LONDON - Sir Trevor Brooking is convinced England's star players will take an immediate liking to Fabio Capello - but warned it may be the summer before Steve McClaren's successor can really make his mark.
Brooking spent 48 hours with Capello as the pair negotiated England's World Cup fixture calendar in Zagreb.
In securing their main aims by agreeing two September meetings with major Group Six rivals Croatia, the duo could regard the exercise as successful.
And Brooking does not believe it will be the only area where the 61-year-old comes up trumps.
"I do really believe the lads will like him and respond to him," said the FA's director of football development.
"He is a good communicator, he knows what he wants and he is very open and organised, so he will let the players know exactly what they have to do, which is all you can ask for."
Capello accepts he has some major short-term decisions to make, namely whether to hand David Beckham his 100th cap against Switzerland next month and also who his captain should be.
A positive answer to the first question could also provide a temporary solution to the second, with Beckham heavily tipped to lead his country once more as he becomes only the fifth player to win a century of England caps.
The FA are delighted with ticket sales for the encounter with the Euro 2008 co-hosts. Only a few thousand still remain and Soho Square chiefs are optimistic of a sell-out, so much so they have advised fans to make their purchases as quickly as possible if they want to be there for the start of what is hoped will be an era of success.
However, as Brooking points out, for both the Wembley encounter with the Swiss on February 6 and the Paris meeting with France the following month, Capello will have three days at the most with his players.
He feels it is the planned two-week get-together at the end of May, when England are expected to play two friendlies - one of which will almost certainly be at Wembley ruling out the likelihood of a tour - when the former Juventus, AC Milan and Real Madrid coach will really start to impose his philosophy on the England squad.
"It is good to get a couple of early games but those three days will go in a blink," Brooking added.
"The real time is going to be the end of May when he gets the squad together for a couple of games and will have them together for 10 days to a fortnight.
"That will be an important period for Fabio and the players."
Capello is set to wait until the beginning of next month before unveiling his squad for the Switzerland clash, which is good news for John Terry, who needs as much time as possible to prove his fitness as he continues to recover from a foot injury.
Switzerland's visit represents the first of a five-game run to Capello's first competitive game, against Andorra, probably in Barcelona, on September 6, which in turn completes the build-up to the key visit to Croatia four days later.
And, after working him closely over the past week and a half, Brooking is interested to see how Capello will interact with his players, whom he has already declared he has no intention of meeting prior to the first get-together, preferring instead to restrict consultation to Premier League managers.
"He does like to talk to individuals as well as little groups," said Brooking.
"It will be interesting to see how he works that as a manager and how he approaches those first couple of games.
"The beauty of it is he has a six-month period which gives him more of an advantage than if he was going straight into a tournament.
"I have really warmed to him. I do like him and I am looking forward to the future."
