John Terry confident of glory at 2010 World Cup

John Terry confident of glory at 2010 World Cup

The Amsterdam Hilton is where dreamers dream and men with notepads look at them quizzically. For John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969, it was the scene of their famous “bed-in” as they spent a week of their honeymoon campaigning for world peace. Yesterday, that same hotel was the venue for John Terry to lie back and think of England as World Cup winners.

Disappointingly, the captain did his talking in a function room off the hotel lobby rather than in what is now known as the John and Yoko Suite. And, as is the way with England these days, the idea was floated cautiously rather than with the horribly misplaced bravado that characterised previous regimes.

But if there have been times over the past four decades when the prospect of a World Cup triumph has looked almost as distant as that of world peace — perhaps not least when Steve McClaren staged a deeply uncomfortable press conference here as head coach of the national team 2½ years ago — it did not seem quite so outlandish as England prepared to launch their season this evening with a friendly against Holland.

The contrast with England’s previous visit here in November 2006 — for another friendly that ended in a 1-1 draw — could hardly be more marked. Back then, McClaren discovered to his anguish that, after a damaging 2-0 European Championship qualifying defeat in Croatia the previous month, he had lost whatever backing he might previously have had from the press.

This time England have arrived in Amsterdam on the back of seven wins out of seven in their World Cup qualifying campaign — a record matched by this evening’s opponents, who have booked their place in the finals in South Africa next summer — and the difference can be ascribed to the Fabio Capello effect.

There was a time when Terry, like all England’s players, seemed unsure about the Italian, who was appointed to pick up the pieces after the McClaren regime, but yesterday the captain sounded as if he was in awe of the manager.

Owing to the huge influence that has been bestowed upon him as captain of Chelsea, Terry can appear to rival the authority of his manager at club level, but, having been made to sweat by the Italian on his reappointment as England captain in the first place, he and everybody else know who is boss when it comes to the national team. “Fabio gives us that extra belief, that extra 5 per cent that is the difference between a good coach and a great coach,” Terry said.

“José Mourinho had that [at Chelsea] and Fabio does, too. That’s what a great coach gives you. You come in at half-time and he hates it if the lads are talking or shouting to each other or arguing. He wants everyone to sit there for two or three minutes, take it in and absorb it, then approach things in a calmer way.

“You can come in all hot-headed, wanting better from your team-mates, but he comes in and wants us to be calm and then he can go mad himself. He is there to give us the kick up the backside if we need it, or he can put his arm around you. He can be calm or he can give us the hairdryer.”

“Hairdryer treatment”, for the uninitiated, is the term that Mark Hughes came up with to describe Sir Alex Ferguson’s tirades in the Manchester United dressing room.

Capello has exercised a little more restraint so far in his dealings with England’s players, partly because he is getting to grips with the language and partly because the results show that his message is getting through, even if the performances have not always been completely to his liking.

This evening at the Amsterdam ArenA a little rustiness is to be expected, given that the Barclays Premier League campaign does not start until Saturday, but Capello made clear that he was demanding a performance and a result.

The loss of Steven Gerrard to a groin injury, which appears unlikely to rule him out of Liverpool’s match away to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, is a disappointment, but it has brought Capello the opportunity to take an extended look at Ashley Young, the Aston Villa winger, on the left-hand side.

Young is one of several players from whom Capello is demanding more consistency at club level and more conviction while on international duty this season — and, as Terry pointed out, the incentive is certainly there for them.

“This is a massive season for us,” he said. “If we can get there, first and foremost, then every big team that is there in South Africa will have a good chance and we will be no different. If we play the way we are, we can’t rule ourselves out of winning it.”

In this age of understatement, a policy brought on by bitter experience, this is as close as you will come to an England player shouting from the rooftops.

You may say he’s a dreamer. But he’s not the only one.