BOSS SUFFERED CUP AGONY AS ITALY PLAYER.

Byline: MARTIN LIPTON 

FABIO CAPELLO will not let his own World Cup misfortunes affect his judgment next summer.

Capello was in the Italy squad for Germany in 1974 that expected to become world champions, only to return to the traditional rotten tomato welcome after a first-round flop.

Four years later, Capello was left out of Enzo Bearzot's squad for Argentina and only heard the bad news on the television. But there will probably be no preparatory calls to the England players he omits next May.

He said: "I have to decide the players who will be in the best moment of form.

"For all the players I selected for the last squad, it is possible they will be with us in South Africa. But I remember my own history. I played the qualification games for the 1978 World Cup and I didn't go, so we have to wait.

"The door is open for all the people. When it came to me then I wasn't injured, I just wasn't good enough. I heard on TV that I was not in the squad.

Will I tell the players who miss out? That is a good question..."

The answer was left hanging in the air but Capello is not the type who needs to explain why players are omitted.

And his bitter experience of the World Cup he did play in will ensure Capello does everything to take a united England squad to South Africa.

"What happened then was hard for me and very painful," recalled Capello. "We went as one of the favourites. But after we beat Haiti, we drew with Argentina, lost to Poland and went home.

"You have to ask the manager what went wrong. I know but I don't want to say."

CAPELLO'S LIKELY SQUAD:

Green, Foster, Hart, Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole, Bridge, Upson, Jagielka, Milner, Lennon, Lampard, Barry, Hargreaves, Gerrard, Beckham, J Cole, Rooney, Heskey, Defoe, C Cole, Walcott

CAPTION(S):

Capello knows what it's like to be axed