Without Wayne, Capello must find a new England
Options abound, but the manager has just five friendlies to find the right ones.
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Your support makes all the difference.Over the next few weeks, the consequences of what took place in those final 15 minutes at Podgorica's City Stadium on Friday night will become apparent to Fabio Capello. He will recognise a familiar scenario – England, in what should have been a moment of triumph, succeeded in complicating their future.
As they qualified for Euro 2012 with that 2-2 draw with Montenegro, Wayne Rooney's red card signalled the start of long, fraught run to their first game in Poland or Ukraine at the start of June. Already, this is not a straightforward build-up to a tournament; already Capello is obliged to plan and coach for two different eventualities: a team with Rooney, and one without him.
It is a long-held belief that when it comes to England's most talented player, you accept the best and you live with the rest. That it is the same unique, instinctive capacity to defy convention that makes Rooney such a brilliant footballer that also made him kick out petulantly Miodrag Dzudovic.
Yet Rooney, for all his 28 goals in 73 caps, has never delivered for England at a tournament and more often than not has been the architect of their downfall. He last scored a tournament goal at Euro 2004. He was injured coming into the 2006 World Cup and was sent off against Portugal in much the same circumstances as Friday. Last year in South Africa he was out of form, unfit and beset by personal issues.
If this is a pact, where exactly have been the rewards for England? It is a fatuous argument to advance the case that England would be better off without him. He is the country's most talented footballer. But, now more than ever, England are forced to find a strategy to cope without him. Capello's assertion that he will not make Rooney's return to the England team a formality if they are playing well at the tournament is a fascinating prospect.
The European Championship, for next summer at least, is still contested by just 16 teams. There is not the same quorum of weaker sides as there is in the group stages in a World Cup. England must hit the ground running without Rooney.
If Capello can cure England of their Rooney addiction, if he can build a team that is capable of winning games without him, then it will be better for all concerned. No one expects Rooney to be a fringe player for the next four years. But this England team have always looked like they would benefit from a "No Rooney" strategy. Now they have time to have a go at creating one.
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