Back from his undeserved holiday, England manager Fabio Capello faces the FA board on his return to work (assuming he decides to attend – he doesn’t have to, but he damn well should), expected to hand in his report on what happened in South Africa during the World Cup.

Smacks of the failed school child filling in his end of term report, doesn’t it. I can imagine Capello and his ‘gang’ – Franco Baldini et al – staring at their shoes, looking sheepish, in front of a long table occupied by the FA board members as they peruse his broken English report.

It’s almost demeaning.

Yet should he expect anything else? I don’t for a second lay all the blame for England’s poor tournament performance at his door. They players MUST shoulder the majority of the blame, they didn’t do themselves or their country justice. However, several of Capello’s decisions in the run up to and during the World Cup were questionable.

What I’m wondering now is what does he do between now and England’s friendly against Hungary in August?

Capello talked about freshening up the England squad with youth and exuberance. He has the chance to run the rule over our Under-19s from the 18th-30th July during the European Championships, yet reports suggest he won’t be attending. One can only assume he is sending Baldini – or should I say one hopes?

I can’t see that he has anything else to do for those 12 days, so why isn’t he going? This is England’s future and he has two years left on his contract, by which time at least some of these players could and should be pushing for a senior place. This is the ideal time to earmark those he feels will make it and follow their progress in the run up to the Euros in 2012.

It will be baffling if he doesn’t take that opportunity.

Of course, he has that tricky board meeting this afternoon first. Sky Sports are reporting that the World Cup is NOT an item on the agenda, however. Nothing like sweeping things under the carpet, eh, lads. They should be sitting down and picking apart EVERYTHING that went wrong, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

We’ve all read the reports of dressing room unrest and players falling out with one another. Surely decisions need to be taken on who was at fault for this and banish them from the squad for good, freeing up those places for youth. No matter who they are…

I laid out my blueprint for England’s future a couple of weeks ago and I stand by it. Radical action needs to be taken to start getting England back to the pinnacle of world football and it seems to me it isn’t going to happen…again.

The FA have always been stuck in the past but I thought Capello was dynamic enough to start changing that, respected enough to be allowed to do so. Seems I was wrong and he has been ground down by the sheer idiocy and resistance to change from his bosses. That’s why change is needed at the very top, not at manager level.

In the meantime, we may as well resign ourselves to overall mediocrity and the boom and bust mood England’s performances (and the media reporting of it) will create in the country.

‘Arry has signed a new contract with Tottenham Hotspur and will now remain their manager until 2013. The question I have is – would he have signed it if Fabio Capello wasn’t retained by the FA until after the 2012 European Championships?

The answer, I reckon, is no. He would have thrown his hat in the ring for the England managers job and waited to see what the outcome of that would have been.

That Capello remains manager means that Redknapp has now planned his career path with the aim of taking over following the Euros.

He now has three seasons to take Spurs to the next level. He will aim to finish in the top four – at least – in the Premiership each season and make some sort of impact on the Champions League.

He has the backing of the Spurs board to do so, especially in the transfer market and Harry will look to build on his reputation by restoring glory to Tottenham, thus giving the FA no option but to appoint him England manager when Capello steps down.

Top four finishes and Champions League success, likely in the form of quarter final and semi final places, will do that, but the club will want silverware to go with it, so he must pick up the FA Cup or the League Cup at least once along the way.

In three years time it’s also possible that the biggest stumbling block to his appointment as England manager – the court case of tax evasion – will have gone away. That would leave the road clear for the FA to sign him up without fear of future complications.

I’ve already given Redknapp my backing for the job. I think he has what it takes to inspire and build confidence, though he will need a backroom staff that is more capable than he is tactically. He can also talk to the media on their level and is unlikely to follow the path of previous managers in picking teams and players based on press and public demand. Nor will he be afraid of leaving out big name players for the good of the team.

While he lacks tactical awareness right now – and I don’t mean that critically; Redknapp has only managed in England and has no real experience of facing opposition from Europe and farther afield – he will learn plenty from taking his Spurs side into the Champions League against Europe’s best.

Not only has he set out a career path he hopes will culminate in managing his country, he has a learning curve to climb and relish the challenge.

I know Redknapp is not everyone’s cup of tea and I know the negatives to appointing him England manager. In response, I will only ask who else do you think is up to the task? Because I can’t think of anyone better suited right now.

In 2013 that may be different. But for now, I wish Spurs and Redknapp well in their endeavours and I hope it works out for Harry personally and England in the future.

If England needed pointers on how to win then they needed look no further than their cricketing counterparts and adopted ‘Englishman’ and Wimbledon hopeful Andy Murray yesterday.

England’s one day side beat Australia by four wickets and Murray eased through his first round match against Jan Hajek. For English (ok, British) sport Tuesday 22nd June 2010 was a good day.

Wednesday 23rd June is Judgement Day for the national football side, their World Cup hopes hanging on victory against Slovenia. We all know the Slovenians are the sort of team England should be beating easily but Fabio Capello’s men have been unbelievably poor so far in South Africa and we’re all on edge about today’s match.

