Fabio Capello has warned his pampered England players that they cannot afford to let their privates lives get in the way of his World Cup preparations.
Capello has grown weary at fending off a barrage of questions about the late-night liaisons of England defenders John Terry and Ashley Cole, and delivered a brief but emphatic statement of intent to his squad when they met up for this week’s friendly against Egypt.
The England coach is concerned that the vast amount of money and power enjoyed by the country’s top players has led some of them to lose focus and he expects nothing less than total concentration on soccer over the next three months.
He will not tolerate any repeat of Terry’s alleged affair with the former girlfriend of international colleague Wayne Bridge, which forced Capello to strip the Chelsea defender of the England captaincy, or Cole’s string of extra-marital flings that led to his separation from pop star wife Cheryl.
Speaking before the Egypt match, Capello made it clear that sort of behavior could cost a player his place at the World Cup.
“You have to be careful in every moment in your life. I think the next three months will be OK for all the players. If there is a problem and it is the private life we have to decide about what will happen,” Capello said.
“They are important players. They have to make an example for the children and all the fans. They have to stay careful in every moment and sacrifice something in their life,” he said.
“They are young players and young rich boys. This is the problem. It is not only here, in Italy, in Germany, in Spain, in every country where football is important like here,” he said.
“I remember in Spain sometimes one player went to a disco to drink something, but not big problems between players about different women,” he said.
Terry has suffered an alarming slump in form but still has Capello’s support and the Italian, who admitted he had yet to speak to Terry about his form and morale, insists he sees no problems with his club displays.
“I saw two games that he played against Inter Milan and Man City. He played a normal game. The form of John Terry is good. He played without problems,” Capello said.
“I followed him during training and he was good. He is absolutely not affected. I haven’t spoken to him. I have another 24 hours to speak to him,” he said.
“Usually I speak with a lot of players individually. I have to decide whether to speak or not to speak. It depends on the moment,” he said.
“Always the teams wins together and loses together. It is possible to do some mistakes during the game,” he said.
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