By Simon Austin

Davies thinks Capello can avoid some of the pitfalls that befell Keegan

During his 12 years at the Football Association, David Davies witnessed at close quarters the extreme pressure an England manager can face.

He sat locked in a Wembley toilet cubicle with Kevin Keegan in 2000, trying in vain to persuade him not to resign.

His diplomatic skills were not enough to save Glenn Hoddle when Keegan's predecessor claimed the disabled were paying for the sins of a previous lifetime.

And he found himself personally caught up in the "Faria Alam sex scandal", which led to the resignation of chief executive Mark Palios and the hardening of opinion against Sven-Goran Eriksson.

So the 61-year-old is well qualified to suggest how the England manager's job can be made a little easier. Davies, who worked as director of public affairs, executive director and acting chief executive at the FA, does not think the England manager has an impossible job.

But he believes it can be made a lot easier by changing the "dysfunctional" structure of English football.

"The game has no agreed priorities, everybody has their own," he told BBC Sport. "We need to agree the priorities for our game over the next five or 10 years, as the Germans always do."

Davies says the failure to bring in a winter break is a prime example of the perils of having such mixed priorities.

It changed me, it scarred me, and I will never forget what it was like David Davies on being accused by Faria Alam

With Eriksson, he campaigned tirelessly for a 13-day January break ahead of Euro 2004, yet it never happened, despite Uefa research showing it would dramatically reduce the number of injuries suffered ahead of major championships.

The proposal was blocked by TV companies and the Premier League, says Davies.

"When the next TV negotiations are done in 2009, the Premier League must not commit themselves in a way that precludes a winter break," Davies says.

Does Davies have any other tips to help Eriksson's successor, Fabio Capello? The sub-heading of his recently-published memoir, "FA Confidential: Sex, drugs and penalties", gives a clue.

"Around the world, they used to talk about hooliganism as the English disease - now they say it's penalties," Davies said.

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"For all the advances we have made in fitness, agility and nutrition, the one area where progress has not been made is called the penalty spot."

He admits he will "never fathom" why Eriksson, his coaches and players passed up the chance to have a penalty shoot-out before a pre-World Cup friendly against Jamaica in 2006.

And a key attribute any England manager must have is the hide of a rhinoceros, according to Davies.

"Every England manager I worked with said 'we don't read the media'," he said.

"But the only one who was telling the truth was Eriksson. If they didn't read the papers directly, then their families did.

"The pressure on these guys is enormous and how they deal with it personally is a big issue."

However, he does not see this as a problem for Fabio Capello, a man with "tremendous experience and a thick skin".

Davies gained a personal insight into the kind of personal intrusion an England manager faces when he was accused of sexual harassment by Alam in 2004, a claim which was subsequently thrown out by an employment tribunal.

The account of this time is the most raw and emotional part of Davies's book.

"It turned my life upside down and that of my wife and daughters for almost a year," he said, still visibly moved

"Yes, it changed me, it scarred me, and I will never forget what it was like."

He didn't receive the support he had hoped for from some members of the FA at the time and is critical about the way the organisation was run when he was there, saying "I hope another generation don't spend as long as we did trying to make this old system work".

Around the world, they used to talk about hooliganism as the English disease - now they say it's penalties David Davies

Davies said the FA was undermined by conflicts of interests and writes about "Mr Five Agendas", David Dein ("In meetings nobody was ever sure which agenda David was on: his Uefa agenda, his Arsenal agenda, his FA or Premier League agenda, his G14 agenda..."), and "Lollipop Man" Dave Richards ("On any issue, the Premier League chairman and FA board member was legendary for changing directions as suddenly as the lady turning her lollipop at the zebra crossing").

Davies would like to see the FA board made up of independent directors, as recommended by Lord Burns in his review of the organisation.

He said: "If you are a club chairman and get on the FA board on behalf of the Football League, are you meant to act in the interests of your club?

"You can hardly be expected not to, yet you have a duty to the FA. These interests are not always the same."

Yet he is optimistic that the FA's first independent chairman, Lord Triesman, can tackle these problems.

"He has a huge opportunity and all sections of the game have to support him," he says.

"Are there enough other people who see the bigger picture? I have some optimism and I hope people see that squabbling is not the way forward."

FA Confidential: Sex, Lies and Penalties, by David Davies. Published by Simon & Schuster, �17.99