One of the reasons that England fans are putting forward for the case that their team will win the World Cup is that Fabio Capello is the man to get the best out of the England World Cup squad and that he has a proven record of winning things, we heard the same thing about Sven Goran Eriksson didn’t we? Well that’s for another day.

Fabio Capello is undoubtedly a great manager and he is likely to give England as good a chance of winning the World Cup as any other manager should but we should be expecting this considering he will be earning three times as much as the next best paid manager at the World Cup. England have made a habit out of over paying their managers, Sven also suffered plenty of criticism when it was deemed that his salary was better than the job he was doing.

The bad news for both Fabio and Sven is that no World Cup winning team has been managed by a foreign manager. Sven will be at the World Cup with Ivory Coast hoping to be the first to change that stat whilst you can be sure Fabio Capello will be doing his best to change the foreign manager hoodoo. To be fair most World Cup managers for the stronger teams are of the nationality of their team so there haven’t been too many occasions when a foreign manager is expected to win the World Cup, Sven probably being the strongest case in 2002 and 2006 for England.

World Cup managers often make the difference between winning a World Cup and not winning a World Cup. It can all come down to one decision, for example in 1998 Glenn Hoddle allowed David Batty to take a penalty against Argentina despite the fact Batty hadn’t taken one since school!

Two managers to oppose are Argentina manager Diego Maradona and France manager Raymond Demenech. The Argentina World Cup odds make them fourth favourites whilst the France World Cup odds also have them well fancied, this is despite both teams struggling to qualify for the World Cup even with some of the best players in the world, and in Argentina’s case the best player in the world. Both teams could be dumped out as early as the group stage and don’t expect either to be involved certainly by the time the semi finals come around.

Vicente Del Bosque has already managed to do something all of the recent Spanish managers haven’t been able to do with the Spanish national team, and that’s actually win something!

Spain won Euro 2008 in impressive fashion and they look set for at least a final appearance at the World Cup. Another manager who looks good is Dunga. He may have some of the most talented players in the world at his disposal but he has moulded their side in his own image, making them more defensively aware than ever before and in turn making them harder to beat.

Both sides are likely to meet in the World Cup Final, with the Spain World Cup odds slightly more favoured, as much down to their brilliantly gifted players as their gifted managers.