Lord David Triesman, chairman of the English Football Association (the FA), believes his national outfit has a natural winner in Italian manager Fabio Capello, and as a consequence he's hoping to end the nation's 42-year trophy-less drought.

Speaking with the Sunday Observer during a recent visit at the FA's Soho Square headquarters in London, Lord Triesman, who assumed the top job in February, declared that he'd already seen "real change" in the English players since the arrival of the Italian in January.

Lord David Triesman (left), chairman of the FA, greets JFF president Captain Horace Burrell during a recent meeting at the FA's headquarters in London, England. Looking on is JFF's general secretary, Horace Reid. (Photo: Ian Burnett)

The apparent change of fortunes is even more welcomed, especially after the humiliation of failing to qualify for Euro 2008 Championships in the summer.

"That (failure for Euro 08) was a huge disappointment," bemoaned the FA boss, who conceded that some "fabulous football" was played at the tournament.

Added the former government minister, amateur player, Class Two Senior football referee and Tottenham Hotspur supporter: "The best way to describe what has happened since, is to say a few words about Fabio Capello himself. He's an extraordinary coach, his record speaks for itself.

"When you get to know him, you realise that he's not only determined, but he's also absolutely meticulous, detail by detail he goes into the planning and he works with the players, the rest of the coaching team, the way he works with the groundsman at Wembley, he is right across all details, and if you take that together with his personality, demonstrated as a player, demonstrated as a manager, you have a winner," beamed Lord Triesman.

England are already top of their World Cup Qualifying Group with 12 points and their best ever start in such a competition. They opened with a 2-0 win over Andorra, followed up with a big 4-1 triumph over Croatia, who had eliminated them from Euro 2008; whipped Kazakhstan 5-1 and closed out with a 3-1 triumph over Belarus.

"There's a man who doesn't know what being a loser means. If you tried to describe to him he wouldn't know what we're talking about. I think that has now been communicated to the squad. We've had some very good results, we have just started on the road and we won't count our blessings until we have qualified, but I have seen real change in the confidence of our players," noted Lord Triesman, the first independent chairman of the FA, who also coached Under-15 and Under-16 teams in Camdem.

Now he wants to build on that early success by operating the England teams like a club.

"As chairman I am treating the England side much like a club. When we talk about clubbing, it's not just a phrase, but an approach, getting the players together, getting the Under-21s with them when we can and the other representatives' sides as well, so as an observer over time I don't think we've taken that approach before," he said.

The FA boss also believes England's failure over the years might have been as a result of an inability to keep up to date with the global change of the game, as well as underestimating the opposition.

"I think at different times different things have happened. On occasions I didn't think we quite understood how the game had changed around the world with the quality in the other sides, and one of the interesting things is the ability of the coaches right across the board. Big countries, smaller countries, all of them have got accomplished coaches.

"I think that on occasions we have underestimated the quality of our opponents, and on some occasions we have not been as up-to-date as we could have been in terms of the tactics that are available," opined Lord Triesman.

"I'll just give you an example, not because I want to criticise the past, but to learn from the past. There was a time when England played the long ball and pretty much only the long ball. I can think of periods like that and I don't think that can be successful in modern- day football."

Now he says, thanks to Capello, the present team has a different mix. And though Lord Triesman wouldn't directly link England's periods of failure with a lack of quality coaches, he thought it was "fantastic" that Capello is encouraging young local coaches to watch him at work.

The 62-year-old Capello has the distinction of winning the domestic title with every club he has managed throughout his career, with AC Milan, Real Madrid, Roma and Juventus.

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