The icy stare of Mr Capello
Posted on 10/06/2010Very rarely do you get an insight into the mind of an England manager, least of all Fabio Capello, but the Sun’s Steven Howard does his best by recalling old tales involving Antonio Cassano and the not-so-slim Ronaldo...
We all thought it was going to be Mt Wazza that blew first. Instead, it was Fabio Capello who finally exploded. An unsuspecting photographer got it in the neck (on Wednesday) as he attempted to take pictures of Michael Dawson having a massage in the training-ground medical room.The altercation was short, not-so-sweet and to the point.
And no one was surprised. The great volcanic eruption had been coming for some time. The message was not lost on his players because this is exactly how he not only keeps them in check but drives them on.
There is a story of how the Italian hardman, not happy with the fitness of his squad in his first spell at Real Madrid, got them training twice a day. As the exhausted players were finally allowed off for a shower, one of his new Spanish coaches asked why he was flogging them so hard.
Capello gave him an icy stare and said: "Because to win a player's respect you have to put a razor blade up against his arse."
Most footballers have fallen into line under Capello's parade-ground drilling. Even the headstrong Ruud Gullit at AC Milan.About the only one who didn't was striker Antonio Cassano. The enfant terrible of Italian football had major fall-outs with Capello at both Roma and Real Madrid. The second ended with him being kicked out by the Spanish giants after a hilarious training-ground incident just before Madrid played Barcelona.
Cassano was a tremendous mimic and, behind Capello's back, had his team-mates in hysterics with his impersonation of the manager's sergeant-major style. Even down to Capello's strutting walk. Sadly for Cassano, it was all caught by Spanish TV!
"I loved him like a father and hated the bastard,” said Cassano. "I looked on him as the source of all truth and then thought he was as genuine as a three euro coin.
"We must have told each other to f*** off about 20 times. We couldn't agree on anything. It's a fact he pushed me out at Real Madrid and sometimes left me out of the team at Roma."
Despite all this, Cassano went on: "And yet he was always fair. Sometimes he was even brave enough to select me ahead of great players like Gabriel Batistuta. I had a million fights with him and he's the hardest man I ever came across. He will stand his ground and he's usually right. That's his strength.
"He always said the two best players he ever coached were me and the Brazilian Ronaldo."
Which, typically, didn't stop Capello saying to the man who has scored more World Cup goals than anyone as he stepped out of the shower one day in Madrid: "Aren't you embarrassed to be that fat?"
Even Rooney is afraid of him - calling him 'scary'. The star striker said of one training session: "He blew up after about three seconds and physically moved a player from one position to another saying 'that's where you should be'.
"He records everything. He even called in Glen Johnson to have a look at the tapes because he wasn't happy with one of his throw-ins... "
Rio Ferdinand admitted that going through the tape of the Mexico game, he was sitting there thinking 'please, God, don't let it be me who's made a mistake'. And that's the skipper with 79 caps.