Fabio Capello, the new England coach, has plenty of faces. The most important in this case, the football one, is not promising an easy ride for England’s national team players.

Art, opera and travel lover, the 61-year-old Italian has a reputation as a fierce disciplinarian and master tactician with uncompromising methods. Capello is a pursuer of success at any cost.

He has a private fine art collection, considered to be one of the most impressive in northern Italy and worth around 10 million pounds. He takes holidays in unconventional destinations like Tibet, Mexico and Cambodia, choosing to visit historical temples and ruins. But the easiest thing for him is to sacrifice football icons. The result is 13 major club trophies in Italy, Spain and Europe over 16 years.

Players such as Del Piero, Ronaldo and Beckham have all felt the coach’s wrath. “Now I can return to playing football with the love I have for it. The era of terror in training has now gone,” Alessandro del Piero said, when Capello left Juventus to manage Real Madrid. In the Spanish capital, the coach had asked Ronaldo: “Aren’t you ashamed of being so fat?” A month later the Brazilian striker was sold to AC Milan. Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon likened Don Fabio to a dictator while he played under him at Juventus. A well-known Italian journalist said of Capello: “You want to know about his human side? That’s easy. He doesn’t have one.”

Ex-players, who won the 1994 European Cup final with AC Milan, have made a comments over his England appointment. Marcel Desailly says Capello’s disciplined approach may not go down well with some players but it will reap benefits. “He’s a difficult guy and he’s very demanding. First of all Capello will be very confident towards the tabloids, he doesn’t mind, his life is only football. Secondly if the players understand that the he is hard because he wants to succeed then it’s a victory.”

Former Croatia international Zvonimir Boban explained: “He’s a very tough person and a very good coach. He has a great feeling for tactics and also he prepares for the match in a perfect way. Sometimes he wants to create conflict inside a dressing room because that way he can get better from the players. He’s a very special person.”

And Ruud Gullit sent a warning that England would play effective rather than “sexy” football under Capello: “You do not see him laughing much - he is moody. But he knows what he wants. You have to go his way or you will get in trouble.”

Critics will say his teams do not play an attacking and aesthetically-pleasing game, an issue which cost him his job at Madrid this year, but Capello pays little regard to his detractors.

The few words from the coach after Real Madrid’s 1:0 win over Real Zaragoza in January 2007 are the confirmation. “I can’t stand the rubbish that gets talked about by everyone, players, fans, the media, club officials. Why should I waste my time listening to people who are clearly less intelligent than me?”

At the same time, January 2007, Capello dropped Beckham after the midfielder announced he would be joining LA Galaxy at the end of the season. But the Italian showed a sense of fairness in recalling the former England captain, once he had demonstrated his commitment to the team’s cause. Beckham helped Madrid win their first Spanish title since 2003.

After being unveiled by the Football Association with four-and-a-half-year contract worth 6.5 million pounds a year, Capello has promised to take England “right to the top”.

He will ask his squad why they think England have under-achieved in recent years and failed to qualify for the finals of Euro 2008. Asked about Beckham’s hopes of winning his 100th cap and continuing his England career until the 2010 World Cup, Capello answered: “I had a contrasting relationship with David Beckham at Real but in the end he demonstrated what a great man and great player he is. Also, he is the kind of person I believe, when he sets himself something he will achieve it so you never know but obviously I will have to make choices. I believe David’s behaviour is important.”