This week’s Run of Play at Pitch Invasion feature looks at the way Fabio Capello has been portrayed by fans and the media in England, and wonders about a style of characterization that relentlessly depicts him as a mob boss or a bloodthirsty dictator—but in a good way:
There’s a fascinating process at work here, because what seems to be happening is that Capello’s foreignness—which was initially a subject of anxiety for a large segment of England supporters—is being run through a particular popular-culture filter that recasts it as an expression of English strength. It isn’t the real Julius Caesar, after all, to whom Capello is being compared, or the real mafia don. It’s the movie version of each, the figure through whom we’re able to indulge power fantasies and a dream of dominance without real-life moral consequences. None of these figures is foreign, really. Collectively they represent a kind of mythic caricature, rooted tightly in our own cultures, of the strong leader, the boss, the man no one dares to talk back to, the man who doesn’t care how you feel.
Read the full post here, and acquaint yourself with Pitch Invasion while you’re at it.
Read More: England, Fabio Capello, Pitch Invasion
by Brian Phillips · February 7, 2008
Well written and insighful. As an Italian i wonder how Cappello is being percieved. We all have our filters and bring our own experiences to make value judgemnts.
Thanks, Pep, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. There’s something a little troubling about the extent to which Mafia comparisons have become signs of affection and approval in the anglophone media, but I’m for anything as long as it helps the English football press give Capello time to work.
I worry about how this sort of typecasting presents problems for Capello later on. Right now this Disciplinarian Don persona fits perfectly with what the England team needs, especially after the Sven/McClaren era when names meant more than form and player discipline was a joke.
But now they’ve essentially typecast Capello, they’ll use it as a stick to beat him with when things go wrong. He’s too strict, he’s not giving the players freedom to express themselves etc.
I remember the whole “Ice cool Swede” with Sven, and how that was a positive after Kevin Keegan got all emotional and quit in the toilets. But it wasn’t long before they were berating Sven for not showing enough passion on the sidelines.
Daryl, that’s an an excellent point and one that I short-sightedly hadn’t thought of. It’s especially worrying given that the groundwork has already been laid by Martin Samuel and others for complaints that Capello will make the team boring; easy to spin that out into a story about excessively rigid discipline, etc.
Well, maybe he’ll win enough matches to keep it from becoming an issue. Otherwise, at least Capello himself (unlike McClaren) won’t care what’s written about him. But will the FA start to panic if the press slips the leash? You know at some point a disgruntled player is going to try to sow discord through the media.
Make the team boring? I didn’t see anything less boring from Capello’s first game in charge than the usual stuff under Erikson or McClaren.
Neither did I see anything really ground breaking either to be honest. Sometimes teams just don’t have the players to play like the fans want.