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While his adopted country seems obsessed with tawdry headlines, Fabio Capello’s international counterparts are only talking about one man

Fabio Capello does not want to say too much more about John Terry or Wayne Bridge, and who can blame him? Ahead of his last England friendly before he settles down to select a World Cup squad, the Italian would much rather talk about Wayne Rooney, as most of his counterparts in international football management are doing.

“I see the other managers quite a lot, at meetings and conferences,” Capello explains. “Always they come to me and say the same thing – ‘You have one fantastic player’. Vicente del Bosque, Giovanni Trapattoni, they ask me always about Rooney.”

And how does Capello respond? Like a drowning man grabbing a lifeline, or a hungry prisoner discovering rare and refreshing fruit is on the menu for a change. When all your adopted country seems to be interested in is a tawdry succession of off-field scandals it is all the more pleasant to be asked to consider a footballer who is winning global admiration for playing football.

“Rooney is really good,” Capello says, allowing himself a slightly self-satisfied smile. “He did not play so well at Everton last week but otherwise he has been in a fantastic moment. He has improved a lot this season, he’s always in front of goal now. Every pass is good, his movement, his heading and his confidence are all excellent. I think he’s one of the best players in the world right now. You can’t make direct comparisons because every top player has a different style, but you can definitely say Rooney is up there with the best.

“With Lionel Messi you get dribbling and imagination, Cristiano Ronaldo is fast and can shoot from distance. Kaká arrives at the goal from the midfield area. Rooney is a centre-forward. He can do most things and he’s strong. He runs a lot and presses a lot. The others don’t, and that’s a big difference. He’s very important to us.”

There. Wasn’t that like a breath of fresh air? Listening to the FA chairman, Lord Triesman, on the subject a few days ago, it quickly became clear that his employers regard Capello with the same admiration the manager reserves for his best attacking player. After years of searching England have finally found themselves someone who is demonstrably good at his job. Someone happy to take charge, a figure of authority players can shelter behind, someone who can make an average team look good. At £6m a year Capello may not count as a bargain, but Triesman is more than happy with the amount of authority he has imported. That is why, he said, there was no question of the FA telling him how to handle the Terry case, or seeking to influence his decision about the captaincy. What Capello says goes.

Which is just as well, as it happens, since Capello is now saying Terry will still be his leader on the field, no matter who wears the armband. While the coach was careful to confirm that he would not be changing his mind and offering Terry the captaincy back in the foreseeable future, certainly not before the World Cup and probably not afterwards, just as significant was his admission that he never considered leaving him out of the squad.

Whether Terry feels quite the same way is doubtful, but Capello clearly views the armband as an object of only slightly more importance than the coin captains toss to decide ends or the pennants they exchange before kick off. The FA might be congratulating themselves on having a big man who can get the big decisions right, but for Capello it was literally the work of a few minutes to toss the honour to the next man in line, even though he hardly ever plays, and shadow him with a player who is rarely demonstrative even when he captains Liverpool.

Capello is only concerned with events on the pitch, and at Wembley on Wednesday it is unlikely to look as if too much has changed. Terry will still be the de facto leader, Capello has just admitted as much, and together with Rooney he remains central, in every sense, to England’s hopes of success in South Africa.

Capello hopes he has seen the last of the lurid headlines, though he also says he is not unduly concerned about players’ private lives, since that is an area for club managers to supervise. Of Wayne Bridge he points out there is still time for a change of heart, before adding pointedly that when he played he only had the chance to appear in one World Cup, and some players get none. Of the notorious Wags, whom he amusingly likened to a virus at the last tournament, he claims to be unconcerned where they base themselves in South Africa as long as they stay out of the England training camp.

If he has one wish for the World Cup it is a simple one, and the same one practically every other World Cup manager would make. “I hope my best players will be fit when it comes to the time to decide my squad,” he says. No prizes for guessing which players he means.

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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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• ‘Rooney is a really important player, he’s incredible and young’
• ‘He can improve a lot with more experience and confidence’

Fabio Capello does not care if the pressure is on Wayne Rooney to deliver for Manchester United – as long as he maintains the level of his recent performances for England.

With Cristiano Ronaldo now at Real Madrid, there are expectations on Rooney to lead the scoring at Old Trafford – and the 23-year-old has already stepped up with four goals this season.

Responsibility has fallen to Rooney to replace Ronaldo as United’s source of creativity, but Capello said: “This is Sir Alex’s problem.”

Capello has brought the best out of Rooney at international level, the forward scoring 10 goals in his last eight games ahead of the friendly against Slovenia on Saturday and the World Cup qualifier against Croatia on 9 September.

Rooney suffered a training-ground injury and missed the game against Slaven Bilic’s team almost two years ago, when defeat led to failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

Capello has improved England’s results, and Rooney has played a significant part. “Rooney is a really important player, he’s incredible and young – he can improve a lot with more experience and confidence in himself,” the Italian added.

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