Fab On the Brink ; England's World Cup Woe: Capello Is Fighting to Save Pounds 6m a Year Job: Capello Fighting to Save His Skin

Sunday Mercury › June 20, 2010

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Summary

FABIO Capello has four days to find a football team - or he might be trying to find a job. Having signed a contract with the Football Association less than three weeks ago that takes him to Euro 2012, it seems ludicrous to be entertaining the thought that the pounds 6million-a-year deal could be torn up. Yet, such is the speed with which Capello's impressive reputation is unravelling, there would be hardly another conclusion to draw if England fail to overcome Slovenia in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday and bow out of the World Cup. Humiliation Thousands of fans in South Africa and millions more back home are totally mystified at how a side capable of winning nine qualifi- ers out of ten - recording backto-back hammerings of Croatia and beating Germany in Berlin - can find themselves teetering on the brink of total humiliation.

Of course, football is a very transient and fast-moving sport. In 1990 England only collected two points from their first couple of outings and were then hardly impressive in beating Egypt to reach the knock-out stage. Four years earlier it was evenworse, with skipper Bryan Robson injured and his standin Ray Wilkins sent off during an abysmal start that garnered just a single point. Nobody really remembers that now. The mind flashes back to Diego Maradona's handball and that semi-final tear-jerker against Germany. But it happened, so the theory is it can happen again. Except then, England had Gary Lineker waiting to explode. They had Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne. When he assesses the men he can call on this week, even Capello admits he can only find a shell. "This is not the England that I know," admitted the Italian.

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Fab On the Brink ; England's World Cup Woe: Capello Is Fighting to Save Pounds 6m a Year Job: Capello Fighting to Save His Skin

"It is a problem because these players have trained very well. But in the two games it is not the same team that I know. "It is the same thi...

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