Fabio Cannavaro reckons the FA were right to keep faith with Fabio Capello - and he has tipped his countryman to rid the England team of egos.
Cannavaro, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006 before suffering a humiliating group-stage exit in South Africa, knows Capello well after working under his compatriot at Real Madrid.
And the experienced defender believes the strict disciplinarian will make sweeping changes to his squad ahead of qualifying for Euro 2012.
"My thoughts are that John Terry won't be on the team sheet," Cannavaro told the Daily Star Sunday.
"You don't cross Fabio and he won't want anybody disrupting his tournament again.
"It was absolutely the correct decision for the English FA to keep Fabio on. He can make this England team his own now - and I would actually make them the favourites for Euro 2012.
"When he joined Real Madrid he brought a lot of players in the first season like myself and Ruud van Nistelrooy and the result was instant success but internationally it takes time to build your own team.
"I don't want to speak for Fabio but I'd be surprised if more than five of the players who started against Germany start the opening game of Euro 2012.
"For me, the only two players that can be guaranteed to start in 2012 are Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney.
"By then Fabio will have had enough time to build his own team and I think it will be unrecognisable compared to what it was at the World Cup.
"Spain will be there but if Fabio gets rid of egos, I think England will see exactly why it was a good decision to keep him on."
Gerard Houllier, meanwhile, has highlighted the disappointing performances of Wayne Rooney as a key factor in England's failure in South Africa.
"Probably the key to understanding why England didn't perform at the World Cup is that the top players didn't do as well as we could expect them to," the former Liverpool manager told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme.
"I'm thinking mainly about Wayne Rooney. He's an outstanding player but whether he was tired or wasn't in good shape I don't know.
"If Rooney, who for me is a top player and finisher, had scored a few more goals maybe...
"If you look at the teams with one or two top finishers - Germany, Holland or Spain - they usually go forward. Uruguay went so far because of Diego Forlan.
"England were also unlucky because of the goal that was disallowed against Germany. It was a good goal."
