Clever Capello

If anyone ever doubted that Fabio Capello was smart, now they know. What could be a cleverer, smarter way to distract attention from his first choice of an England squad, than to drop David Beckham? No Becks, no 100th cap. The tabloids, indeed the entire media, the whole shark pool were never going to be able to resist a story like that. Just throw the sharks a fish and off they go. It's as easy as that.

And why would Capello want the media talking about Beckham? Because then they wouldn't be talking about the squad he chose. And why wouldn't he want that? Because it's the most boring and conservative squad imaginable. Wes Brown, Joleon Lescott and Stewart Downing? Seriously? Heskey's back. Owen's still there. So's Crouch. All the names who under-delivered in 2006 and in the European campaign over the past year. Where are all the bright young prospects? Only seven players out of 30 are 23 or under. And only one of them, Rooney, is indubitably world class. Indeed, only one of these (Rooney, again) is playing for a Big Four club. That means no European experience worth a damn for the others. Forget the UEFA Cup, Europe's very own Carling Cup. The others are all selling their wares at Middlesbrough, Villa and Portsmouth. Everyone was going on about Martin O'Neill's young Villa side (five players in Capello's squad). Remember back in November when they won four games in a row? Since then, three wins in 11 games, including defeats at home against Arsenal and Man U. That's why the media got so excited about Villa. Now you don't hear so much about them and yet half their first team is in Capello's first squad.

This is a Miss Havisham of a squad. All those old, familiar faces. The next World Cup is two years away and almost half Capello's squad is 27 or over. By then, Heskey will be 32, Wes Brown and Jonathan Woodgate will be 30, David James will be almost 40. Good enough to beat Switzerland at Wembley or Trinidad away? Probably. Who cares? Good enough to qualify for the next World Cup? Perhaps. Good enough to get to the semis in South Africa? Seriously? And this is before injures and suspensions, what did for Steve McClaren.

But this is Capello, the argument goes. He will take the same players McClaren and Erikson couldn't do much with, and he will turn them into winners. Only if he is very, very lucky. Specifically, he needs two kinds of luck: 1) Luck with injuries and suspensions, so he doesn't have to play Croatia without his first-choice defence as McClaren had to; 2) Luck with new names, hoping that a new Rooney, a new Owen or a new Beckham comes along. It's happened before, of course. Owen was 18 and Beckham was 22 at the time of the 1998 World Cup. Rooney was 18 at the time of the last European Championships. That's what Capello's hoping for. While he keeps the tabloids busy with Beckham (will he? won't he?), will Capello be really lucky and find the next big thing in English football?