Fabio Capello has resigned as England coach and Harry Redknapp, the Spurs manager, is favourite to succeed him. Read the immediate news and reaction to the decision
Evening. Well, Fabio Capello has resigned as the England manager. I'll have news, reaction and comment as it comes in. Here's the FA's full statement:
"The Football Association can confirm that Fabio Capello has today resigned as England manager. This follows a meeting involving FA chairman David Bernstein, FA general secretary Alex Horne and Fabio Capello at Wembley Stadium. The discussions focused on the FA board's decision to remove the England team captaincy from John Terry, and Fabio Capello's response through an Italian broadcast interview. In a meeting for over an hour, Fabio's resignation was accepted and he will leave the post of England manager with immediate effect."
The FA chairman, Bernstein, said the resignation was the right course of action. "I would like to stress that during today's meeting and throughout his time as England manager, Fabio has conducted himself in an extremely professional manner.
"We have accepted Fabio's resignation, agreeing this is the right decision. We would like to thank Fabio for his work with the England team and wish him every success in the future."
Bernstein and the Club England management team will hold a media conference at Wembley at 12 noon tomorrow.
The England players are already reacting to the news. Jack Wilshere, the Arsenal midfielder who was given his England debut under Capello, is understandably disappointed. Wilshere tweeted:
"Shocked about news on Fabio Capello...gutted to be honest, gave me my 1st cap and believed in me! Thank you Mr Capello! #GreatManager"
"People have there own judgement on Capello but for a young player who was given the chance to play for my country at such a young age..."
"He has shown great belief and trust in me so I can only thank him....massive influence on my career so far! Sad to see him go!"
There's an understandable groundswell of opinion that Harry Redknapp, who was today acquitted in his tax trial, will be the next England manager. But, given that Spurs are playing as well as they have done in years and look almost guaranteed to qualify for the Champions League, is the England job a backwards step?
Stuart Pearce is second favourite for the job after Capello. Here are the odds on the next England manager:
Harry Redknapp 1/4
Stuart Pearce 9/2
Alan Pardew 16-1
Jos� Mourinho 16-1
Roy Hodgson 16-1
I find it hard to believe England will go into the Euro Championship with Pearce in charge. He has experience in the Premier League, briefly, with Man City but surely his focus is now on youth and forming a GB Olympic team. Perhaps Harry on a part-time basis? Many would see that as undermining the position. But he's a motivator. It could work.
Gary Neville says he is not surprised that Capello has resigned. He believes that when Capello spoke out against the FA without any support, he dug his own grave. "When you speak out against your employers, you have to go," he tells Sky Sports News. Neville, who played under Capello, believes there is an opportunity for England to use the departure to build towards the Brazil World Cup. Surely you've got to look at the more immediate future and the Euro Championships. He feels "optimistic". I sense, four months before Poland and Ukraine, pessimism will be the most common feeling among England fans. Am I wrong?
Here are some emails.
"Although the media seem to have already appointed Redknapp to the job, it's a potentially interesting dilemma for Harry. He's arguably as close as he'll ever be to winning the Premier League with Spurs, and if they offer him the transfer funds to make the final step how does that compare to the chances of winning a major tournament with the current crop of English players?" offers Paul Holland. "Either could be the pinnacle of his career, and I suspect there will be huge pressure from the media for him to go with England."
"I want to immediately start a petition on the Downing St website for the appointment of John Terry as player-coach of England. That would heal the rifts, build the bridges and re-establish the FA as a bastion of sense, judgment and rationality." Get your tongue out of your cheek Garret Turley.
In quotes attributed to Italpress, Fabio Capello has offered this stinging criticism of the FA.
"They really insulted me and damaged my authority. What really hit me and forced me to take this decision was the fact the much-vaunted Anglo-Saxon sense of justice, as they are the first to claim that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. In Terry's case, they gravely offended me and damaged my authority at the head of the England side, effectively creating a problem for the squad. I have never tolerated certain crossing of lines, so it was easy for me to spot it and take my decision to leave."
Sky Sports News have just asked Neil Warnock if he'd take over. Behave.
Something has happened. So, of course, Joey Barton has something to say about it. On Twitter too. Who'd have thought it?
"No captain and no manager. 4 months from a major championship. What's going on......."
"Well, well, well, this debacle claims yet another victim. Where does this stop. #madness"
I'm getting a lot of emails ands tweets from people who say they are not all that bothered about England and that a new manager with a bit more personality could change this. I'll be honest, I'm probably among the group of people who don't care as much about England as I used to. Perhaps a new, likeable captain and manager would help get people interested again. Is Harry Redknapp this man? Surely Scott Parker would back this decision. He'd be odd-son for the captaincy wouldn't he?
Our picture editor has been busy collating some lovely images of the erstwhile England manager's career at the helm of the national team. There are no captions, so you can write your own in your head. We're very open here at Guardian Towers. Number 17 is my favourite: it's like he's wearing big foam hands.
