Mafia or not, it is what the press made him out to be. Capello will enjoy the reputation though as the players fear for their lives under his dictatorship. Steve McClaren’s style of shoulder thumping and gatherings with WAGs in tow is disgraceful.

It is right to put some distance (an understatement) between manager and players. A player should not just perform for individual glory but he should do it with discipline and commitment and serve the team. This legacy will more than justify his salary.

In the week after his arrival you find the Sun breaking out the Italian phrasebook for “Don Fabio, capo di tutti e capi…the boss of bosses, the Godfather.” And the Daily Star: “The Godfather had made his point…. He’ll be back on January 7 to begin his reign of terror.” I’m looking at sketchy notes, but I think it was the Independent that first gleefully noted that the players’ days of entitlement and luxury would soon be sleeping with the fishes.

As for cheese, I shouldn’t slight Don Fabio by suggesting he shuns the stuff entirely. Perhaps he enjoys tiny nibbles of Asiago Pressato while he listens to the Bach cello suites, just to keep him in touch with his soul.

* though not as right as the thing about a man who eats no cheese, which is a FACT.

ahem. where was I.

Ah yes… my understanding was that “Don” Fabio dates from his (first) time in Spain, as a fairly straightforward pseudoaristocratic honorific?

As to cheese, I would imagine that Don Fabio would not turn down a fine Manchego under the right circumstances, but it is perhaps significant that he comes from one of the few parts of Italy that isn’t known for its wonderful cheese.

Completely agree about Klinsmann—our only hope there would be that his California New Age side would expose him to a different set of caricatures before the authoritarian ones got off the ground. Also agree about Capello over wine and cheese. Does Capello even eat cheese?

Two other points: The Don Fabio nickmame was current in Italy well before he ever crossed the Channel. In Italian usage it evokes not only Marlon Brando, but also the local pastor (all those Don Boscos you may have snickered at if you were familiar with the chooclate syrup and went to Sacred Heart or St. Anthony’s). Capello is relatively devout (at least as high level football figures are concerned) and it surely isn’t hard for one to imagine him in a cassock, peering over his spectacles and telling a trembling teenager that if he keeps it up he is going to go both blind and to hell (I expect that Cheryl Tweed has already asked him to have such a chat with Ashley Cole).

And the groundwork for the Mussolini references was certainly set during his time at Real Madrid, when he famously expressed the view that Italy could have benefitted from a similar sense of order as that imposed in Spain under Franco.

Great manager, who I am convinced will do well for England if allowed to work. Not a guy I’d like to have over for a bottle of wine and some cheese.