England expects against Brazil

Next years World Cup gets ever nearer and football betting will inevitably reach fever pitch and it may surpass all previous World Cups in terms of betting turnover. The games will all be available on bwin live betting and streaming service. England have the Brazil game coming up and Fabio Capello distinctly wanted this fixture because he needed to evaluate where England are in terms of their preparation.

This is a very smart thing to do and Capello seems to be the most thorough England manager we have had for many years. It is sad to have to say this but I don’t think that there are any Englishmen capable of doing the job. That job is to make us amongst the Worlds elite and to be possible World Cup winners.

There are people who could manage England but getting us into being contenders takes someone very special and we just don’t have managers capable of doing that at this time. There are possibilities with people like Roy Hodgson or Terry Venables who have managed at the highest level but Venables was Steve McClaren’s number two so he hardly did himself any favours there.

Maybe the top clubs are to blame as no Englishman has been in charge of a top four club and took our teams into Champions League action in years. So our managers are simply not getting experience of high level management. The application process is similar to other areas where candidates are competing for a top position.

Employers are looking for relative experience so any manager who has not taken charge of a team in Europe or the Champions League isn’t really going to be considered for a job involving the top four clubs who expect this level of performance year in and year out. This leaves clubs taking something of a massive gamble if they go for a manager without the necessary experience!

Capello is a schemer and a planner and I would not bet against the man lifting our morale and level of performance to a stage where we are serious contenders next summer. Even if England lose to Brazil, Capello will learn from that and move on. It is possible that after Spain and Brazil, we could be the best team in the tournament next year. We could be stronger than Holland, Italy, France, Portugal, Germany and Argentina.

However the knockout stages are something of a lottery. One off games where anything can happen! One bad challenge and a player is sent off or a silly penalty decision or a lucky goal goes against you and you are out. When you consider that these games will also be decided by extra time and then penalties then you simply need to get lucky.

England will have psychological problems from the quarter-finals onwards in my mind and this may be Fabio Capello’s biggest hurdle. England probably will not win the tournament and the football betting odds will reflect that. Having to get lucky and then overcome at least seven or eight other teams who are also all capable of winning it will still be a tall order. But the game against Brazil will go some way towards seeing exactly where we need to be and getting seeded for next summers tournament will be another boost as well.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson