Back of the Net!

The admission from Rio Ferdinand this week that the pre-Capello England team was a “circus” has been met with relief by fans convinced that the lot of them really do live in sme sort of insane bubble.

Naming no names, Ferdinand said:

“We became a bit of a circus, in terms of the whole WAG (wives and girlfriends) situation. People were worrying more about what other people were wearing and where they were going, rather than the team.”

“It was like watching a theatre unfolding and football almost became a secondary element to the main event. When you step back and look back at that, you think like it was a circus.

Looking at the team and the attitude now 2 years after the 2006 World Cup and the press assault on Baden-Baden, he’s got more than a point.  Ferdinand recalls a time that exists as some hazy memory of a half watched film or American soap opera of the Dallas or Dynasty mode.  Anyone imagining that Steve McClaren did any better than Sven Goran Erikson could have in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign is sadly mistaken.

That bunch of players and their manager were disappearing up their own spot-kicks.

In Fabio Capello, England have the nearest thing to a Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger - a genius tactician, motivator, aloof character who apparently has the squad scared of him.

This is as it should be, and it’s not before time.

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