Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola says Fabio Capello is the ideal man to take charge of floundering England.

Zola said: "Fabio Capello possesses the ideal pedigree to create a new era of success for England.

"Even when Jose Mourinho was in the running I believed that Capello had even more charisma, talent and experience for a challenging job like this one.

"From my time in England I'd say that many players indicated to me that they were not sure why the national side underperformed and the conclusion I drew was that there is something of a mental block.

"Whoever the next manager of the English national team is, I think his first task will be neither technical nor tactical but instead to build confidence, a team spirit and to ensure that his players are ready to follow his leadership.

"More things which are perfect for a coach like Capello."

Zola, who could become part of Capello's coaching set-up, added: "To my mind it's mystifying why England are not at the European Championships.

"In fact it's hard to understand why they are not a world force.

"English football possesses everything - structure, talent, atmosphere - needed to be powerful at an international level and there are some top class individual players.

"But there seems to me in England to be a preoccupation with the end result in each individual game rather than the process of making sure that the national team makes the most out of the general talent available in the country.

"There is a tendency to overcomplicated the simple process of looking at how best to apply the huge potential there is in English football to making the national team great."