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Posts Tagged ‘Switzerland’

• 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.”

For full story go to here

• Meeting to be held in Switzerland
• Capello thought to favour autumn games

England and Wales’s qualifying fixtures for Euro 2012 will be decided in Switzerland on 15 March.

The date was agreed in Warsaw yesterday following the draw and the meeting is almost certain to be attended by the national managers Fabio Capello and John Toshack, who will be keen to get the schedule they feel suits their sides.

Capello got his wish for a five-team group and Switzerland is the obvious meeting point to decide the fixture schedule, given that Group G also involves the Swiss, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

The England manager will want to play the most difficult fixtures during the eight dates available in September and October 2010 and 2011, as that is the time of year when he feels English players are at their most productive, before an arduous domestic campaign.

He may try to avoid qualifying games in June 2011, knowing that Bulgaria and Montenegro can get uncomfortably warm at that time of year.

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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.

For full story go to here

• England face awkward derby against John Toshack’s Wales
• Scotland draw European champions Spain in tough group

Fabio Capello claimed his side would “not be able to play a single qualifying game relaxed” but privately the national manager might concede that England’s prospects of qualifying for the 2012 European Championship appear far from daunting.

The draw for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine cast England into one of the three groups of five teams, with Switzerland the only other side to have qualified for the summer’s World Cup finals. They avoided any energy-sapping trips to the furthest reaches of the continent and, although Wales will provide an awkward local challenge, Capello will be confident of seeing off a side ranked 76th in the world.

The Welsh have not beaten the English since triumphing 1-0 at Wrexham in 1984 and were twice seen off by Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup finals. Capello sat next to the Wales manager, John Toshack, on his flight to Warsaw with their conversation centring on Real Madrid, where they have each coached twice. “But he was also telling me how Wales are a young team,” said Capello. “Their average age is 22 years old, and it will be a very interesting game, for me and England.

“They have good, young players, and derbies are never normal games. But it is a difficult group. We won’t be able to play a single qualifying game relaxed. Switzerland will be really tough. My first game [as England manager] was against them and I remember seeing the players in training and being really happy, and then seeing that they were not the same players out on the pitch when the match started, even if we won. When we play the Swiss again we will show that we have progressed since that first game.”

Capello’s wariness is founded on Montenegro’s presence in the section from the lowest pot of seeds, despite being ranked four places higher than the Welsh in Fifa’s current pecking order. The Swiss remain somewhat erratic, having won their qualifying group for the World Cup finals under Otmar Hitzfeld despite contriving to lose to Luxembourg in Zurich en route, while England have never lost to Bulgaria. Both Hitzfeld and Bulgaria’s Stanimir Stoilov insisted that Capello’s side will begin the group as “strong favourites”, the latter adding that his team were merely “­targeting second place”.

Yet Toshack will point to a clutch of promising players as cause for optimism if the personnel continue to gain experience in the Premier League. “We only have 10 players in the Premier League, and two of them are goalkeepers, and it’s very difficult to get out of these qualifying groups with six or seven players from the Championship,” he said. “So we have hope the likes of David Edwards at Wolves, Aaron Ramsey at Arsenal, Jack Collison at West Ham and Tottenham’s Gareth Bale continue to play regularly if we’re going to stand a chance of getting anywhere.

“England are a top side, we realise that. They probably start as one of the favourites to win the World Cup this summer. But my players will be excited by the prospect of this group, and the games against England in particular, and we will give it a go. My lads will relish the challenge ahead.”

The Scots have arguably been handed the most onerous task if they are to reach the finals in Poland and Ukraine, with the European champions Spain and the Czech Republic awaiting in Group I. “It is exciting,” said the new Scotland manager, Craig Levein. “You’re talking about some of the best players in the world, and drawing Spain will capture people’s imagination. They will be formidable opponents.

“Spain are an outstanding side – they won the European Championships, and that’s all you need to say. I also think the Czech Republic [whom Scotland play in a friendly on 3 March] are a fantastic team. But this is an opportunity for us to do our best and, if we can pick up points against all of the teams in the group, you just never know.”

