Everyone can benefit from extra English lessons, even England Manager Fabio Capello after England's loss to Germany in the World Cup 2010

For all the England fans watching the South African World Cup, it has been a week filled with ups and downs. Although the English supporters were saddened with the performance of the England team on the draw with Algeria, fans was even more disappointed with the 4-1 loss to the Germans.

Some fans have been complaining about the England team manager, Fabio Capello. Although there is a lot of criticism on his strategy, most complaints are related to his communication skills in English. Being an Italian national, Fabio Capello has been struggling to convey his message clearly to the audience during the post match TV interviews. Many fans fear that if the manager is not able to communicate properly during an interview, he is also likely to have difficulties in communicating with the English football players. The loyal fans will say the near to incompetent English communication skill is totally unforgivable. Those who are not familiar with the football scene may be scratching their head as England, the country where the English language originated, is paying about 5 million sterling pounds to an Italian guy who cannot even hold a decent English conversation to lead their national football team.

There are examples of football club managers not being able to speak decent English, but who have still won big championships. Robert "Bob" Paisley, the former Liverpool football club manager was such a legend. Even though Bob Paisley was rarely able to pronounce a full and complete sentence, the football players were still able to do what Paisley intended. The reason for success mainly lies on Bob Paisley starting off as a Liverpool player, later becoming the team physiotherapist and coach, and finally as club manager. His deep understanding of the Liverpool players and club tradition has made it so much easier for the players to see what he was trying to do and that provided its own momentum. Between 1974 and 1983, he managed to lead Liverpool into 3 European Cups, 1 UEFA cup, 3 League Cups, 5 Community Shields and 1 UEFA Super Cup, and still remains in the record as the only manager to have won 3 European Cups.

However, the current circumstances are very different; Fabio Capello is not leading a football team like the Liverpool team. The England team is made up of the best players from England but they have only come together as a team just before the world cup. There is no mutual understanding between the football players with their Italian manager to provide a strong momentum. Indeed, Fabio Capello has done really well in the past managing other European teams such as Milan, Real Madrid, Roma and Juventus. Yet, this is the first time he is leading an English speaking team.

It is very doubtful that the Italian manager will be able to motivate his players in the dressing room during half time using his incomplete English. Any football fan would know that this is a key moment where the manager delivers the most important instructions and motivation to the players. Even with the presence of a translator, the emotion and spirit of the message will somewhat struggle to come across within such limited time. Those players who cannot understand the message may simply ignore the instructions. This loss has possibly showed us that the manager’s inability to communicate effectively eventually contributed to the downfall of the team.