Fabio England coach - but for how long?

The ink is not yet dry on his contract to manage the England football squad and mischief-makers are already speculating as to how Fabio Capello will leave the post. It's hardly surprising given the track record of recent England coaches. The roll of shame begins with Graham Taylor who missed out on the 1994 World Cup and was lampooned as a turnip in the tabloids. Taylor gave way to Terry Venables, a man untouchable for football reasons but whose business activities were so convoluted that the Department of Trade banned him for seven years from being a company director over 19 charges of serious misconduct.

The next man in the hot-seat, Glenn Hoddle, was similarly lauded on the pitch. Unfortunately, off-the-cuff remarks in a newspaper interview about reincarnation and the disabled did for the born-again Christian in 1999. The FA was probably quite happy to have his successor, Kevin Keegan, leave in 2000 claiming that he wasn't up to the job in footballing terms.

As for Sven Goran Eriksson, he kept the country endlessly amused with his affairs (Ulrika, Faria...), eventually being caught out by the News of the World's 'fake Sheikh'. Steve McClaren's prosaic exit last month for failing to qualify for Euro 2008 barely rates a mention alongside such inglorious company.

The tabloids have already begun to sniff around Capello, but have only been able to unearth a few ambiguous comments about General Franco's positive effect on Spain and an admission that he has voted for the Lega Nord in Italy, a far-right but legal democratic party. Which for a manager known as the 'iron fist in the iron glove' is scarcely surprising.
The bookmaker William Hill is offering odds of 9/2 that he will be in his post until the 2010 World Cup, and 10/1 that he will win it with England. More outlandish outcomes that they're willing to take money on include Capello divorcing while England manager (16/1); 33/1 that he'll lose the job after attacking a national newspaper journalist; and 20/1 that he'll be duped by the NoW into discussing another managerial appointment with the fake sheikh.