At pitch side in Maseru's Bambatha Tsita sports arena a little under a year ago Fabio Capello addressed the enigma that is Wayne Rooney. "The one thing he can and will improve is, in every game, he has a lot of chances and he takes nowhere near as many as he should," offered the Italian of a player whose potential at this level had been threatening to stall. "But I'm confident he still has a lot of improvement ahead of him. I'm sure of it."
At the time the temptation was to consider such rhetoric as that of the latest England manager bullishly confronting an issue that had nagged away at his predecessors without ever being properly addressed. Yet some 12 months on, from Lesotho to London, the Capello factor has taken effect. The playful remark to Rooney in front of the rest of the England squad at London Colney this week – "You are a crazy man" – after the player's furious dismissal at Fulham was a sweetener. The Italian has invested too much time in the Manchester United striker to allow a hot temper to nullify his impact on the biggest stage and after the laughter came a gentle reminder of his responsibilities. Such ill-discipline could cost England dear.
His words may, for once, strike a chord. So much about Rooney under Capello has offered cause for optimism. After his explosive entry into international football, with nine goals in his first 16 appearances including four at a blistering European Championships five years ago, the rewards rather dried up under Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren. The Swede had described the youngster as "cold" in terms of his temperament. As a teenager new to this level, his raw talent and enthusiasm had caught opponents off guard. Once his reputation started preceding him, however, Rooney was whipped up into a frenzy of frustration. Capello inherited a player who had scored five times for England in three years. He will send out a striker against Slovakia on Saturday with five goals in his last three appearances for his country.
England may have their bite back. Sir Alex Ferguson once described the forward as "uncoachable", referring to his rampaging, natural instincts. Capello has attempted to glean more from a player whose form had suffered amid the national team's toils. Like Ferguson the Italian boasts an aura that demands respect. Yet for an international manager the time that can be spent on the training pitch is at a premium. Capello has recognised the need for clarity with players he sees for only a few days and has established a steady and significant dialogue with Rooney. Advice is delivered quietly on and off the practice pitches, the attention to detail bringing the best out of the player, with his disciplinary record much improved under the Italian.
A sense of responsibility may be taming the tearaway. These days, it is as if the coach and his staff consider Rooney to be this side's principle asset. Michael Owen, previously the senior striker, is absent and, while Steven Gerrard may crave a central role, Rooney is always the likelier second striker to leave the Liverpool midfielder marauding from the left. The experiment of playing the United forward as a lone attacker was abandoned after the defeat by France a year ago and Emile Heskey's subsequent recall could be considered an attempt by Capello to get the best from the younger man.
The team, certainly, is increasingly geared towards playing to his strengths. When England trained at the Olimpico de Monjuic stadium between their defeat of Andorra and trip to Croatia back in September, Capello had Theo Walcott performing endless crossing drills to Rooney in the six-yard box in an attempt to forge an understanding between the two. Some 18 months previously, McClaren's squad had played piggy-in-the-middle on the same surface ahead of their own meeting with the Andorrans.
The previous manager had also attempted to chivvy the best from the United forward, though he only ever saw flashes of the player's true ability. Capello's approach, in contrast, has paid immediate dividends. Rooney's performance in Zagreb went almost unnoticed amid the fanfare for Walcott's hat-trick but the forward scored that night as well and unnerved the Croatian back-line. He scored twice against both Kazakhstan at Wembley and Belarus in Minsk. The striker could win his 50th cap against Ukraine next Wednesday at the age of 23 and, as Capello had indicated in Lesotho, the best may be yet to come.
"I have seen players who have looked like they were never going to become goal scorers but, at 26, they start scoring," added the Italian. "It depends on how relaxed and confident you are in front of goal." The fury with which he reacted to United's latest setback at Craven Cottage was an indication that the game's flipside still troubles Rooney deeply. England lost the striker to a dismissal at the last World Cup finals and duly tumbled from the tournament. Jokes aside, Capello can ill afford to lose his "crazy man" again.