The Republic of Ireland manager, ­Giovanni Trapattoni, has called upon his team to summon similar spirit to that which so nearly earned them a place at the summer’s World Cup as they confront a group that includes Russia and Slovakia.

“We will start with the same mentality we had three months ago against France [in the play-off],” said Trapattoni. “If we begin with the same mentality, we have the possibility to qualify. Russia will be difficult and Slovakia are a technically good team with a very tough mentality.”

Northern Ireland, meanwhile, must attempt to emerge from a section that includes the reigning world champions Italy and the World Cup qualifiers Serbia and Slovenia.

“I can see teams in that group taking points off each other,” said the national coach, Nigel Worthington.

“You want to be tested against the best and Italy are just that. Serbia are a very good team, we had Slovenia last time in the World Cup qualifiers so we know all about them. Brian Kerr is with the Faroe Islands now and knows the British game inside out so that doesn’t make it any easier.

“We’ve got to make sure we are switched on. There is plenty to battle for and we’ve got to make sure we are at our most professional and disciplined so we get the most out of the games. It will be difficult but we have a fighting spirit and will go into the campaign with great belief.”

For full story go to here

• Fabio Capello’s decision hints that more may yet be revealed
• Denies offering to call Vanessa Perroncel in Capello meeting

The FA hierarchy and those close to John Terry hope that Fabio Capello’s decision to strip him of the captaincy will slow the continuing avalanche of bad publicity, but remain fearful that he has left himself open to further damaging speculation in the run-up to the World Cup.

He is understood to fear that it is now “open season” among the tabloid press. Having put himself at a disadvantage via his own actions and his attempts to keep the story of his alleged affair out of the public eye, it will be difficult for him to defend himself or prevent a continuing torrent of negative stories, true or not.

Capello’s right-hand man Franco Baldini took extensive soundings in the days preceding the Italian’s return from Switzerland, where he had been recovering following a knee operation, in order to get a sense of how much worse it could get for Terry, and his briefing played a part in the coach’s decision.

Some believe Terry needs to overhaul his team of advisers in the wake of the furore. Since splitting with his long-term agent Aaron Lincoln last year, he has been represented by Keith Cousins, the Dagenham & Redbridge chairman, and Paul Nicholls, a former Chelsea youth-team colleague.

Even before last week’s events, in December he was privately reminded of the standards expected from an England captain by Capello in the wake of News of the World allegations that he had been paid £10,000 for a private training-ground tour.

A spokesman for Terry yesterday denied widespread speculation that the former England captain had bought the silence of the ex-girlfriend of his international team-mate Wayne Bridge in order to try and quell the negative publicity.

It was Terry’s heavy-handed legal attempts to stop newspapers reporting details of his alleged affair with Vanessa Perroncel that kickstarted the chain of events that led to him being stripped of the armband by Capello on Friday.

When the injunction was lifted, the judge revealed that two of Terry’s associates, who were not named, had met Perroncel at a hotel where she signed two documents agreeing not to reveal details of the affair in return for a nominal fee of £1.

But Mr Justice Tugendhat criticised the arrangement, and said he “did not feel confident” the papers she signed expressed her wishes.

Since Perroncel announced on Friday through her publicist Max Clifford that she would not be selling her story, despite offers of more than £250,000, there has been repeated speculation that Terry paid a six-figure sum to buy her silence.

Clifford told the Guardian on Friday that the suggestion that Terry had paid Perroncel was “totally untrue”. “That [speculation] is natural, to be expected and totally untrue. She is keeping her options open and meeting with lawyers regarding some of the untrue and hurtful things that have been said about her.”

Speculation that Terry dramatically offered to call Perroncel during their pivotal 12-minute meeting on Friday has also been dismissed by insiders as wide of the mark, although it is believed that the player was devastated on hearing the news, after going into the meeting hoping to retain the captaincy.

For full story go to here

All the plastic ball-by-plastic ball action as Europe’s national sides learned their fate in Warsaw

Preview: Poland and Ukraine are the hosts for Euro 2012 and today, representatives of the 53 member associations who’ll be duking it out Royal Rumble style to qualify for the finals, which kick off on 8 June 2012, will gather in Warsaw to learn their fate.

