Owen: Capello caused catastrophic damage to my career and English football England Scathing attack on former coach

Michael Owen gave a blunt account of Fabio Capello's time as England coach, which in his eyes damaged both his own career and the national team.

The former Liverpool striker had been an England regular until the Italian arrived and left him on the bench for the opening counters, before leaving him out of the setup altogether.

Owen felt that Capello's inability to speak English as well as his disciplined approach was a hindrance.

"When he assembled his first squad session, the first thing we noticed was that he was very strict when it came to food and the second thing was that he couldn't speak a word of English," Owen wrote in his new book 'Reboot - My Life, My Time'.

"Everyone was just staring at each other. I was thinking 'how is this guy going to tell us anything?'

"Looking back now, I have no idea what made the FA appoint somebody who couldn't speak the English language. It defies belief."

After being left out of the starting eleven, Owen made some choice words about Capello at the time which he ended up paying for.

"I was on the bench for his first two squads having started for England for several years. This set the alarm bells ringing," he stated.

"With 10 or 15 minutes left in a game we lost 1-0 he sent me on. My abiding memory of that night was my appearance in front of the line of press afterwards.

"By this time, Fabio's reluctance to start me was a bit of a hot story. The press were all over it - asking me if he'd explained his decision and, if so, what had he said.

"Obviously, you don't need to be a genius to work out that the headlines were pretty damning towards a manager who'd only been in the job for two games. And it's probably no coincidence that Capello never picked me again."

The 39-year-old feels that the former Real Madrid coach had been a disaster for his country.

"Not only did he cut short a hard-earned international career with absolutely no explanation whatsoever, but he also went on to be one of the least effective England managers ever.

"He was absolutely c***.

"In my opinion, Fabio Capello caused catastrophic damage to both my career and English football in general and got paid handsomely to do so."