or Saturday and all midweek fixtures on Tuesdays.

“I can see that being difficult this time around for all the groups. I can see a lot of these meetings to decide the fixtures being thrown out and it all going to Uefa to decide. A lot of countries are not accustomed to playing on Friday evening and won’t want Saturday-Tuesday either.

“In this country, our players are accustomed to playing Saturday-Tuesdays so I can see fixture meetings this time around having a lot of problems and not being easy to come to an agreement.”

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• FA eager to avoid media circus over latest scandal
• Terry distraught over potential damage to his career

Fabio Capello will tomorrow fly back to London to face the biggest decision of his reign as England manager over the future of John Terry, as the Football Association drew up plans to try to avoid a media circus reminiscent of other scandals that have gripped the organisation in recent years.

Terry was said to be distraught over the potential damage to his career in a World Cup year and the effect the affair has had on his family, with his wife, Toni, forced to appeal to the Press Complaints Commission to quell the scrum of photographers that has followed her and their three-year-old twins to Dubai.

Capello will return from Switzerland, where he has been recuperating from knee surgery, at lunchtime tomorrow to meet his right-hand man, Franco Baldini, and make contact with Terry. He is expected to try to meet the Chelsea defender to hear his side of the story in person, most likely after Chelsea train on Friday. Capello is determined to put the matter to bed before Sunday’s Euro 2012 draw in Warsaw.

Baldini is understood to have made contact with Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, to gauge Terry’s state of mind and to try to arrange a time for Capello to sit down with the defender.

Terry today spoke publicly, via his spokesman, for the first time since news of his alleged affair with the former girlfriend of his England team-mate Wayne Bridge emerged last Friday, to say that he would make no decisions until he had spoken to Capello. “John Terry asked me to make it clear that he has made absolutely no statement about his future as England captain,” said his spokesman, the former News of the World editor Phil Hall. “He is keeping his own counsel until he speaks to England manager Fabio Capello and then Mr Capello will decide what ­announcement will be made.”

Terry has already made contact with Baldini to explain his position. The FA’s chief executive, Ian Watmore, and ­chairman, Lord Triesman, are determined that the decision should be one for Capello alone. The manager will decide on football rather than moral grounds.

His choice will be taken on the basis of the potential impact on the dynamics of the England dressing room. But if Terry is to keep the armband, Capello will want to be convinced that there are no more potentially damaging revelations about the 29-year-old’s private life to come, over the weekend or in the months leading up to the World Cup.

Some members of the FA international committee, a less powerful body under the regime of Triesman and Watmore than it used to be, believe that Capello should strip Terry of the captaincy but even they concede it should be a matter for the ­manager alone.

The FA hierarchy will attempt to avoid the kind of media scrum which has habitually camped outside its offices when scandals have arisen by not holding a press conference to announce Capello’s decision and attempting to keep secret the location of any meetings involving the manager.

Watmore set a precedent over tabloid allegations late last year, when Terry was accused of accepting £10,000 to give a private tour of Chelsea’s training ground, and is determined to hold the line that any decision involving the England team should be one for Capello, Baldini and their staff.

Terry will be given time off by Ancelotti to fly to Dubai to speak to his wife over the weekend of Chelsea’s FA Cup tie with Cardiff if he asks for it, and the club have promised to support the player over what they deem a private matter. “If he needs a holiday I will give him a holiday. If he doesn’t need a holiday then he will play against Cardiff,” Ancelotti said after yesterday’s 1-1 draw at Hull City.

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• Manager praise for keeper’s contribution to unbeaten run
• Form has made him a candidate for the World Cup

Alex McLeish has praised the contribution of Joe Hart to Birmingham City’s record unbeaten run and tipped the goalkeeper to be part of Fabio Capello’s England squad at next year’s World Cup.

“Joe’s form has been brilliant,” McLeish said of the 22-year-old, who is on loan from Manchester City. “He has improved since coming to us. He probably had it all in there anyway, but we’ve brought out the potential. I know that Fabio Capello and his staff like him, so he’s already got a head start, and his recent form has certainly made him a candidate for England and the World Cup.

“He is conscientious, he cares about his work and he enjoys the support he gets here. A lot of players can be over-sensitive and precious – they see coaching as a criticism. He’s not like that. A lot of things we tweaked earlier in the season have improved him. He has ironed out those rough edges. He’s a great pro. Money is available, but we’ve not discussed doing a deal with City in the January window at board level, so I don’t know about that.”

Hart would not be averse to making the move permanent, possibly at the end of the season. He is enjoying the regular first-team football he was denied at Eastlands, particularly with the club on a run of 11 matches without defeat, and said: “It’s nice to be around a good, solid back four. Those lads are heroes, with the blocks they are making. Half the time I’m diving around like a fool because the ball gets blocked before it gets to me.”