Today’s draw takes place in the Polish capital’s Palace of Culture and Science and will feature 51 plastic balls (Poland and Ukraine qualify automatically as hosts, but holders Spain must qualify the hard way) being swirled, plucked and cracked open by a dizzying array of tanned and well fed men in fetching blazers.

There are 14 berths at Euro 2012 up for grabs and nine groups will be formed in today’s qualifying draw: six groups of six teams and three of five. The seedings are formed on the basis of the Uefa national team coefficient ranking system, with holders Spain automatically top seeded. Each group will contain one side from the first five pots and six of them will also feature a team from Pot 6.

The nine group winners and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight remaining runners-up will contest two-legged play-offs to decide who gets the four remaining places. You can see who’s in which pot below, where I’ve highlighted the five home nations. England are in Pot One, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland are in Pot Three and Wales are in Pot Four.

Pot One: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia

Pot Two: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania

Pot Three: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Pot Four: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus

Pot Five: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein

Pot Six: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

The draw hasn’t started yet, but on Eurosport they’re broadcasting a pre-recorded interview with Uefa president Michel Platini. He says that today’s preview is a “bit of a preamble” and that they don’t want to “outshine the World Cup”. He says there’s been problems with the infrastructures in some of the smaller cities set to host games during 2012: hotels, airport runways, stadia etc and so on. He says he hopes that Euro 2012 will be a different type of event to those staged in countries such as Germany.

An email: “I am genuinely puzzled that Slovenia, who have qualified for the World Cup, are in Pot Four along with Macedonia, Wales and other luminaries, and below Pot Three, where none of the participants have qualified for anything for a good long time,” writes Richard Woods. “Russia, who lost out to them, are in Pot One. Do co-efficients simply take no notice of real and meaningful competitive results, or am I just grumpy this morning?”

11am: We’re about to begin. Marsha and Piotr are our hosts for today. If their forced “banter” is anything to go by, I presume they’re Poland’s equivalent of Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly. Marsha is wearing a black dsress with very puffed-up shoulders. It may well be a nod to tonight’s Super Bowl.

11.03am: Poland prime minister Donald Tusk is introduced. He says that “Poland and Ukraine are the first winners of this elimination”, possibly misreading the word ‘competition’ on the autocue.

11.05am: Only five minutes in and we’re already on to our first montage of the morning, soundtracked by Chopin and celebrating – I think – 50 years of the European Championships.

11.07am: On Sky Sports News, they’re discussing Fabio Capello’s decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy. Ray Houghton, who’s in punditing for the Uefa draw alongside Terry Venables and John Hartson, among others, doesn’t think it matters who the captain is. I’m inclined to agree with him.

11.10am: Sky cut to Bryan Swanson in the media centre at the Palace of Culture and Science, which is – unsurprisingly – full of people like Bryan Swanson.

11.12am: Piotr and Marsha introduce Poland legend Zbigniew “Ziggy” Boniek and his Ukrainian equivalent Andriy Shevchenko, who’ll be assisting with the draw. A couple of very longwinded interviews involving multiple translations ensues. Suffice to say, they are both looking forward to Euro 2012. Cue: another montage, showing what fans who travel to Poland and Ukraine can expect to see. A lot of building sites, is my guess. Perhaps I’m being too cynical.

11.17am: “Can you confirm that it has been agreed in advance that Ireland will be drawn in the same group as France?” asks Kevin Dardis. “That this will be the ‘replay’ some people were screaming for? And that Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands will also be in the group? And Cyprus (as usual).”

11.18am: I can report that Poland and Ukraine both look very nice places – I’ve never been to either, so I’m only going on what they’re showing in the montage, which features a lot of Lovely Girls.

11.20am: Piotr and Marsha introduce the second pair of tournament ambassadors who’ll be helping with the draw: former international footballers Poland’s Andres Szarmach and Ukraine’s Oleg Blokhin. They too are very much looking forward to Euro 2012. Enough fannying around – let’s get on with the draw.

11.22am: Uefa big cheese Gianni Infantino takes to the stage and introduces a little primer for explaining the procedure: the lowest seeded teams will be coming out first.

Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan

Group B: Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra

Group C: Italy, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands

Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg

Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino

Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta

Group G: England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales, Montenegro

Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland

Group I: Spain, Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania, Liechtenstein

11.28am: With the lowest ranked teams out, now we move on to the next pot. The tension here is … non-existent. Armenia get drawn out first, but go into Group B because official Uefa diktats forbid them from being in in the same group as Azerbaijan or Russia.

11.32am: Things are hotting up in Warsaw. No, really. We’re on to the third pot now.

11.35pm: We move on to the next pot, containing Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Rep of Ireland.

11.38am: The Republic of Ireland get Macedonia … again. Bah!

11.42am: So, just the Big Boys left to come out …

11.46pm: So England get Wales, which could make for a couple of interesting matches in Cardiff and Wembley.

11.48am: I’m examining those groups in a bid to come up with a Group of Death, but I’m jiggered if I can find one. Group H, with Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus and Iceland is probably the toughest, but none of them look too difficult.

11.54am: On Sky Sports News, Terry Venables is talking some seriously incomprehenisble gibberish through his grey goatee about the merits of groups with six teams over groups with five teams. He sounds very, very confused.

11.56am: Sky pundit and former Wales international John Hartson is predictably enthused by the prospect of his country playing England. He doesn’t think England will too worried at having to play Wales.

11.58am: Sky pundit and former Scotland manager Craig Brown has “got to concede that Spain are probably the favourites” to win Group I, where they are joined by the Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania and Liechtenstein. Probably the favourites? Probably?

12pm: Ray Houghton is delighted with the Republic of Ireland’s draw. He thinks Russia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra are all beatable and reckons there’s no reason why Ireland shouldn’t top the group “and that’s not something we’ve said too often in the past”.

12.02pm: Sky’s Norn Ironish correspondent Lawrie Sanchez looks glum and thinks his country’s chances of finishing in the top two of their group with Italy, Serbia, Estonia, Slovenia and the Faroe Islands are slim. However, he adds, there are some good destinations in Group C to suit any lads organising stag parties.

For full story go to here

Click on the auto-refresh doo-hickey for all the latest action after 10.45am. Send your emails to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk

Preview: Poland and Ukraine are the hosts for Euro 2012 and today, representatives of the 53 member associations who’ll be duking it out Royal Rumble style to qualify for the finals, which kick off on 8 June, will gather in Warsaw to learn their fate.

Today’s draw takes place in the Polish capital’s Palace of Culture and Science and will feature 51 plastic balls (Poland and Ukraine qualify automatically as hosts, but holders Spain must qualify the hard way) being swirled, plucked and cracked open by a dizzying array of tanned and well fed men in fetching blazers.

There are 14 berths at Euro 2012 up for grabs and nine groups will be formed in today’s qualifying draw: six groups of six teams and three of five. The seedings are formed on the basis of the Uefa national team coefficient ranking system, with holders Spain automatically top seeded. Each group will contain one side from the first five pots and six of them will also feature a team from Pot 6.

The nine group winners and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight remaining runners-up will contest two-legged play-offs to decide who gets the four remaining places. You can see who’s in which pot below, where I’ve highlighted the five home nations. England are in Pot One, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland are in Pot Three and Wales are in Pot Four.

Pot One: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia

Pot Two: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania

Pot Three: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Pot Four: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus

Pot Five: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein

Pot Six: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

For full story go to here

Confidence is propelling the Manchester United striker. Something has clicked and he is right on top of his game

Rampant Rooney is not just the appealingly alliterative newspaper phrase of the moment, it happens to be a wholly fair and accurate description of a singular talent. The Manchester United striker is in the form of his life, not only scoring wonderful goals but terrorising opponents with his determination and decisiveness and singlehandedly influencing outcomes in a manner he briefly achieved for England at Euro 2004 but until now has never managed to replicate for his club.

The change from good player to unstoppable force of nature was sudden and unexpected, and Wayne Rooney puts it down to Fabio Capello’s influence. “I am scoring more goals because I have changed my position,” he explained after his four-goal one-man show against Hull. “I’m playing further forward and in the middle of the penalty area. It was Capello who suggested this to me. He said I needed to be in the danger areas and I think he’s right.”

