Roy Keane believes that the players and not Fabio Capello should carry the can for England’s World Cup failure, accusing the squad of “getting away with murder”.
The former Manchester United player, now Ipswich Town manager, famously walked out on Ireland before the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan after criticising Mick McCarthy, the manager. Yesterday, though, Keane defended Capello and insisted the Italian should stay in charge.
“To keep criticising and questioning the manager is crazy,” he said. “He didn’t do anything wrong in the qualifying campaign and now, all of a sudden, he’s not the top man any more. They should leave him to get on with the job. He is brilliant and England are lucky to have him.”
Keane pointed the finger, instead, at the players. “They have to take a long hard look at themselves. They get away with murder,” he said. “People keep talking about world-class players but who are they? There’s probably only Wayne Rooney, who had a brilliant season. And even though he still hasn’t done it on the world stage, he has the best chance.
“Look at the goalkeepers. David James was relegated with Portsmouth and Robert Green just about stayed up with West Ham. Glen Johnson did OK at Liverpool but they had a poor enough season. John Terry? He had his issues and I don’t think he had a great season. Chelsea may have won the Premiership and FA Cup double but that was more down to some world-class attacking players.
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“Matthew Upson didn’t have a great season at West Ham and Ashley Cole has just come back from injury. James Milner had a good season but Gareth Barry was average for Manchester City. Emile Heskey started up front but he only scored three Premiership goals for Aston Villa.
“The goals they conceded against Germany, particularly the first couple, had nothing to do with Capello’s choice of system or tactics. It wasn’t a case of getting overrun in midfield. It was just very bad defending.”
His strident views could not be more different from those of Alan Shearer. The former England striker believes that Capello had lost the confidence of his squad.
“This is the worst thing you can say about any football manager, yet it needs saying,” Shearer said. “It looked to me as if the England players did not want to play for him. There was something fundamentally wrong inside that camp. It looked as if the squad were locked away in a boot camp and let out only on match days. Once they were released they looked ill at ease, underprepared and totally confused.
“I still maintain we have enough players of quality to produce far more than we have done at these World Cup finals. So why did they fall short? The finger has to be pointed at Capello. He obviously is not on the same wavelength as English players and does not understand their mentality.”