The Shrewsbury-born keeper said McLeish and the Birmingham goalkeeping coach, Dave Watson, had improved his “all-round awareness”. Hart explained: “They have stressed how to play more as a team player – not because I was selfish before, but how to relate to what’s going on in the game at all times. When they need me and when they don’t.”

Stephen Carr, 33, has been the major influence on an otherwise young defensive unit, which includes a centre-back partnership as effective as any in the country from two Championship recruits: Roger Johnson [ex-Cardiff] and Scott Dann [Coventry], signed for £8.5m the pair.

“He’s been brilliant,” Hart said. “He’s the best professional I’ve met, awesome. We have a great relationship. You get an understanding that comes from playing together. It’s not always about screaming your head off and being heard. As a defensive unit, I know what they do and they know what I do. We have an argument now and then, but that keeps you on your toes.”

And the World Cup? “That’s exciting. It’s nice to have people put me in that category, but I know I’m only one game away from the same people saying I need more experience.”

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He has pace, but does the Aston Villa striker have the smarts to leave the world’s best defenders standing?

Back in March, as Aston Villa toiled to a home defeat by Tottenham, Gabriel Agbonlahor’s number flashed up on the substitutes’ board and the Holte End applauded Martin O’Neill’s decision to withdraw him. The striker had scored once in 15 appearances, his confidence was shot and the fans had seen enough. How times have changed. Fast forward seven months and Agbonlahor has plundered five goals in his last six matches while his name is reverberating around Villa Park and back on the England team-sheet.

With Wayne Rooney injured and Emile Heskey expected to be dropped to the substitutes’ bench, opportunity knocks for Agbonlahor against Belarus when he pulls on an England shirt for the first time since February. Few would have given him a chance of returning to the international set-up when his form deserted him during the second half of last season but it is testament to his mental strength that he has managed to force his way back into Fabio Capello’s thoughts.

The biggest hurdle, however, has still to be overcome. With Rooney, Heskey and Jermain Defoe at the front of the strikers’ queue, Agbonlahor must now convince Capello that he should be next in line when the England manager names his forwards for South Africa. Carlton Cole, Peter Crouch, Michael Owen and Darren Bent might all have something to say about that, yet there is a feeling that Agbonlahor, with his searing pace, provides a welcome alternative.

Others, however, harbour doubts about whether he has the technical ability and awareness needed to be a success at international level. Although his best performances for Villa have come when he has been deployed as a lone striker, it is difficult to imagine Agbonlahor filling Heskey’s shoes for England in Capello’s favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, where the frontman’s role is more disciplined and considerable emphasis is placed on the need to bring others into the game.

Indeed Graham Taylor believes Agbonlahor is more of a free spirit. “Gabby, in my view, sees it very simple,” the former England and Villa manager said. “He’s not a player that links in with others. If you have a big man alongside him, like [John] Carew or Heskey, he sees that player will win the ball in the air and he’ll get the flick on. But in terms of interchanging positions and making runs to take the defender away, so that his colleagues or his partner can get the ball, that’s not Gabby’s game.”

In that sense it is possible that Agbonlahor will dovetail with Crouch, who is expected to partner him up front against Belarus, with the Tottenham forward’s aerial ability likely to provide the former Villa trainee with a chance to run in behind. There is also an argument to be made that with Theo Walcott more likely to be used on the flank, explosive speed through the middle could be a valuable asset in the later stages of World Cup matches.

Taylor, however, adds a cautionary note. “Gabby’s got pure pace. But at international level that isn’t always the answer because you come up against the very best defenders who position themselves well and are very quick themselves,” he said. “So, yes, he could inject his pace in the last 20 minutes of the game when people are tiring but it’s not just about that. At that level you have to have know-how as well.”

There are, nonetheless, signs that Agbonlahor has polished some of his rough edges. His goals this season have included a fine left-footed shot against Fulham, an emphatic right-foot finish against Portsmouth and an adroit flick against Cardiff. The key is whether he can continue in that vein and avoid the alarming dip in performance level that coincided with Villa’s season imploding from February onwards.

Fatigue could be a factor. Agbonlahor made 48 appearances for Villa last season, including more than two months toiling as a lone striker, and the demands took their toll. Whether the extra muscle he has built up over the summer will allow him to handle a similar workload again remains to be seen but there is certainly little doubt that the memory of the sarcastic jeering that accompanied his walk from the pitch back in March is beginning to fade.

“He’s done well to come back because undoubtedly he would have been hurt, so he must be given credit for overcoming that,” Taylor said. “But in terms of England, there are going to be three or four more games before the tournament and every squad player who gets an opportunity had better take it and Gabby is no different. The chances are that if you don’t, you could be binned by Capello. Gabby must keep scoring goals.”

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• Agbonlahor “deserves another chance”, says Carew
• 22-year-old has not won a cap since February

John Carew has urged Fabio Capello to recall Gabriel Agbonlahor to the England squad following the Aston Villa striker’s impressive start to the new season.

