The night of glorious triumph that made Capello
The 1994 European Cup final saw England's coach-in-waiting lead Milan to a stunning victory
Richard WilliamsDecember 12, 2007 11:40 PM
He arrived in London yesterday with a reputation for old-fashioned bluntness in his dealings with famous footballers, but it would perhaps make more sense to view Fabio Capello as the first manager of the new era. Fifteen years ago, in his first spell as head coach of Milan, he found himself pioneering a concept now familiar, for better or worse, as rotation.
Back in November 1992, on the eve of a European Cup tie against Gothenburg, Capello talked about how he coped with handling a squad from which he could have constructed two world-class teams. At the time he was the only manager in the world facing such a problem; in those days everyone could still name Manchester United's first-choice XI, or Juventus's, or Barcelona's. When Alex Ferguson lured Eric Cantona across the Pennines earlier that same month, for instance, he had not found it necessary to omit a star in order to accommodate his new acquisition.
Thanks to the ambition of Milan's owner, Silvio Berlusconi, Capello's resources in midfield and attack included not only the three great Dutchmen Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard but also the newly arrived Dejan Savicevic, Zvonimir Boban and Jean-Pierre Papin. Then there was the Italian winger Gianluigi Lentini, who had just cost Berlusconi a world-record fee of £13m. Capello's job was to select a winning team and to keep the rest happy. "It's very difficult for all these great players," he told me. "At most clubs, there's a squad of 15 or 16. Here we have 24."
How did he cope with leaving out someone like Savicevic, the Montenegrin playmaker whose flickering talent he clearly distrusted, or Papin, struggling to meet the required standard after his arrival from Marseille? "They have to change their mentality," he said, "just like I've had to change mine. This is a different way of doing the job. It means they have to be prepared to work hard even when they aren't in the team. Work, work, work. That's the only way. It's not easy for them."
He made particularly effective use of two unsung Italian midfielders, Demetrio Albertini and Stefano Eranio, who had none of the reputation of the high-priced stars but provided the sort of cohesion that no serious team can do without. To create room for them he was quite prepared to drop one of the superstars, usually Savicevic, whom Berlusconi had nicknamed Il Genio
Against Gothenburg there would be no room for Savicevic, for Boban, or for Gullit. It was Van Basten's match, the great striker scoring all four of Milan's unanswered goals, two of them from Papin's passes. "I never give a player 10 out of 10," Capello said afterwards, "but Van Basten can have 9½."
Gullit and Rijkaard had gone, Van Basten's career had been hacked to a halt, Papin was out of favour and injuries and suspensions had cut a swath through the squad on the night, 18 months later, when they produced one of the great club performances of the modern era. Against Barcelona in the 1994 European Cup final Capello was without Marco Simone, his first-choice striker, and Lentini, recovering from a car crash. Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta, his central defenders, were unavailable.
Paolo Maldini was moved from left-back to the heart of the defence, alongside Filippo Galli. Mauro Tassotti switched from right-back to left, and the young Christian Panucci filled Maldini's usual position. As a formula for repelling Romario and Hristo Stoichkov, it looked like a disaster waiting to happen.
In midfield, much against his instincts, Capello was forced to play Savicevic and Boban in tandem, with a newcomer, Marcel Desailly, behind them and the veteran Roberto Donadoni and the tyro Albertini in support. Up front in the 4-1-4-1 formation was the 32-year-old Daniele Massaro, hitherto thought of as a member of the supporting cast. Massaro scored twice in the first half, the second of them in stoppage-time at the end of a 13-pass move which began with Sebastiano Rossi, the Milan goalkeeper, and lasted 47 seconds, involving every Milan player except Desailly. "That has to go down as one of the best European Cup goals ever," Liam Brady, the BBC's summariser, remarked. I watched it yesterday, and it still is.
Savicevic, the man of the match, produced a magical lob from the edge of the penalty area shortly after the interval, and Barcelona's trauma was completed by Desailly, who burst through like a human threshing machine before producing a delicate side-footed shot. A defence marshalled by Ronald Koeman, buttressed by Miguel Angel Nadal and patrolled by Pep Guardiola lay in ruins.
Capello's usual touchlne ranting was notable by its absence that night in Athens, and it is hard to say how much responsibility he bore for the nature of the victory. Someone had to select a team from Milan's depleted resources and to send them out in the right frame of mind, but the 4-0 win, like that against Gothenburg, seemed a product of the players' instincts rather than the coach's instructions.
His history suggests that Capello, more than any other top manager, will be unafraid to look a star player in the eye and tell him he is dropped. He has had more practice at it than anyone. And "Work, work, work" are the words that may soon be echoing around English football.
