Fabio Capello — A Forgotten Great
How do you define a legacy, do you define it by trophies or impact on the game or perhaps impact on the lives of players. I think in whichever way one define’s legacy, Capello’s name is one that sneaks in there all the time, and his infamous quote — “you win games with your head”
For a manager that had managed AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, Real Madrid and England, there is very little talk of him over twitter or any other major platforms, which is truly a shame when you think about it.
Having started out as a youth team manager, Capello didn’t straight away dive into football but when the call came from AC Milan to be the Sachi’s successor, he returned. Inheriting a squad that media had percieved to be as old, he then went on to win Serie A — Unbeaten.
He then went on to win 3 out of the next 4 Serie A title’s but none of those games will be as reminscent as that final against Barcelona in the UEFA Cup. Defeating Cryuff’s Barcelona 4–0 as underdogs in that fixture.
But perhaps one of the things that makes people less reluctant to take his name when talking about the best managers is his personality. You could define him best as a “Hard Man”, a man of morals and discpline, a man of high expectations and respect.
Therefore when he felt like he didn’t get the respect he deserves at Milan he left to Real Madrid, at Madrid he felt the infectious winning culture, the strong belief in the club being the best, and he delivered winning the La-Liga in his first season.
What came after that season was what Capello claims as one of his biggest mistakes — rejoining AC Milan. The AC Milan he returned to wasn’t the same, the core wasn’t there anymore, instead young unreliable players, and soon afterwards (a year or so), he left football for some time, taking a break from management.
He enjoyed that year one might say, he joined multiple shows as a pundit, learned about the game more, and just collected his thoughts as one would say. But a man of that passion, can’t stay away from the game for much longer, so soon he returns to Serie A, this time as a manager of AS Roma. The first season was quiet, a 6th place finish in the league, but the next year what followed was a pure miracle, after 18 years AS Roma had won another title !!! At the Italian Capital he did a lot more than just set up tactics as he had to set the foundations to the team in his first year as well, therefore this one was special.
But Capello’s relentlessness soon got the better of him and as he said it, think about the future, the acheivements of the past hold very little value, when he saw the City celebrate the title six months after winning it, he decided this is it.
Capello returned to his once professional club — Juventus, but his time there isn’t talked of much because of the Calciopoli scandal. A scandal were clubs were caught to have used refree’s to get advatage in games. But Capello still believes that they the two titles he had ended up winning as a manager, should have been his.
Capello would later return to the city of Madrid to manage the European Giants but this time it was the Galacticos’ and despite having a rough start, Capello would end up winning the title, having nearly lost it on the final day as they were trailing at half time. A pretty good fit one would say, a hard disciplined man, and they best egotistical players of that generation. As he would say, a star player can do two things either he will win you everything or destroy the entire team, thats why he used to believe in creating a cohesive unit.
His later tenure at England was a bit of a question mark, because of that goal of Lampard that got disallowed, but the players spoke highly of his tactical prowess and his demands in training during short international breaks.
So what really does define a legacy ? Is it trophies, is it how the players remember you or is it the football ? Perhaps we will know some day.
