The Italian has clung onto his job after the FA backed him to
carry on.
But a month locked inside Camp Capello has stretched the loyalty
of even those players who believe he is the right man to lead
England.
And today Sport of the World lifts the lid on a World Cup
campaign which saw the England camp riven by PARANOIA, haunted by
FEAR and relying on the SUPERSTITION of sticking to the same kit as
a plank for success.
Seven days after the most crushing World Cup defeat in England's
history, the majority of the squad feel, despite the FA's vote of
confidence in the Italian, there has to be a sea-change in both
Capello's man-management and tactics.
One senior player said: "We all bought into the manager's ways
in qualification because everything he said and did brought us
success.
"The question many of us are asking is why he forgot most of
those principles once we got to South Africa.
"Everything he'd done before went out the window. It got to the
stage where some of us were asking why Fabio had sent his clueless
twin brother to manage England during the World Cup."
While few players have publicly put their heads above the
parapet following England's humiliating exit at the hands of
Germany, their private thoughts make fascinating reading. And much
of the blame is heaped at Capello's door.
Another player admitted: "A lot of us loved Fabio for the way he
turned things around after Steve McClaren but can't understand why
he destroyed so much of what he'd built.
"One of the things everybody admired during our qualification
games was his attention to detail. We knew everything about the
opposition, how they played, how their set-pieces worked, how they
liked to defend and attack.
"We would have DVDs on the opposition, we'd go through them and
the build-up to matches was very intense.
"During the World Cup that attention to detail was missing. We
would have team meetings and we'd watch a DVD of the game we'd just
played and go through it. But it didn't matter what the opposition
were playing, we were stuck with the same old 4-4-2 even though
nobody believed it was the right way to play.
"It was as if Fabio had gone a bit crazy. He looked much older
than he had done before. His English grew worse the more angry and
frustrated he became. He cut himself off from even the senior
players he used to trust, and wouldn't change anything.
"The World Cup was almost too big for him which is mad when you
think of everything he's done.
"He was obsessed with people not knowing the team. He grew
paranoid about revealing it even to the players who WOULD be
playing.
"None of the goalkeepers were sure what was going on in his head
and even before the Germany game nobody knew who was going to play
between Matthew Upson and Jamie Carragher."
Capello would only name the team in a meeting five minutes
before the squad left the hotel even though leaks and rumours had
already reached the players.
"There's no point in being paranoid," one source pointed out.
"The players just wanted to know what the team was and settle into
a pattern."
That paranoia was made public one day when Capello exploded at
photograhers who he thought were being overly intrusive before
training.
Capello's regime even included banning the players from ordering
room service, not trusting them to comply with the diet devised by
the FA's nutritionists.
The fact players were forced to spend long periods alone in
their rooms - sometimes up to four hours at a time - raised the
frustration levels purely because Capello did not trust them to
relax properly without an imposed curfew.
While many of the Italian's dictats were based on science, his
decision to stick with the all-red kit to face Germany stemmed
simply from his belief it was a lucky strip after England beat
Slovenia wearing it in their last group game.
Small points when taken at face value but it amounted to an
atmosphere where even the biggest names were scared to approach him
in case it affected their place.
The situation reached breaking point after the dismal goalless
draw with Algeria and John Terry's infamous press conference where
he claimed that he - and others - would be telling Capello some
home truths in a crisis meeting.
One fringe player said: "The news filtered back about what JT
had said to the press and a lot of the big boys went mad.
"It wasn't just because JT looked as if he was trying to be
captain again, it was because it killed any chance of anybody
speaking to the manager. We all knew from Fabio's staff just what a
mistake JT had made. The team meeting that night was
pathetic.
"Suddenly, there were players who thought they could make
sensible points too s***scared to open their mouths. The manager
was basically untouchable and from that moment nothing
changed."
That incident also strained the relationship between Terry and
Steven Gerrard with the Chelsea skipper, having picked up on vibes
Gerrard was none too pleased with his stance, tackling the captain
over it.
There was definite unease between the two but whispers of a
slanging match are wide of the mark with Gerrard keeping his own
counsel.
The serial frustration, however, DID manifest itself in the
behaviour of Wayne Rooney. One moment the Manchester United striker
would be on fire in training, the next he grew so angry with
himself and his inability to alter games that he was almost
uncontrollable.
Another player admitted: "Wazza was struggling because he'd
never known anything like it before.
"Nothing he did in games was working, he couldn't control his
temper in training and his behaviour was strange, to say the
least.
"Capello didn't seem to have any answers. He just kept telling
Wazza to play the same way and seemed happy when he was good in
training but didn't change anything when it was obvious the team
needed Wazza in a different position.
"Nobody around him has the courage to tell Capello the truth,
they just tell him what he wants to hear. In fact, the manager
doesn't want to listen to anybody, he's just stuck in his ways all
the time."
It even got to the stage where some players were openly debating
who ought to replace Capello after the World Cup, with the likes of
Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink, Harry Redknapp and even Jurgen
Klinsmann mentioned in dispatches.
But there remains a core loyalty amongst the senior players -
thought to include Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand
- who back the decision to keep faith in Capello. They know,
though, many things have to change.
As one senior player summed up: "Everything Fabio did before the
World Cup was perfect. Everything he did during it was
mad.
"The players are just about with him. Well, most of them. But he
has to be willing to listen and learn, not just think his way is
the only way because obviously that's been shown up."