Former England manager Fabio Capello believes newly-appointed Roy Hodgson has his work cut out to build team spirit and create a winning mentality with so little time before Euro 2012.
Hodgson has until May 29 to name his 23-man squad for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine, giving him just over two weeks from the end of the Premier League season.
Capello knows the new England boss from their days coaching in Italy, and believes Hodgson is a “very good choice”, but is worried for the team’s chances given the short amount of time he has to prepare.
“It’s not a normal job. It’s difficult to create something. You can’t do something in a short space of time,” he told The Times.
“The idea is to create the team spirit and winning mentality in a really short time. This is very difficult. It will be hard. And the other thing is that you don’t play a lot of games. In nearly every game, you are either in or out.”
Hodgson, who leaves West Brom after their final two Premier League games, has experience of coaching national sides before, having guided Switzerland to the last 16 of the 1994 World Cup, and earning them qualification to Euro 96.
“I’ve known Roy since he was coaching in Italy and I have met him often in these last few years,” Capello said. “I believe he is a very good and experienced manager and he is a very good choice for the England national team. I wish him all the best for the future and Euro 2012.”
Capello, whose post at England was his first as a national-team manager, knows that club and international management are very different jobs, and Hodgson has a short amount of time to assert his authority and unite the squad.
“As a club manager, you are a manager,” he added.
“As a national team manager, you are a selector. You cannot work with and get the best out of the players all of the time because some are injured, some are not in a top moment, some are unhappy with their club’s position, some have a problem with their manager.
“I’m happy with the job I did for England. I hope that England will be one of the best teams at the Euros and they can show my job was really good. If things go well as I hope, people will recognise that I did a good job.”
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