‘I used to be accused of sleeping with grannies by England boss – I feel he acquired me combined up’
Fabio Capello allegedly accused one of his former England stars of “sleeping with grannies”, leaving the player in question astounded by the accusation
Ex-England manager Fabio Capello and Andy Carroll did not see eye to eye(Image: IAN KINGTON, AFP via Getty Images)
Former England boss Fabio Capello allegedly once accused Andy Carroll of “sleeping with grannies” during a scolding.
Capello managed the England national team between January 2008 and February 2012, leading their 2010 World Cup campaign in South Africa, where the Three Lions crashed out in the last 16.
Four months after that disappointment, Capello handed promising young forward Carroll – now aged 37 – his very first call-up against France in a friendly. Yet, despite giving the then-Newcastle No.9 his first England cap, the duo had a fractious relationship, as revealed through Carroll’s account of two big flashpoints in his autobiography ‘Owning It’.
Fabio Capello had very strict rules(Image: Jeff Mitchell – FIFA, FIFA via Getty Images)
The Dagenham & Redbridge striker claims in his latest book that the Italian manager was obsessed with discipline and took issue with very minor things. One specific episode allegedly saw him single out Carroll over his off-pitch behaviour, blasting the forward for his boozing and supposed intimate encounters with elderly women.
Carroll explained: “The gaffer, Fabio Capello, was slightly crazy. One day, me and Ashley Young decided to head down for a meeting fifteen minutes early. There I was, sitting on the floor looking at my phone, when Capello walked in, marched over and snatched it out of my hand. ‘We are trying to work here!’ he barked. ‘You’re disrespectful, f***ing using your phone! Send me a message!’
Capello allegedly made wild claims about Carroll’s off-field life(Image: Michael Regan, Getty Images)
“With that, he threw the phone at my chest. I looked at him and thought, ‘Mate, I’m fifteen minutes early for your meeting, and there’s nobody else here. What is your problem?’ Ashley, who had hidden his phone up his shirt, looked terrified.”
Carroll added: “Capello would let us have a glass of wine and dessert with lunch and dinner – chocolate cake, ice cream, whatever – but wouldn’t allow ketchup. It made no sense – why wine and dessert but not ketchup? – and I could only conclude that it had nothing to do with nutritional concerns and everything to do with the fact he was Italian.
“One evening, John Terry knocked on my door. ‘The gaffer wants a word,’ he said. ‘What? Why!’ I said, confused. ‘He’s not happy with your behaviour outside of football.’ I later found out that John had gone to Capello and said he needed to speak to me because I was out of control.
Carroll claims John Terry told Capello to have a word with him(Image: PA story SOCCER England)
“No sooner had I walked into this meeting with Capello than he started berating me. ‘You are always in the media for drinking and sleeping with grannies,’ he said. ‘You need to stop with this’. ‘What?’ I said, ‘I haven’t done that.’
“‘Yes, you have. Drinking and sleeping with old ladies…’ That wasn’t me… I was thinking, ‘What is this fella on about? Who’s told him I’ve been sleeping with grannies? Has he got me mixed up with one of my team-mates?’ In the end, I just had to accept it. ‘Yeah, all right,’ I said. ‘It won’t happen again…'”
Capello ultimately resigned from his post in early 2012, following a disagreement with the Football Association over their decision to strip Terry of the captaincy. Carroll, on the other hand, was selected to wear the Three Lions shirt at Euro 2012 under new manager Roy Hodgson, netting a thunderous header in the group stage victory against Sweden.
He collected nine caps in total for England, the majority coming in 2012, while scoring twice for his country.