Here is what Capello had to say after watching Rooney help demolish Manchester City in the Carling Cup semi-final. “Rooney has improved a lot during the last two years and this season he has been fantastic. He has been United’s leader on the pitch. For me, he has improved in every area and in one part of the pitch especially – close to goal. That is where he needs to be. I have watched him this year and he is showing a new maturity.”

So far, so good. Rooney does appear to be blossoming both on and off the field in United’s care, rapidly turning into the devastating player everyone hoped he would become while at the same time managing to pick a sensible path through the tawdriness of the celebrity circus that nowadays envelops football.

Few at Old Trafford will mind if the England manager’s input has refined their best player’s game and made him a more efficient goalscorer, though sharper-eyed observers may already have spotted a flaw in the above analysis. It simply isn’t true. None of it. Rooney has not changed his position, has not become a goal-hanger or a specialist in playing off the last defender like Michael Owen or Jermain Defoe, and has not stopped covering almost the whole area of the pitch. He is certainly doing something better and more effectively than he has been, and has changed position in that he is now the central prong of the United attack without having to fit in around other forward players, but the idea that he waits around in advanced upfield areas until United can get the ball to him is demonstrably false.

The four goals against Hull could be termed a finisher’s haul, but that was mainly because United ended up dominating the game and most of the play was around the opposition penalty area in any case. Against better-matched opponents in highly competitive games it has been a different story. The pass to Ryan Giggs that helped set up the first goal against City, the one Capello marvelled at while convalescing after knee surgery in Switzerland, was delivered from the halfway line out on the left wing, exactly the sort of position Rooney is supposed to have given up occupying. The stunning counterattack he launched and completed against Arsenal last week began just outside his own penalty area, with an astute pass to Nani, and by the time Rooney had galloped into the opposite box to supply an immaculate first-time finish he must have travelled 60 or 70 yards.

It appears to this observer that Rooney is doing just what he has always done, only with more confidence and authority and with a notably improved end product. Perhaps the two go together, and perhaps if Rooney believes he is playing a different game, whether he actually is or not, he should just be allowed to get on with it because the results speak from themselves. Following the Leeds v Tottenham game on the car radio and then on television on Wednesday, I heard two different commentators refer to the newly improved David Bentley as a confidence player. All footballers are confidence players. Perhaps some have lower thresholds and more delicate balances than others, but no player, indeed no human being, is immune to the sometimes unfathomable pendulum swings of self‑belief. Confidence, Sir Alex Ferguson once said, is the key to about 99% of what is achieved in any walk of life.

Confidence, surely, is what is propelling Rooney at present. For whatever reason, something has clicked into place and he is right on top of his game. Not only is he United’s main man he is equipped to be England’s main man, and in a World Cup year that is an exciting prospect. His chances of becoming the next England captain were real, too. Not only would he have conducted himself better than John Terry – he could hardly have conducted himself worse – but for any given England game he is a far more automatic choice than the out of form Steven Gerrard or the injury-dogged Rio Ferdinand, and that is an important consideration.

Capello knows that and his elevation of Ferdinand, no saint and not always available, rather confirms the view that the captaincy role is not all that important. Not as important as allowing Rooney’s talent to flourish without any extra pressures or distractions. While Rooney has every chance of being a brilliant England captain one day, that day can wait. With further revelations imminent, Capello merely made a pragmatic decision over Terry. His second decision was the clever one.

Chelsea take bonding to new levels

The English media pack on the scent of a story is a sight to behold, like a foxhunt in full cry only with slightly more damage to the landscape. Fabio Capello’s face was a picture as he stepped off his flight from Switzerland to discover that he too was part of the quarry. The great thing about an orchestrated burst of manufactured moral outrage is that it can leave everyone looking foolish.

Who would ever have thought, for example, that a sermon on the need for footballers to be role models would ever be delivered by Harry Redknapp? “If you don’t want to be a role model, don’t come into football,” said Tottenham’s pillar of probity. Then there was plain-talking Dave Bassett. “There’s an unwritten rule that you don’t start messing with players’ missuses. The thing we don’t know is whether Terry only saw her after they split up but he’s been sneaky about it anyway.”