Agbonlahor scored for the fourth successive match against Cardiff City in the Carling Cup on Wednesday night, prompting the Norwegian to claim that his team-mate “deserves another chance” with England after having been overlooked by Capello since winning his second cap against Spain in February.

Agbonlahor failed to make an impression against Spain on a night when England were outplayed by the European champions but it was arguably his poor performances at club level during the second half of the season, when he faced criticism from Villa supporters, that cost him a place in Capello’s squad.

However, since scoring against Fulham at the end of last month, the 22-year-old has rediscovered the form that first brought him to Capello’s attention and on Wednesday helped Villa secure their sixth successive win.

“I saw Gabby in front of goal against Cardiff and he finished with great class with a flick for the goal,” said Carew, who set up the chance that Agbonlahor steered home in the third minute with an adroit touch to secure Villa’s place in the last 16. “That was a sign of his confidence. I think he can get back in the England squad. He deserves another chance and it would surprise me if he doesn’t get one. He is looking really sharp.

“England has some really good strikers now and he is one of those to be fighting for a place in the team.”

Carew believes Agbonlahor has benefited from extra sessions in the gym during the summer. “He is young so he is still developing and his confidence is developing as well. He will get even more consistent every season.

“He is really improving his game all the time. He is getting muscley and stronger and he still hasn’t lost his pace. He is finding the balance there and is on a hot streak.”

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• United’s manager challenges Foster to take Van der Sar’s spot
• Consistency key following season blighted by injury

If, as Sir Alex Ferguson and everyone else at Old Trafford believes, Ben Foster’s season will end keeping goal for England in South Africa, it was not an auspicious beginning.

A routine back-pass from Darron Gibson was not controlled, Foster was dispossessed by Malaysia’s best player, Amri Yahyah, who was presented with an empty net. The 85,000 in the Bukit Jalil Stadium exploded, there was another cascade of flashbulbs from the stands and, even though it may only have been a friendly, Foster took the familiar stance of a humiliated goalkeeper, hands on hips, talking to no one in particular. It will take more, much more, for Ferguson to lose faith and in a 2–0 win over a Malaysia XI yesterday there was a more familiar clean sheet. “This was Ben’s first game for four months. He dislocated a finger at the end of last season and we had to operate,” said the United manager. “I have said it before and I will say it again, there is no question in my mind that he will be England’s goalkeeper. There is nobody better. I am absolutely convinced of that.

“But he has two challenges. One is to take the position of Edwin van der Sar, who as everybody accepts, is one of the great goalkeepers of all time.” The other, Ferguson accepted, was in the hands of fate. “We have to hope and pray that he stays free of injury and consistency will be everything for the boy.” For someone who has suffered a cruciate ligament injury and missed eight weeks of last season with a twisted ankle, this is not an idle prayer.

Very rarely does any England manager, especially one as fastidious as Fabio Capello, select anyone who is not first choice for their clubs. There was a time, around December 2007, when it seemed Van der Sar’s days were done. There had been mistakes and the Dutchman began publicly questioning his own form and longevity. Then came the rediscovery of his touch that ended in his saving Nicolas Anelka’s penalty to win the European Cup for Manchester United in Moscow. Ferguson remarked that Van der Sar was so confident he actually broke out into a smile as he dived across.

“It is a big 12 months for me,” Foster said today. “I have just got to kick on and start playing a few matches. Of course the World Cup is a big motivation for me. You don’t get many chances to play in a World Cup and I feel that provided I can play some games for Manchester United, I have a realistic chance of going.”

Should Foster, now 26, make it to South Africa, it will mark the end of one of the more remarkable journeys in modern football. In the days when young players are cosseted in academies, there will not be many internationals who can boast spells at Stafford Rangers, Tiverton Town and Kidderminster Harriers on their CVs.

There are not many who would listen on their iPods to descriptions of where opponents would place a penalty that gave him a critical edge as Manchester United engaged in the shoot-out with Tottenham that decided an otherwise dreadful Carling Cup final.

Foster’s path to Old Trafford began in the 2005 LDV Vans Trophy final, where Foster, officially on Stoke’s books, though he had yet to play for them, was turning out for Wrexham against Southend at the Millennium Stadium.

“I remember it as massively important because three or four months before I don’t think I had played in a competitive league match,” Foster recalled. “It was a good time to perform because halfway through that game the cameraman, who was filming for the big screen at the Millennium Stadium, zoomed in on Alex Ferguson’s face and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, he’s watching is he’.

“He was obviously there to see his son Darren [who was then playing for Wrexham] and he got man of the match and I was devastated because it had gone to extra time, we’d won 2-0 and I thought I’d done enough.”

Ferguson certainly thought so and paid Stoke £1m for Foster’s services and immediately loaned him out to Watford. Again he ended the season in Cardiff, as part of the side that demolished Leeds 3–0 in the 2006 play-off final. Ferguson may call him the best goalkeeper in England but his then manager, Aidy Boothroyd, stated he had the potential to be the best in the world. This season those statements will be put to the test.

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