We all have our opinions on which team should be selected, what we expect from the players in terms of commitment and, no doubt, what the eventual result will be. Only one opinion matters, though, and it’s that of Capello.

Despite growing calls for him to unleash Joe Cole, reports suggest James Milner will be recalled, apparently on the right wing, and Jermaine Defoe will accompany Wayne Rooney up front, the coach abandoning his tried and tested big man / little man partnership.

I’m hard pressed to work out how that line up will take to the field so, for perhaps the last time, I’m going to put my faith in the fact Capello knows what he’s doing. God knows, that faith has been tested lately but this is his – and the players’ – chance for redemption, in my eyes and those of the nation.

I’m actually slightly impressed by the fact that Capello seems to have resisted mounting media pressure on who to pick and remains his own man. That, at least, is refreshing from an England coach.

For what it’s worth, this is the team I would have picked:

James

Johnson Upson Terry A. Cole

Lennon Gerrard Barry J. Cole

Rooney Crouch

Either that or replace Crouch with Lampard and push Gerrard further forward. It would – and will – all mean nothing, however, if theplayers don’t go out with confidence. That’s down to them.

England expects, lads. It’s time to restore our faith – and your own reputations.

It’s been quite a week in the French and English World Cup camps with successful and attempted mutinies, wildly different reactions from the respective coaches and even, in the case of the French, a Presidential order to get it sorted.  What is going on?

Quite simply, both camps have been rocked by poor performances on the pitch and intense media criticism off it, with the players rather than the coaches feeling the full force of the pressure.

For France and Nicolas Anelka it boiled over in the form of a half time rant during the 2-0 defeat to Mexico. Anelka verbally abused coach Raymond Domenech, resulting in his expulsion from the squad and the tournament by the French Football Federation (FFF).

What has followed since has been almost unbelievable. On Sunday the players turned up for training but captain Patrice Evra found himself arguing with fitness coach Robert Duverne. Despite intervention by Domenech, Duverne stormed from the field in anger, discarding his accreditation badge on the way.

The farcical situation continued when Domenech and his staff were made to wait while the players decided what to do. Strike was the decision and they filed back on to the team bus, refusing to train and issued a statement for the now highly embarrassed and undermined Domenech to read out.

It read:

“The French Football Federation did not at any time try to protect the group. They took a decision uniquely based on facts reported by the press. As a consequence, and to show our opposition to the decision taken by officials of the federation [to dismiss Anelka], all the players decided not to take part in today’s training session.”

French team director Jean-Louis Valentin has since resigned, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked his sports minister to meet with Evra, Domenech and the French team and sort the situation out. For the whole country, it is a huge embarrassment.

When you throw in rumour and comments in the media from various parties that it is only the senior players leading this revolt and the younger players are very upset by it all but feel they cannot fight back the disaster that is France’s World Cup campaign looks even worse.

I’m no fan of Raymond Domenech. I find him odd, sometimes clueless and eccentric. But no coach should be undermined by his players, no matter how strongly they feel about his methods and style. And let’s be honest here, it isn’t really about that.

Anelka may well have vented his frustration at the easy target that is his coach but that frustration was borne out of his and his team mate’s poor performances on the field. Domenech’s tactics and team selection can be called into question, of course, but ultimately it’s the players that go out on the field that determine a win or loss and to be blunt France have not done it at this tournament.

Remember, too, they wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for Thierry Henry’s hand ball against the Irish in the play offs.

Domenech is a terrible coach, I don’t think there is any doubt in that. But he does not deserve what he has had to endure from his players. The sight of him reading out a statement from the team was embarrassing and demeaned him. Quite why he agreed to do so is beyond me.

At least for him it will all be over today. Incoming coach Laurent Blanc has his work cut out, however.

Similarly poor performances from England have led to Capello coming under pressure from his own as well. The difference here is that it appears to be only one or two players – John Terry and, less publicly, David James. Capello, though, is a far stronger man than Domenech and he has put a stop to any internal mutiny with an iron fist.

While the media were appeased by Frank Lampard’s brilliant press conference yesterday, the team – and Terry – were left in no doubt who is in charge by the Italian. At the same time, Capello let it be known that if a player has something to say he should say it, in private, to the coach.

It was perhaps the best bit of team management Capello has shown since the World Cup began. Certainly his tactics, team selection and substitutions have cast doubt over his ability to coach England’s players in a high pressure environment.

Like the French and any other team, however, it comes down to those who walk out wearing the shirt to play with the passion and desire the supporters demand and England haven’t done it. There will be no sympathy for players who turn on their coach under such circumstances, even if they do question that coach themselves.

With England facing a must-win game on Wednesday any internal rifts would have been disastrous. It seems as though Capello has put paid to any chance of a mutiny and even John Terry has issued an apology via the Daily Mirror for his, at best, ill advised comments during his press conference.

The supporters will now hope that England’s focus is entirely on that game against Slovenia. A victory and performance will consign this sorry episode to history and allow the team, united, to move forward. Let’s hope the press follow suit.