There is possibly something Bassett has failed to grasp about the nature of clandestine affairs, but never mind. The England captain appears not to be the only sneak at Stamford Bridge. No wonder Chelsea have had five managers in four years. Carlo Ancelotti is to be congratulated, now we know how Chelsea spend their leisure time, for making sure there is enough energy left for securing results on the pitch. In fact Chelsea have been so impressive in recent seasons, with team spirit and unity frequently lauded in their runs to FA Cup and Champions League finals, that perhaps a few more teams will start to follow their example and pass round the partners. Team bonding exercises at most clubs are still in the dark ages, after all. Orienteering in the Lake District or freezing in the rain at an army training base is about as much fun as you can expect. Trust the flash King’s Road set to update the concept by keeping it indoors.

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• Draw for finals in Poland and Ukraine to be staged in Warsaw
• Serbia arguably strongest team England could face

Fabio Capello heads to Warsaw for his first qualifying draw as England coach on Sunday probably half-hoping to meet Craig Levein, but definitely wanting to avoid Nemanja Vidic. Capello nearly walked straight into a reunion between England and Scotland when he succeeded Steve McClaren in the wake of the team’s failure to reach Euro 2008.

With both countries eager to generate some interest at the start of a barren summer, the oldest international fixture was briefly back on the agenda. It would have happened if Rangers and Celtic had agreed to release their players instead of forcing them to attend their own post-season tours. Since then, England’s fortunes have curved sharply upwards while Scotland have headed in the opposite direction.

The two countries have not faced each other since 1999, when a second-leg fightback from Scotland at Wembley narrowly failed to deny England a place at Euro 2000. The Scots will be drawn from Pot Three.

The Republic of Ireland – who England have not met since 1995 when a friendly in Dublin was abandoned amid violent scenes at Lansdowne Road – represent a bigger threat given how close they were to securing a spot at this summer’s World Cup. They will also be drawn from Pot Three.

For Capello, though, the biggest danger to automatic qualification for the Euro 2012 tournament – to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine – will be the team seeded second in England’s group.

The real heavyweights – Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal and France – are all avoided, but not Vidic’s Serbia, probably the best of the five World Cup contenders among the nine in Pot Two.

Northern Ireland’s recent improvement offers them a spot in Pot Three, giving England a 33% chance of drawing familiar opposition. The same is also true for Wales, in Pot Four along with Belgium, a measure of how far both countries’ fortunes have plummeted.

Capello might quite like one of those two, if only for the ease of travel. On that geographical basis, Switzerland, Scotland, Wales, Iceland and Luxembourg would be the dream draw. The polar opposite would see England undertake trips to Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and clock up plenty of air miles in the process. Substitute Romania for Turkey, Bulgaria for Israel and Belarus for Cyprus and you have the least fan-friendly group.

Indeed, Pot Five, including Albania, Georgia, Moldova and Armenia, as well as Kazakhstan – who England defeated twice on the road to South Africa – looks the least appealing, while all the home nations have a 33% chance of missing anyone from Pot Six, meaning only eight qualifying games have to be played over a 13-month period.

With 14 places up for grabs, all nine group winners, plus the best runner-up, go straight through. The remaining eight go into four play-off matches, which, much to the Republic of Ireland’s annoyance, were seeded in World Cup qualifying.

So, if England and Scotland do miss each other – and they have not met in a qualifying group as we now know them in any other major competition before – there could be plenty of space to arrange that reunion.

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Stylish goalkeeper whose England career included a disastrous defeat to Hungary

Had his international career as England’s goalkeeper stopped at the beginning of the 1953-54 season, Gil Merrick, who has died aged 88, would doubtless be remembered as the stylish, commanding player so long admired between the posts for Birmingham City. Alas, he was destined to run into the Hungarians, conceding six goals at Wembley in November 1953 – according to the England manager, Walter Winterbottom, Merrick “had a nightmare” – and another seven in Budapest, the following May. Still, Merrick remained as England’s keeper when the party flew on to the World Cup finals in Switzerland in 1954, where another uneasy game – conceding four goals against Uruguay in the quarter-final – proved to be the final cap he would win.

