Capello is still getting far more right than wrong, as happened in the last qualifying campaign. Having returned bruised from the World Cup he should be wiser if England qualify for the 2012 European Championship, too.

Capello says he will allow the players more of a break next year, rather than taking them to a succession of training camps, and the plan is to stay more centrally and be more engaged with the tournament, all lessons learned from South Africa.

In essence, Capello has rebooted this team like a failing computer, downloading patches, importing new applications and revisiting old files to worm out viruses.

Wilshere's inclusion is an echo of the Capello boldness that quickly identified the potential of Theo Walcott, and used it to devastating effect against Croatia in 2008. Parker's selection is an admission he may have erred when leaving him out in the summer.

The popular depiction of Capello is of an intransigent, arrogant man and inter-personal skills are never going to be a strong point but, like all good managers, he seeks to address mistakes in team policy sharply rather than compounding them.

He was not too proud to go back to Parker or to acknowledge Terry was by a distance the most effective captain in the group. What happens next is as much about us as him.

Steven Gerrard, England captain at the World Cup and vice-captain to Rio Ferdinand at other times, appeared on television yesterday and announced he had no problem with the Terry decision and hoped the team could move on; he had discussed this with Capello by telephone.

Now we can process this as simple common sense or create another empty storm by asking why Gerrard was in the loop but not Ferdinand.

Maybe Capello truly is on a mission to belittle the Manchester United central defender, or maybe he spoke to Gerrard after the
Ferdinand debacle, and was acknowledging the complications of the issue by trying to make amends.

Either way, isn't it the most important aspect of the narrative that England ended up with the strongest captain in charge, a fact the majority inside the camp appear to accept?

Before the Wales game, Capello was asked whether, now David Beckham has been made captain of Los Angeles Galaxy, there were any plans to reconsider him. No, seriously, he was.

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