Charles Sale: Er, how you say: I'm off next year?

14 August 2009 01:05
A clear sign that Fabio Capello is not looking to extend his time asEngland manager beyond next year's World Cup is the way he has allowedhis English to deteriorate so much.[LNB]It is now 20 months since the Italian started his regulartwo-hours-a-day language lessons, but there is little or no improvementin his English on the evidence of the press conference after England's2-2 draw with Holland in Amsterdam.[LNB]Cheerio? Capello[LNB]   More from Charles Sale... Charles Sale: Lord's ruling final on election fiasco12/08/09 Charles Sale: FA fighting former Soho neighbours11/08/09 Charles Sale: Ferguson jibes fit the bill for Hughes10/08/09 CHARLES SALE: JT's pal hits back over FA blacklist09/08/09 Charles Sale: 'Army' just barmy to point the finger07/08/09 Sports Agenda EXCLUSIVE: Liverpool set to net £15m shirt sponsor06/08/09 Charles Sale: Will Liverpool set a new Standard?06/08/09 Charles Sale: Price is rights for secretive ESPN05/08/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE A clearly embarrassed Capello needed the help of both hisinterpreter Danny Tartaglia and FA communications director AdrianBevington to get across the relatively simple message that the mistakesby Rio Ferdinand and Gareth Barry that led to Dutch goals were 'silly'or 'stupid', rather than 'unacceptable', in the context of anearly-season friendly.[LNB]A master professional like Capello wouldnot allow himself to be still so reliant on an interpreter if heintended a longer stay in England.[LNB]The FA defended Capello'slanguage skills, claiming he always struggles following a holiday backin his Italian home and that he performs at his worst in a bigconference room with the more probing press questioning, as opposed tohis more lucid English comments on TV and radio.[LNB] [LNB]Baroness Amos, the Labour politician whose appointment as one of the directors of the England World Cup 2018 bid caused controversy owing to the Whitehall overload, is again dividing opinion over whether she should stay on the team. [LNB]This follows her appointment as High Commissioner of Australia, one of the competing countries.[LNB]The future role of Amos, who moves to Canberra in October, will be discussed at the September board meeting but bid chairman Lord Triesman is keen to keep her involved, believing her skill set, including personal contacts with heads of state, cannot be replaced.[LNB] [LNB]Speculation at Chelsea that marginalised chief executive Peter Kenyon will soon be on his way out has been rife since before the FA Cup final. [LNB]But Dutchman Frank Arnesen, whose new responsibilities for player recruitment at Chelsea were seen as another sign of the squeeze on Kenyon, said he still reports to the chief executive and there are no problems in their relationship.[LNB] [LNB]As if Setanta going out of business wasn't bad enough, a number of their workforce who had sent in forms claiming redundancy pay and other entitlements found out that administrators Deloitte had lost 'a whole batch of forms between human resources and the Bristol office'. [LNB]Yet a Deloitte spokesman denied any knowledge of the problem. [LNB]Setanta creditors include Jimmy Greaves and Ian St John, who each agreed a £12,000 fee for resurrecting Saint and Greavsie for the FA Cup final in May, but have yet to receive a penny.[LNB] [LNB]Sir Bobby's clap of honour The planned minute's silence by the Dutch hosts at the Amsterdam ArenA for Sir Bobby Robson before the start of the game must be the first of its kind that morphed seamlessly into a minute's applause because of the reaction of the England fans.[LNB]However, confused England security chief Ray Whitworth was one of the first to start clapping. [LNB]ITV commentators Clive Tyldesley and Jim Beglin feared they might miss it after being stuck in a lift for 15 minutes in the approach to kick-off. Must be the curse of ITV Sport.[LNB]Meanwhile, Franco Baldini, the super-stylish Italian assistant to Fabio Capello, is understood to have been allocated the room made famous by John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed-in for peace during England's stay at the Amsterdam Hilton. What, not Becks?[LNB] [LNB]Civil servants in the Government Olympic Executive in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport believe it's worth three of them going out on an 'observer programme' to the athletics World Championships in Berlin on taxpayers' money even though Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and her private secretary are in Germany. The word 'jaunt' comes to mind.[LNB] [LNB]  Explore more:People:Rio Ferdinand, Yoko Ono, Peter Kenyon, Jimmy Greaves, Ian St John, Fabio Capello, Gareth Barry, John LennonPlaces:Amsterdam, Berlin, United Kingdom, Australia, The Netherlands, Germany

Source: Daily_Mail