Buoyant Capello leads from the front (0)
- 5 Sep 08, 07:42 PM
Barcelona
England coach Fabio Capello was in expansive - almost joyous - mood in the same Barcelona room where Steve McClaren shrunk, with the Italian giving the most dynamic personal performance of his short reign.
It was in the bowels of the Olympic Stadium 18 months ago that McClaren cracked under the strain of hideous personal abuse from fans and the sheer strain of a faltering Euro 2008 campaign.
McClaren cut his media conference short with the infamous words: "Gentlemen - if you want to write whatever you want to write you can write it" - and of course everybody did.
He followed that up with a light-hearted (hopefully) request for the England coach driver to mow down one of his tabloid critics as he stepped out in front of the team bus leaving the stadium.
Capello cut an altogether more authoritative figure than his cruelly-lampooned predecessor as he delivered an assured, humourous and occasionally combative performance as the curtain-raiser to the first competitive game of his international coaching career.
