Alex Massie Alex Massie

Capello’s Common Sense

More evidence emerges that England selected the right man when they asked Fabio Capello to rescue their football team. From the Times today:

On another issue – Wayne Rooney’s smoking habit – Capello was curiously indifferent, a stance that brought out sweat beads on the foreheads of his FA employers, fearful of their manager unwittingly being cast as the spokesman for a generation of English butt-heads. Capello later returned to clarify his position and the moral guardians were headed off at the pass…

Capello’s lack of interest in making a judgment revealed that the difference between football people in Europe and Britain is not merely a matter of tactics or technique.

The fact is, smoking is not seen as the great taboo for a sportsman abroad that it is here.

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