Gary Lineker wants an English manager, Harry Redknapp, for the England job. Here's a tweet from the sofa-dwelling MOTD presenter. "As you ask, I think new man should be English. Players have to be, so should boss. HR the man if he wants it. He can do both jobs til May." I didn't ask, by the way.
Barry Fry is stark raving bonkers. He's so patriotic I feel uncomfortable. "We want an Englishman in charge of England. With passion, not like foreigners who don't care" he cries, banging the desk in the Sky Sports News studio. Yes, really. I doubt he's a Guardian reader. Just a guess.
I know who the next England manager is.
It's Stuart Pearce. But just for the friendly with Holland, according to Gareth Southgate.
"Stuart Pearce is in the building and with the Under-21s. But you have to think for the summer - can you get the person you want for the longer term? Because the leading candidates are with clubs at the minute. Harry Redknapp is one of leading candidates but Tottenham will have something to say about that and [Tottenham chairman] Daniel Levy is not going to want Harry to leave without a fight, so there's an awful lot to work out in the next few weeks."
Chris Towle has accused me of stealing his tweet. Hopefully by mentioning him he will be appeased. He was in the 'not bothered about England' camp. Anyway, a glance across my many emails and tweets offers a couple of candidates who have not yet been discussed as obvious candidates. One of them is currently managing a team in the Boro v Sunderland FA Cup tie (clue, it's not Tony Mowbray). The other lives on the Wirral (clue: it's not John Barnes).
Rafael Ben�tez and Martin O'Neill, if you wanted to know. I've noticed the #Hiddinkforengland hashtag is already popping up all over Twitter too.
BurkeCherrie tweets: "Surely Benitez should be considered! Tactically Rafa is a champ of knockout tourneys and could get a lot out of this England."
I was supposed to be doing a minute-by-minute report on Middlesbrough v Sunderland in the FA Cup until this happened. I can tell you that it's 1-0 to Sunderland. Colback was the goalscorer. I hope that helps appease some miffed Sunderland and Boro fans.
Alan Smith, the old former Arsenal one, not the young former Leeds one, has just offered one of the more considered views I've heard tonight about the England vacancy. He believes the FA may find it hard to find a top-quality candidate due to the fact that many of those managers are with big club jobs. Personally, I think the international job is not the draw it once was. Intense media scrutiny and unrealistic expectations make it a career-threatening job should you cock it up. I suppose that's why the FA have to offer such a big salary.
My colleague Marcus Christenson has been crunching the numbers and has worked out that Fabio Capello has the highest win percentage of any recent manager at 66.7%. I'm not sure how many were friendlies. Here's his article.
Paul Gascoigne reckons Terry Venables should get the job. He doesn't sound like he's just woken up and I'm pretty sure he knows it's not 1997. His reasoning is that he thinks England need a motivator, not a tactician. Is he right? Taking into account the fact that the dinosaur gene tends to rise to the surface of English players around tournament time, I reckon a tactician is probably a better bet. Too much motivation creates too many long balls in my view. But what do I know?
Conor McMeel tweets: "Offer it to Fergie. He might be tempted to end his career with a European Championship medal." He wouldn't touch it with Mike Phelan's mitts, never mind his own.
"Any chance David Moyes would consider becoming the next manager?" asks Jesse Galdstone. "I realize he's Scottish but this would free him from Everton's pathetically small bank balance/chequebook. That and he's arguably the best manager in the Premier League not named Ferguson. That sounds like a win-win scenario." He's a good manager Jesse, but if he is named England manager I'd eat my bicycle. I'd argue Everton fans would be happier to see him go than you may imagine too.
Here's an interesting email from Rob Handfield: "While I'm not overly disappointed with the news, I think it's a pretty sad time for English football - if we didn't know that already.
The FA searched for the best man for the job after the McClaren shambles, and found him in Capello. The man has been HUGELY successful everywhere he's been, and if he is not the best manager around he is certainly up there.
The fact is that even he could do nothing with the players available and the management structure of the governing body. It runs much deeper than whether or not he has 'lost the plot' or his inability to speak English. We need to stop searching for the 'right man for the job' who will magically make our so called great players win tournaments. English or foreign, tactically astute or motivator, it doesn't seem to matter ? something is severely broken beyond the reach of the manager, and yet we continue to blame 40 plus years of failure on not having the right man picking the team. Capello was and still is one of the very best around - it's time to have a serious look elsewhere for reasons we can't win and stop blaming the cult of the manager." Couldn't agree more, Rob. The amount of money directed up the directed down the food chain and invested in trying to change the results-driven culture ingrained in English football from under-8s up, is depressing.
What next for Fabio Capello, I hear you ask. Massimo Marianenella, from Sky Italia, reckons if it's money Capello wants, he will get plenty of it in Russia. If he wants to end his career with a real footballing challenge, however, he will go back to Serie A. I expect he'll end up back in Italy where the players don't go all 'Sunday league' on him at the first sign of pressure. Plus, he's bloody loaded now isn't he?
