Harry’s escape to victory (From The Northern Echo)

Harry’s escape to victory

2:12pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Latest Features By Ray Mallon

THE economy’s tanking, the weather’s awful and the Middle East is in flames.

So we should be grateful for the unerring ability of football managers to put things in perspective.

Things may be bad, but just imagine if they were in charge of their country’s economy or foreign policy, instead of that great triviality, a squad of soccer players.

Armageddon would not be long delayed.

I’ve been asking myself if there are lessons to be learned from the fates of Fabio Capello and Harry Redknapp in the past 48 hours.

The fact that I don’t get much further than the old saying “It’s a funny old game” maybe suggests we should look elsewhere for enlightenment.

Behind the usual tales of ego and personality clashes, some things are clear, though.

First, I can’t see how anyone can question the correctness of the FA’s decision to remove John Terry from the captaincy, pending his court appearance on charges of racial abuse.

It was the best thing for the team, the game and – if only he could see it – Terry himself.

It was the perfectly proper thing to do, just as last week Chris Huhne was right to resign from the Cabinet until his own court case is resolved.

It has nothing to do with the presumption of innocence or guilt and if Capello can’t realise that then his judgement is more flawed than even I thought.

Capello’s argument is that the decision undermined his managerial authority. I would have more sympathy with that stance if he hadn’t allowed the self-same player he has supposedly died in a ditch for, to blatantly and inexcusably flout his authority during the World Cup. He was a divisive figure then and now and Capello should have realised that.

In simple statistics, Capello is the most successful manager of recent years. England won two-out-of-three matches under him.

But he will surely be one of the least mourned. The communication problems, the personal demeanour – has there ever been a man on £6m-a-year who looked more miserable – all gave him an air of detachment that went down badly with fans and players.

It seemed the stance of a man who seemed to be saying: “I could walk away from all this tomorrow.” Now he has, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.

So, will he be replaced by Harry, who this week left court without a stain on his character, and no doubt a few envious looks from folks who don’t have friends who deposit sixfigure sums in Monaco bank accounts for them?

I followed the case and to be fair, I thought from the start that this a situation where the Inland Revenue had let the prospects of a high-profile conviction cloud its thinking. I suppose there is something to be learned, not about Redknapp’s probity, which can’t be questioned, but the state of the game. You can drown in debt, but you can be suffocated by money.

So maybe Harry will choose to spend more time with Spurs and Rosie the bulldog. Or perhaps he’ll finally learn how to send texts and emails, or he can go for a job which seems to bring its occupants nothing but misery.

While that’s being decided perhaps we should look at whether the national team needs a full-time manager, or if some sanity might be restored by allowing the occupant to combine it with their day job. Just to give everyone a bit of perspective.

It would go some way to de-mystifying and even de-toxifying a pretty poisonous position.

Things couldn’t get much worse.