Fabio Capello

England qualified for South Africa 2010 today with a resounding 5-1 win over Croatia. A side cursed by always missing a key player in its drive for a world cup spot.Last year Croatia missed Eduardo and today they missed Tottenham's Luca Modric. Glaring omissions for the Croatians.But this England side are much different then the 2007 side that lost so painfully to those same Croatians. That group was led by the unafairly maligned stumble Steve McLaren.

In eight world Cup qualifying games England played eight games and won every one. They scored 31 goals and only allowed five. As a Roma fan i have always been keenly aware of Capello's brilliance. He simply is amazing.And Roma haven't been the same since he's left.

In 1994 Capello took A Milan to the Champions league final and destroyed favoured Barcelona.It was then that i woke up to the power of Capello.Since then he has won countless trophies most notably for my beloved AS Roma in 2001-01. Put simply he is a winner.

Italy are within one point of Qualifying for South Africa and i feel Italy are in supreme hands with Marcello Lippi in charge. But i do wonder aloud if Italy would have sought out Capello after 2006 instead of Roberto Donadoni how much of England's history and even Italy's could be drastically different. Its silly to theorize what has never happened.So instead i will quote some English dailies who are thrilled with Capello.

From the Times online So much for the impossible job. So much for the Lampard-Gerrard conundrum. So much for English football’s crisis of confidence. This was one of those rare nights when hope and glory made an appearance at Wembley — a testament to a team's spectacular transformation under the management of Fabio Capello.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic on his time as a player at Juventus.As Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovic said of Capello when they worked together at Juventus: "He gets the team to play the way he wants it to play and you don't need to ask any questions. You know he is doing the right thing for the team and the team responds to that."

David Beckham to the NY times."What Fabio Capello has brought back into the squad and also back into the nation, is the belief," Beckham told reporters at England's team hotel.

Tony Cascarino Times online.Genius at work: Fabio Capello turns wallies into world-beaters

These comments are stark and contrast so sharply from 2007. Will England win the World cup? If Spain and Brazil stumble England can be as good a bet as anyone. Why not. They have a man in charge that's simply knows how to win.