NO GOOD ever comes of friendlies. At least, that is the case for the England football team constantly clashing between the rocks of condemnation and expectation. Struggle in a friendly, as they did against the European champions Spain, and England's players are immediately dismissed as overpaid mediocrities not fit to lace David Villa's boots. Beat Slovakia 4-0 and they are suddenly back among the favourites for South Africa next year.
Such irksome fixtures may be necessary to keep up the crippling payments on the new Wembley, but they can only be of limited footballing significance. When they also contrive to produce injuries to three strikers four days before a crucial World Cup
qualifier, they also seem to be more trouble than they are worth. Slovakia meant little, while Wednesday's match against Ukraine will be a meaningful indication of the present progress of the Fabio Capello project.
Lamentations in the English press about the injuries to Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch must obviously be weighed against the encyclopaedic volumes of newsprint in the past condemning all three players for their inadequacies. That is all part of the Capello charisma, though. Players bestowed with his approval are now allowed a revisionist approach to their entire career histories.
The best example is Steven Gerrard. In the past his England performances have been widely reviled as being those of a headless chicken. English observers have divided along north-south lines, making out cases for Gerrard or Frank Lampard while maintaining a mutual insistence that the two were incompatible. Now Gerrard is being hailed as a divinely-inspired combination of Kaka, Zinedine Zidane and Zico, the key player in England's surge to South African glory.
The point is being missed as thoroughly as nine out of ten Carlton Cole chances. The most effective quality Capello has brought to the England job is his refusal to be carried along by players' reputations or press campaigns. Zidane may hint that Gerrard is the best player in the world, Capello appears to see him as a useful midfielder who can do a decent job at filling in on the left. Similarly, Capello does not embrace the myth of John Terry being a captain courageous solid-as-a-rock centre-half. He sees him as an occasionally vulnerable defender who needs to prove he is worth a place ahead of Matthew Upson, Jonathan Woodgate, even Ledley King. It's not too fanciful speculation to suggest that if King had two functional knees, he would be ahead of Terry in the England pecking order.
Even England's most consistent provider of goals, Wayne Rooney, isn't treasured as an irreplaceable centre-forward. "He's our joker in the pack," Capello said on Saturday night, suggesting that Rooney is valued for his versatility as much as anything.
That Brian Clough film, and the quick mention of Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson, serve as reminders that having a manager with a stronger ego and personality than his players can be no bad thing. Martin O'Neill was characteristically lucid this week about the desire of Clough's players to earn a tiny gesture of approbation from the manager. Capello seems made of the same stuff, reticent with praise, realistic about failings and disappointments.
Capello deserves much of the credit for the Indian summer of David Beckham. Not for encouraging him, but for exactly the opposite. At Real Madrid, Capello prematurely dismissed Beckham as a showbiz clothes-horse and omitted him from his plans. Beckham's response revitalised Real Madrid that season, and earned Capello's respect. Capello didn't bring Beckham back into the England fold because he was impressed by his showings in Major League Soccer. He brought him back because he remembered that commitment on the Real Madrid training pitch.
The rest of Beckham's England career will be a series of cameos from the bench, but who's to say how valuable they may prove. The goal he set up for Rooney against Slovakia was unimportant in the context of the match. It might be more significant for Beckham's latest putative successor Aaron Lennon. Lennon was busy and adventurous in the first half. What he lacked was composure and precision. If he saw the way Beckham carefully placed his cross onto the middle of Rooney's forehead, and, more importantly, if he shows Beckham's dedication and learns to do it himself, England may have a dangerous right-sided midfield for another decade or so.
That's a big couple of ifs of course. If English footballers were inclined to learn lasting lessons from these games, friendlies might not be so pointless.
