He jutted out his jaw after presiding over the worst result in England's World Cup history and said he wanted to stay as England manager.

He refused to admit he had made any mistakes. He denied he had used outmoded tactics and said it could all have been different if only the referee had seen Frank Lampard's shot go over the line for what would have been an equaliser.

And the master of good ship England truly was sailing down a river of denial.

He also insisted the players had "arrived tired" at the World Cup and gratefully accepted a long hop of a question on whether English football should have a winter break?

"Yes," he said. "But it is not my job to decide about the calendar."

No, agreed, Capello does not get paid for that. But this was hardly a day to be discussing what was not his job.

This was a day to decide whether he still had one.

And on that score the Football Association did what they nearly always do when there is a big decision to be made. They sat on their hands.

They said they would have a think about it. For two weeks, maybe three.

The man from the FA, Adrian Bevington, said there would be a period of reflection for them to take stock. No knee-jerk decisions.

It was supposed to sound intelligent. It didn't. It sounded weak.

If only the FA had thought twice and not agreed to alter Capello's contract as recently as June 2, taking out the break clause which would have allowed either party to walk away if the World Cup had turned out, well, like it has done.

Don't blame Capello. As he pointed out, he turned down lucrative offers to take the England job. Top clubs, Inter Milan among them, have been courting him ever since.

That is football. It is an uncertain world and Capello bought some certainty with his contract change. He was looking after number one.

It is why he will go off to the beach, sun himself for a couple of weeks and wait for the FA's call, which will either confirm him in the post or hand him £12million in compensation and allow him to choose virtually the top club of his choice.

How could the FA have been so naive? How could they have got themselves into such a corner, a not dissimilar one from when they extended Sven-Goran Eriksson's contract and then sacked him, paying him in full for goodness knows how long after?

To steal a line from Basil Fawlty, the chiefs at the FA should be on Mastermind. Specialist subject, managerial cock-ups.

Of course there is a tad of credibility to Capello's assertion that the players were tired.

The Premier League makes more demands physically and mentally than any other. The fixture schedule, with four competitions for the top players, is hectic.

But that is not going to change, especially as Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore is probably right now working on alternatives to the proposed lucrative 39th game which received such adverse publicity two seasons ago.

The Premier League is a licence to print money but increasingly it is obvious that its aims are entirely contrary to that of the national team.

Oh yes, Capello said something else. He said Wayne Rooney "played well in some games." In truth, it said more about his imagination than his memory.