Born in Sparkhill, Birmingham, Merrick supported the city team, rather than Aston Villa, as a boy and he signed as a professional with them in August 1939. He spent the second world war in the army. Returning to Birmingham City, he helped them to win the Second Division championship in the 1947-48 season and was again in goal when, having been relegated, they won it in 1954-55.

In 1956 – the year that Birmingham City finished sixth in the First Division – he figured in their FA Cup final team, which lost 3-1 to Manchester City at Wembley, the match in which his opposite number, Bert Trautmann, continued to play despite breaking a bone in his neck. Merrick made 485 league appearances for Birmingham City until 1960, when he retired as a player and went into management.

Standing 6ft 1ins tall, weighing more than 13 stone, and elegantly moustached, Merrick was an imposing figure. He took his goalkeeping very seriously, making a careful study of his potential opponents. “If I studied a player’s run-up and action,” he would reflect, after saving a fierce right-footed shot from Portsmouth’s Duggie Reid, “in kicking the ball, rather than waiting for the ball in flight and depending on quickness of the eye to make a save, I should have a better chance of going the right way.”

The first of Merrick’s 23 England caps came in 1951 at Wembley. He could scarcely be saddled with all the blame for England’s later debacle against Hungary, their first ever defeat on home soil by a team from outside the British Isles. Defensive weaknesses had been evident some weeks earlier in the same stadium, when a patchwork Rest of Europe team scored four times and deserved better than a 4-4 draw. Two of their goals were scored by a player Merrick particularly admired, the powerful Hungarian exile Ladislao Kubala.

From almost the outset of the game against Hungary, Merrick was something of a sitting duck. His defence was totally baffled by the deep-lying Hungarian centre-forward, Nándor Hidegkuti. Barely 90 seconds of the game had elapsed when Hidegkuti, with a clever feint, caused the English centre-half Harry Johnston – who failed to get to grips with him throughout the match – to leave a space in the defensive line, through which he crashed a fierce right-footer past Merrick.

A flood of goals followed. “That was something special, no doubt about that,” Merrick would recall. “Everybody was so very fast. I think the first was a shambles. We never knew who to mark. Harry Johnston, as we walked off 4-2 down [at half-time], said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here. I haven’t had a kick’, and he hadn’t, because Hidegkuti had moved back 20 yards and left Harry marking nobody. In some ways it was a privilege to play against them. I don’t think there was a better side to teach us how to play football. We’d never seen anything like it. We never had a ghost of a chance at all… The two wingers could catch pigeons. Poor Alf [Ramsey, the right-back] didn’t know which way to turn, because the little left-winger was going by him like a train.”

Seven more goals whizzed past Merrick in Budapest, but with Billy Wright moving from wing-half to centre-half, the defence tightened up in the World Cup in Switzerland, until in the quarter-finals the opposition was Uruguay, holders of the trophy, the 7-0 conquerors of Scotland in the first stages. Merrick, thought one commentator, “had lost his nerve completely after the two Hungarian defeats. England’s new backs, Ron Staniforth and Roger Byrne, had not had time to build up any understanding with their goalkeeper or with each other.”

In Basle, it was 1-1 when England fell behind to a goal by Uruguay’s famous roving centre-half and captain, Obdulio Varela. “The agility of Beara [Yugoslavia's keeper] or Grosics [Hungary's],” considered the commentator, “might have saved that goal.” Uruguay’s third goal saw Merrick widely criticised – too slow, it was reported, to get down to a shot by Juan Schiaffino.

Dropped by England, Merrick would play for another six years for Birmingham City. Before he retired, he published an autobiography, somewhat challengingly titled, I See It All. He managed Birmingham City from 1960 to 1964, becoming runners-up in the Fairs Cup in 1960-61 and leading the side to win the 1963 League Cup over Aston Villa. Although they were never greatly successful in the First Division under Merrick, the club at least escaped relegation.

In the 70s, he would have a spell managing non-league Bromsgrove Rovers, but his name will always be associated with Birmingham City. Last year, the Railway stand at St Andrew’s was renamed in his honour.

He is survived by his wife, Ivy, a daughter, Jill, and a son, Neil, from a previous marriage.

• Gilbert Harold ‘Gil’ Merrick, footballer, born 26 January 1922; died 3 February 2010

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