Manager sees wisdom in making a virtue of age

Fabio Capello’s 23-man England squad for the World Cup contains a blend of old and young players and Kevin McCarra, writing in the Guardian, believes the Italian recognised the value of experience in making the final judgments between players.

Fabio Capello is counting on the power of desperation. His squad is the oldest England have ever assembled for the World Cup finals and several of the players are therefore being granted their last chance in the tournament. As with so much that the Italian does, the initial surprise is soon followed by appreciation of an underlying logic. In general the tier of younger contenders is of limited merit and the emphasis is being put on that combination of knowhow and appetite.

The policy is not all that unconventional. His own country still look to Fabio Cannavaro, who turns 37 in September, regardless of the fact that he is in need of a new club now that Juventus have decided not to give him another contract. Capello's stance rests on bleak conclusions. He continues to be inscrutable and only now is it recognised that consecutive starts for Theo Walcott against Mexico and Japan were a demand that the 21-year-old prove himself anew.

Capello will have recalled the hat-trick in Zagreb, which are the player's only goals for England, even as he was weighing up the unsatisfactory campaign with Arsenal for an injury-bedevilled Walcott. Underachievement is more recent and it made the deeper impression. There is no wider perspective for this manager, who is more problem-solver than visionary.

For Capello the future is restricted to the days immediately before him and that was underlined when he declined to state categorically that he was committed to seeing out a contract that runs until 2012. There is comfort in the pragmatism since the England manager is obsessed with the task in hand and never tries to set out some expansive vision. Nobody lamented any focus on the short-term so long as it included two poundings of Croatia.

The principal question to be asked is whether the approach he took in drawing up the World Cup squad will be vindicated. He is entitled to point out that it is experience rather than youthful verve that has been the secret to taking the trophy for other countries, including the holders Italy. All the same, speed has its worth.

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