Capello maintains stance on England exit

Fabio Capello has confirmed UEFA EURO 2012 will represent his swansong as England manager.The Football Association's director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking caused a stir yesterday by refusing to rule out the possibility of Capello remaining in the post beyond the end of his £6 million-a-year contract next summer. It always seemed like a long shot, even though Giovanni Trapattoni, at 72 seven years Capello's senior, has just signed a two-season extension to remain in a similar role with the Republic of Ireland. And, ahead of tonight's group stage draw, Capello has confirmed he intends to bow out at the end of his contract as scheduled. "As an England manager, this is it for me," he said. It places more emphasis on the outcome of tonight's draw in the ornate Palace of the Arts in Kiev, even though Capello took the unusual step of not flying to Ukraine until this morning. The reason was that he wanted to work with the FA lawyers on his submission to UEFA for Wayne Rooney's appeal against a three-match ban which threatens to rule him out of every group game England. After the debacle of last summer, Capello realises there can be no repeat, otherwise the reputation he has built will be tarnished forever. Lessons have been learned, he insists.A city centre location in Krakow has been chosen for the team's base, preparation time will be chopped down and, most significantly, there will be no need to rely on familiar faces now so many youngsters have proved their worth."When we went to South Africa the gap between the older players and younger players was too big," said Capello. "Now the gap is closer and the younger players are improving a lot."