Fabio, Fabio, Fabio...

So, Fabio hasn’t been publicly backed by the FA but where does this leave him and the national team?

Lets start at the beginning; he started with England in February 2008 with the first game being a win against Switzerland, this was followed by 17 wins, 4 loses and 2 draws in the 23 games following his first. Then there was this years World Cup, 1 win, 2 draws and a defeat, which was England’s heaviest in a World Cup finals, and sent them out of the tournament. Now even including this years competition, his record is the best amongst all England managers (P28, W19, L5, D4 - in Premier League terms 61 points or a win percentage of 67.9%).

But where did it all go wrong and is Capello really the man who is to blame for it all?

The team played badly - maybe they were following his instructions and yes his English isn’t great but they managed up until the World Cup and dominated their qualifying group so can that be used as an excuse, I don’t think it can. If things were really that bad then the players who are grown men could have spoken to him, or just agreed amongst themselves on how they would play (if you believe the reports its how the rugby union team made the 2007 final from the position they were in the group stage). This might have happened with Gerard struggling to stay on the wing and drifting in and leaving space for the opposition to attack through.

So it wasn’t tactics or his English, was it that the premiership season is too long? Is it though, other players seem to be fine, Tevez has scored twice (OK one he was miles offside) but he plays in England too. So if there was a winter break would it make any difference or does playing through help ensure momentum (although it didn’t help this year). This also brings in the comment from the Wigan chairman, suggesting that the Premier League should run the England team. I’m not sure this would be right can 20 teams who are in competition make the right decision for the national side, probably not and it would be compounded by the foreign ownership influence and would hardly be balanced.

Perhaps the players just didn’t want it enough, felt too pressured by the press and couldn’t handle playing at altitude...

This brings me to the situation with the FA. There have been calls to sack Capello, is that right? He’s had one immense qualifying campaign, and a lackluster tournament. Sven Goran Eriksson had three tournaments but everyone else since Graham Taylor have had only one tournament to show what they can do, what motivation does this give the manager to build himself, his relationship and the legacy? If things go wrong they are gone. The FA also signed a new contract with him weeks before the tournament in South Africa starting so why the change of heart, this was his first tournament proper?

So the FA didn’t go out of their way yesterday to back him as England manager, stating they wouldn’t make a “knee-jerk” reaction and would wait two weeks before they make a decision. The only reason I can see for this is that they are hoping Capello will crumble on the pressure that the media may apply and quit, thus saving them the bill (reportedly £6m) for the termination of his contract which is only a month old.

So who would replace him? I’m going to save that for another day, but I don’t think they should sack him, give him until 2012 or at least half way through the qualifying campaign and then replace him if necessary. And although the timing is bad maybe South Africa was a little blip and the Fabio record will continue.

What a Weekend

So... we got knocked out but that isn’t the only sport from this weekend. I’ll come back to that later.

So Saturday Andy Murray won his 3rd round match in straight sets and he will be on again later today in the last match on Center Court. I’m not a massive tennis fan (although I did watch an hour and a half of the Court 18 stalemate last week) but is Murray peaking at the right time this year? People question his passion but after his defeat in the Australian Open and his disappointment I don’t think he does. He may have not performed up until the Wimbledon but he seems to want it and without tempting fate seems to be over his slump having not dropped a set so far at SW19. But if anything he has done more than both Tim Henman and the forgotten man Greg Rusedeski.

So while Tennis has been controversial in the past (Rusedeski’s F-Word outburst live on the BBC) it wasn’t this weekend it was the Formula 1 and Football.

Starting with the F1, I read somewhere that Valencia was a “Fan-Favourite” something I cannot agree with the previous races have been processional and dull... this years wasn’t that much better until Lap 8 when Red Bull really did give Mark Webber wing, well the Lotus of Hekki Kovalainen did. But the fact Webber got out of the car says a lot about the quality of the cars design. Who was to blame - most blame seemed to be at the Lotus drivers movement and if (as reports have stated) he broke 80m early maybe Kovalainen was too blame - he also appeared to move one a half times although why did Webber follow him - was always asking for trouble. No action appears to have or is going to be taken and they both walked away.

This brought our first controversial moment of the day - The leaders were just passing the pit area and the safety car was leaving the pits alongside Lewis Hamilton, who hesitated and then went by leaving the Ferrari’s to sit behind and slowly make it back to the pits, ruining their race. But it wasn’t until Lap 25 that Hamilton got a penalty which he took (as he is allowed to) 3 Laps later and after thrashing it around remained in second - Cue much whinging from Ferrari and Alonso. It would have made little difference to the Ferrari’s if Hamilton had been stuck with them behind the safety car then he would have joined them down the back of the field. Then this morning Ferrari have accused the FIA of manipulating the result.. rich from a team who fixed several GPs in the early 00s and from Alonso who benefited from the cheating in Singapore 2008. Had it been anyone else would they have cared?

Drive of the race had to go to Kobayashi who raced on one set of tires, kept at bay (possibly held up) Jenson Button most of the race, and then took both the sulking Alonso and the Toro Rosso of Buemi on the last lap, in probably the most entertainment of the afternoon.

So after the F1 a quick change to BBC HD to watch the England game.

Not much to say really we couldn’t defend and the Germans took advantage but the only time they looked worried was in the mad 10 minutes before half time, when the man who couldn’t defend Upson scored and Frank Lampard hit his screamer, which was then disallowed - Controversy #2 - technology in football.

So they spend lots of time on money with a ball which has been criticised but they won’t come up with a method to implement the technology which is already in use. It took the host broadcaster 25 seconds to show a replay in-line with the goal line showing the ball crossing it and the argument that it would interrupt the flow is rubbish other major team sports use the tech, why not football. But this debate could (and will) run and run! Also why didn’t the German keeper hold his hands up and said it was in, in rugby or cricket the sportsmanship would have meant someone would have put their hands up and said “yeah it was out” or “yeah its a 6”, but maybe sportsmanship in football can wait for another blog.

Also will save discussions about the England management for another day.

So Vettel won the F1, the Germans the football but England beat Australia to end the sporting day although we left it very late and close but we did it and won the series 3-0 with 2 still to play so is a whitewash on the cards, we’ll find out on Wednesday with the 4th ODI from the Oval.

The First Post

So, I thought I would take the plunge into blogging. Starting with Sport based Blog covering whats going on nationally and internationally as well as anything which I see live.

Coming Up:

• World Cup - I am not a huge football fan but can't really ignore it
• Formula 1 - I am a huge fan and off to the FOTA Fan Forum next week so will talk about that
• Wimbledon
• Women's World Cup - Happening on my doorstep so will be having a look and posting on here about it
• Local Sport - live near Guildford so Guildford Heat and Surrey Storm will be covered too

This is just this summer, now I have graduated have time to get more into this broadcasting lark and will be doing something hopefully on GU2 Radio the university radio station over the summer connected in someway to sport!