Lippi: England? No Good Players!
Marcello Lippi says that it will be virtually impossible for Fabio Capello to succeed as England manager because he has hardly any good players to choose from.
Much has been said in the English Press about the English dominance in Europe this season, with three of the semi-finalists in the Champions League hailing from the Premiership.
However despite this, things have not gone too well for the English national team as they failed to qualify for Euro 2008.
Many people outside of England believe that this proves that the Premiership is only strong because of the foreign players, who make up a whopping 62 % of the league.
One person who agrees with this viewpoint is former World Cup-winning Italy coach Marcello Lippi.
Lippi believes that England manager Fabio Capello has a near-impossible task on his hands, as he just has so few quality players to choose from.
“Problems for a coach occur when he only has a few good players at his disposal," the Paul Newman-look-alike told a coaching conference in Florence.
"[Italy coach] Roberto Donadoni has a problem of abundance, while for Capello it's completely the opposite.
"Capello for example will have more problems fielding a strong English national team because only 38 per cent of Premier League players are British."
Capello has stated that his biggest task as England manager will be to try and find out why the country has performed so poorly at major championships over the years.
The Three Lions have only won one major trophy, the World Cup on home turf, back in 1966.
Apart from this they have reached just one semi-final, while in recent times they have failed to qualify for the 1974, 1978 and 1994 World Cups, as well as the 1972, 1976, 1984 and 2008 European Championships