Source: Daily_Mail
Capello hails his main man: 'Rooney is one of the best in the world'
This may not come as much of a surprise but rarely, it seems, is Wayne Rooney the object of love at first sight.
Wife Coleen rejected those early advances in the school playground and even Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson took a little time to warm to the 23-year-old striker.
England manager Fabio Capello said yesterday: 'I remember when Sir Alex first bought him. I saw him at a UEFA meeting in Nyon and he said, "Fabio, I am crazy. I have just spent an awful lot of money on a very young player". Now, though, I am sure he is happy he spent a lot of money on a very important player.'
It also took Capello a while to appreciate what Rooney has to offer. He had his concerns about the quality of Rooney's finishing, and a passion for Theo Walcott that left United's feisty forward in the shade.
Asked a few months ago, at a dinner organised by the League Managers' Association, which of England's players had impressed him most, he spoke only of the precociously gifted Arsenal winger.
Now, however, he has enormous affection for Rooney. He is the 'crazy guy' who punches corner flags and the guy who makes him laugh. The guy who reminds him of a 19-year-old Raul and someone, given his natural qualities as a leader of men on the field, who could one day captain his country.
Clearly, the seven goals Rooney has scored in England's last four games have helped endear him to the Italian. But Capello is not that fickle. He has just realised how influential Rooney has become.
While there are those who identify Steven Gerrard as England's most important player, Capello clearly sees Rooney as the central figure.
He is the player around whom England's team should be built. The player, for all his ability and versatility, who will be deployed in the position from which he can make the greatest impact.
'Rooney is one of the best players in the world,' said Capello. 'And he is best as a second striker.'
The temptation to deploy him as first striker in the World Cup qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley tonight, and drop Gerrard into the role he occupies for Liverpool, must have been considerable when 'the virus' that has struck down so many English strikers claimed Darren Bent.
Suddenly, as Capello watched Bent limp away, the only other strikerleft standing was Peter Crouch - the same Peter Crouch who has notstarted a game for Capello and a striker who appears to lack the powerand athleticism the manager favours in his forwards.
Enlarge There were other options. He could have started a war with the othermajor north London club and told Theo Walcott, coming back from injuryand training with Arsenal on an adjacent pitch yesterday, to getchanged.
Or he could have turned to Gabriel Agbonlahor, even though the Aston Villa striker received the call only yesterday, having initially withdrawn from the Under 21s with injury. Or he could have asked Michael Owen to put down his gun (apparently he was paintballing withhis Newcastle colleagues as part of a team-building exercise) and hopin his helicopter.
Clearly, all were dismissed as rapidly as the idea of re-organising Rooney and Gerrard because no sooner had training finished than Capello was telling the world that Crouch would start against Ukraine.
Crouch, as his record prior to Capello's arrival shows, is no slouch. If you calculate his goals per minutes of international football he is ranked higher than Rooney, Owen, Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker and Sir Bobby Charlton. Fourteen goals at one every 124 minutes and a statistic that says he is a far more natural predator than Heskey (one goal every 493 minutes).
But Capello is not necessarily looking to Crouch for goals. He wants him to do a job that allows Rooney, Gerrard and even Frank Lampard to perform to their best. Had he not suffered that knee injury, the more athletic Bent probably would have earned selection ahead of Crouch.
Capello, cracking jokes on this occasion about the leisure top he had been provided with by Umbro, confirmed as much when he openly discussed Crouch's physical limitations as well as his qualities.
Capello said: 'My first idea was one style and one particular forward, fast and with movement. Now it's another style with Crouch. I'm sure he will play a good game. He is in good form.
'He has a different style. He is not Bent, not Heskey but we have to play with Crouch because he's now the best we have who can play. And Ukraine stay always in your midfield waiting for us, and playing on the counter-attack, so we need players like Crouch.
'He can do a job. I think the most important thing is the movement of Gerrard, Lennon and Rooney near him. Crouch can't do the same movement as Heskey, can't press like Heskey. But it will be very important for the movement of the others around him. We have to play like a team, like a group. Not individuals.'
The key, argued Capello, was to limit the disruption. The system he employed in Saturday's 4-0 win over Slovakia worked well, particularly when it came to Rooney and Gerrard, and that is how he would like England to continue.
'I was happy with the movement of Rooney and Gerrard against Slovakia and I will be happy if they are the key this time,' he said.
'I don't want to change when I have started to see them playing with the same confidence they have with their clubs. This is very important.
Before, when they played for England, they did not show the same level.
But now they are playing at the same level.'
Now that Rooney is running the show.
