Pete Barrow: It’s all just Fab-ulous

Sep 11 2009 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ENGLAND have booked themselves into a summer rollercoaster ride In South Africa – and they have done it in some style.

The question is can they now adopt a winning style that will bring the World Cup back to these shores?

In an attempt to upset England’s romp to qualification, Croatian manager Slaven Bilic suggested that under Fabio Capello our national side had lost some of their ‘Englishness’.

While accepting this was just a poor wind-up, the former Everton defender might just have hit the nail squarely on the head when it comes to the next stage of England’s journey towards a second World Cup win.

I would be very happy if Capello – placid and pragmatic in his approach to plotting the course to Africa – now went all Italian on us!

There is a good reason why above the Three Lions there is only one gold star (goodness me, handing out stars harks back to primary school doesn’t it?), while around the red, white and green tricolour that bears the legend FIGC there are four of the gilt-edged acknowledgments you have won the biggest sporting prize on the planet.

The Italians have worked out how to win – without having a team that really should have won.

Putting the pre-war successes aside (Vittorio Pozzo please forgive me), Italy’s wins in 1982 and last time out in Germany show why sometimes the means justifies the end result.

In Spain the Azzurri limped through their group and were given no chance in the second phase as they faced an Argentina side equipped with the fleet-footed boy wonder Diego Maradona and a Brazilian team that was probably one of the best never to win a World Cup – Socrates, Zico, Falcao, Eder et al are probably all still wondering how on earth it all went wrong.

But a refusal to give in to the odds stacked against them – helped by the plundering genius of Paolo Rossi – Italy came away with the cup.

Four years ago a fragmented side of ageing stars and up-and-comers somehow found their feet with Fabio Cannavaro at the helm on the field and again took the ‘best in the world’ title when they transparently were not!

Now Capello, who knows all about English pride having scored against England at Wembley in 1973 to secure a 1-0 win for the team in Savoy blue, has to imprint that ‘win whatever it takes’ mentality into his charges in pristine white.