An Irish solution to an English problem

AND SO, rubber aprons donned and meat cleavers sharpened, English football’s by-now traditional World Cup post-mortem goes about its grisly business, not that, after what we witnessed from her finest sons in South Africa, one can truthfully say there was a whole lot of mortem to be post about.

Fabio Capello says he wants to hold onto his job and the English FA say they want two weeks to consider their options. But I think it will take rather more than 14 days of mature reflection, or even a change of gaffer, to cure the ills of our neighbours’ national team.

There’s no doubt that Capello’s credibility has been damaged by his side’s abysmal showing but I reckon he did enough over the course of the qualifying campaign to merit another shot at rebuilding the shattered confidence. The culture of disposability which sees managers come and go at the drop of a point could do with being challenged and, anyway, with Mr Mourinho currently unavailable, there’s no guarantee that any other candidate would do any better with the limited resources currently available.