by David Bott

Created on: March 11, 2007   Last Updated: June 17, 2011

While I wouldn't argue that managers the calibre of Paisley, Shankly, Clough, and Ferguson are deserving of people's "greatest managers of all time" tag, surely a mention for Fabio Capello wouldn't go amiss. This is a man who has managed three of the biggest and most famous football clubs in history, who led the AC Milan team of "invincibles" to four Scudettos, won a European Champions League crown with a stunning 4-0 win over Johan Cruyff's awesome Barcelona team, took charge of Real Madrid for only one season where he won La Liga, then departed to return to his first love Milan for an, admittedly, unsuccessful spell. But in my eyes, his biggest achievement had to be winning his fifth Italian League championship with AS Roma.

The team from the capital had an awesome array of talent, but had to contend with the mighty Juventus and city rivals Lazio, who were the regining champions, if they were to raise aloft the crown of best team in Italy that year. They eventually pipped Juventus to the post by two points on the final day of the season, beating Parma 3-1 and cementing Capello's name in Roma's history.

He went on to manage Juventus and won two Scudettos with the Turin giants. But those title wins were wiped from history due to the recent Italian match-mixing scandal in which Juve were stripped of glory and placed into Series B as punishment.

Capello now resides in the job as Real Madrid manager for a second time, but now times have changed at the Santiago Bernabeu. The days of the Galacticos seem to be numbered, and Capello's job as manager of perhaps the most famous football club in history is getting harder as every day passes. Are his days numbered as a top line football manager? Only "Don Fabio" knows the answer to that. But if he ever fancies a crack at international football, there's a team in decline just waiting for a man who can bring fresh ideas to a stale setup that currently exists. He'll be able to find them at Wembley Stadium...if they ever get to play there.

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