If England’s inept, inadequate performance against, with no disrespect to them, the lowly Algeria in last night’s Group C tie was not enough to convince you that there are serious problems in the camp then Rooney’s inexplicable on-camera rant aimed at England supporters surely is.

I’ll get to Rooney later, England’s poor display must come first. Coach Fabio Capello said after the game he was “confused” by his team’s performance. I’m starting to think the Italian is confused full stop.

The side he put out is supposedly England’s best. David James back in goal, Terry, Johnson and Ashley Cole in defence, Barry returning to a midfield boasting the talents of Gerrard, Lampard and Lennon and Rooney up front supported by Heskey. Only the unfortunate Rio Ferdinand missing, replaced by Jamie Carragher.

Yet it wasn’t a team that walked out to face Algeria, it was a collection of individuals who played like they’d never seen each other before. They were unable to apply a single bit of pressure on their opponents and looked tactically weak and bereft of any ideas going forward.

There was never going to be a danger of Algeria scoring – they haven’t in their last six, now seven, games. You would think, then, that England could concentrate on passing the ball around their inferior opponents and creating chance after chance for Rooney and the midfield.

It didn’t happen. Passes too often went astray, the midfield dawdled too long on the ball too often and the supply to the front men was non-existent. Every player, bar perhaps James, had a bad game. Heskey, picked for his ability to win the ball, hold it up and lay it off to Rooney or an on-rushing midfielder, found the ball bouncing off him to an Algerian throughout the match.

The usually precision passing from Gerrard and Lampard was not in evidence, nor was Lennon’s ability to speed past defenders and deliver telling crosses. The best attacking player on the pitch was left back Ashley Cole.

Capello’s substitutions were bizarre. Lennon was replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips, Heskey by Defoe and far too late on, Barry by Crouch. Why Capello thought Wright-Phillips would have better luck then the far better Lennon is a mystery. Why he felt that Defoe might have better luck keeping hold of the ball than Heskey is another and why Crouch, England’s lucky talisman in so many games previously, had to wait until the 84th minute to try his luck is yet another.

And what of Joe Cole? His trickery and ability to open up defences was left to sit on the bench when the game was crying out for someone different, someone with something completely different to offer. Capello, though, clearly doesn’t appreciate what he has in Cole.

If we’re to be completely honest about our national team, and I accept it is not often easy to do, we must accept that our only two world class players are Rooney and Gerrard. The team must be coached and built around those two. Rooney should not be left isolated by his inferior team mates and Gerrard should not be left out wide on the left to scrounge for what little possession he can.

If that means some big name players are left out, so be it. Lampard should not have a divine right to a starting position if it means Gerrard has to play on the left, for example. It is a team game.

England are not good enough to win a tournament, no matter how much we want them to be. England ARE good enough to leave their mark on one, however – IF they are set up in such a way as to maximise the talents of their better players. Right now, Capello has fallen into the same trap as McLaren and Eriksson before him – he feels he must pick the best individuals, not the best team.

What that means is that England’s best player was the worst player on the pitch last night. Wayne Rooney, his frustration with himself and his team mates growing as the match wore on, could do nothing right. It was perhaps fortunate for him and England that he finally boiled over at the final whistle and not during the match.

As he walked off the field to a chorus of boos from the England supporters he let loose to a camera:

“Nice to see your own fans booing you…that’s what loyal support is.”

The supporters have every right to vent their frustration, though you have to question what that sort of reaction will do to the confidence of the players already feeling bitter disappointment. For Rooney, it led to anger.

There is no excuse for what the England striker did or said, but you can understand it. Angry and frustrated with himself, his performance and the result – which leaves England’s World Cup hopes hanging by a thread – he released it all at the fans he felt weren’t helping the cause.

He will, no doubt, regret what he did today but there’s no taking it back now. We as a nation should not come down too hard on him either. He remains our best hope of continuing in this World Cup and he and the rest of the players should get our full support.

The problem in the England camp is one of confidence. It always has been. For a while it looked like Capello had managed to restore it, the qualifying campaign providing ample evidence. On the biggest stage of them all, however, it has abandoned them again. If Capello can’t nurture confidence then the supporters have to – booing is clearly not the way to go about it.

On Wednesday we have to win. A draw might be good enough, but that’s a dangerous way of thinking. No, nothing less than a win – preferably with a healthy goal tally and a good performance – should be the target. Rooney can redeem himself with a goal and the team and fans can get back on track.

I actually believe that the pressure of having to win brings out the best in England anyway, focuses the players and improves individual and team performance. The tournament is not yet in to the knock out stages, but England are.

They now know that defeat in the next game, and the one after that and so on means elimination. If that isn’t enough for England to play better and win, then they quite simply don’t deserve to be there and the World Cup will be better off without them. For Gerrard and Rooney that will be a shame. For the rest, it will be what they deserve.

You want a happy note to end on? I have one. Carragher picked up his second booking and will miss the Slovenia match. Matthew Upson will no doubt get the nod to partner Terry. For me, that’s the only upside to a dismal night in Rustenburg.