Dan Pettinger takes a step back from the maelstrom of conjecture about who may be next to tweet this: "Odd that it came down to the disagreement over JT though. A player apparently only Capello in the entire country cared about."
Dan Stewart doesn't think it is too soon: "Capello's hardly the first Italian to desert a sinking ship is he?" Ooh.
The Football League chairman, Greg Clarke, has offered his full backing to David Bernstein. Clarke said: "What the FA has needed for a long time is strong, ethical leadership. David Bernstein is now delivering that leadership and he has my full support."
"As an Aussie dating a Pom, I find it strange that no one has mentioned Guus. Okay he was rubbish with Turkey, but he has got to have the best record for getting ill-disciplined and under-skilled teams to over achieve. If that doesn't have England written all over it I don't know what does." That missive comes courtesy of Nick Alaimo.
We've had a little flurry of activity on the site so here's some content for you to get stuck into:
? Here's Daniel Taylor on why Harry Redknapp is favourite for the England job.
? The FA's full statement on Capello's decision to quit.
? Amy Lawrence picks out five candidates for the England job: 'Arry, Jos�, Pearce, Nice Roy and Hiddink, in case you ask. But read the full article here anyway.
? And if you prefer pictures to words. This gallery of Capello's career will be right up your street.
Sam Lister tweets: "A new manager won't bring a better first touch, improved technique, intelligence etc. Where's Cloughy when you need him?" Ah, Clough. Too much of a maverick for the FA of his day. What about Mourinho? He's effed off at Real Madrid. But still, he's at REAL MADRID. I know he's said that he would be interested in a move back to England, but surely he wasn't being literal.
"How about getting Steve McClaren back? With his new amazing Dutch accent you get a compromise between foreign and British," tweets Katy H. He did so well at getting Nottingham Forest promoted to teh Premier League too didn't he. Oh.
Guus Hiddink has revealed that he would be interested in taking the England job, according to Sky Sports Yellow Ticker of Doom sources. Well, of course he would. He's unemployed. The Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, meanwhile, will not comment on whether he will allow Redknapp to take the job on a part-time basis.
Fabio Capello has insisted that he will not go into detail on the reasons behind his resignation. Capello told ANSA, the national Italian news agency: "I leave England and I will not say anything else." When asked about the quotes attributed to him by the Italpress agency who attributed quotes to Capello in which he was highly critical of the FA, he said they were "false".
His son, Pierfilippo, said in an email: "A story on football-italia website quoting Fabio Capello is not accurate and not true. We will take legal actions against any further story of this nature."
Richard Williams has written this piece in which he thinks Fabio Capello's handling of the John Terry situation shows that he never really understood the English game. Here's an extract:
Capello went on Italian TV last weekend to proclaim that demoting Terry was a mistake and to assert that, whatever the formal position, the Chelsea man would remain, in his eyes, the de facto captain. A misjudgment on every conceivable level, the outburst exposed Capello as disastrously out of touch with the environment in which he works. If he thought he was presenting himself as a man of principle, even footballing ones, he was wrong. Instead he showed a complete inability, or unwillingness, to grasp the finer points of a very significant argument.
For all his promises to learn English, Capello failed to master enough of the language to express himself in anything but the simplest terms, or to participate in debates without leaving scope for misinterpretation. Other foreign managers working in England ? Anglophiles like Gerard Houllier and fluent linguists like Ars�ne Wenger and Jos� Mourinho ? avoided such problems.
"I think you meant Mike (not Terry) Phelan (9.09PM)," writes Niall Sheerin. You're right Niall, although I reckon the former Wimbledon left-back probably wouldn't fancy it, either. "I think the ideal solution for all concerned would be to give it to 'Arry for the tournament allowing him to come back to the Lane in August. That way he gets to scratch his itch while not giving up the day job. Spurs seem to be going in the right direction and he'd be a fool to jump ship now. That said, it would fit the typical Spurs narrative of promising so much, then hitting the rocks and going under ..." Wayne Rooney agrees with you Niall ?
Here's Wayne Rooney's tweet, endorsing Redknapp:
"Gutted capello has quit. Good guy and top coach. Got to be english to replace him. Harry redknapp for me."
For somebody who has never played under Redknapp, Rooney's tweet suggest the Spurs manager is highly spoken of among fellow professionals.
Kevin McCarra paints a picture of Capello as a bullying autocrat whose invincible aura faded in his time as England manager, in this piece. Here's an extract:
"Capello could never regain all of his old authority after the debacle of the 2010 World Cup. In the last-16 tie a Germany lineup seething with promise routed England 4-1 in Bloemfontein. There may have been no shame in that but England could well have been demoralised by the fashion in which they had landed themselves in such difficulties."
I'm going to wrap this up now. Thanks for your many, many emails, tweets and more. There is an awful lot of speculation but all you need to know for now is:
? Fabio Capello has resigned as England manager
? Harry Redknapp, the Spurs manager, is favourite to succeed him
? The FA will make a statement at noon tomorrow about the resignation
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/08/fabio-capello-resigns-england-manager-live
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