Cassano loses his cool

Telling Capello "you have no shame; after everything I did for you at Roma this is how you repay me?" is not going to be one of Antonio Cassano's best career-enhancing moves. He does have form, however, with spats with Capello himself at Roma, as well as with his replacements Rudi Völler and Luigi del Neri.

This time it came after the coach had him warming up on the touchline for the entire second half of Real's pedestrian 3-1 win over Nàstic on Saturday and did not bring him on. Ronaldo, who suffered the same fate and decided to keep quiet, is expected to start against Steaua Bucharest on Wednesday.

Cassano, who scored Real's opener against Ecija in mid-week is not likely to be a part of Capello's future line-ups, especially as the club responded by suspending Cassano 'temporarily' from training with the rest of the squad and fining him according to their disciplinary procedures. While Capello knows his compatriot's temper of old, I expect he will now feature in the upcoming January sales.