Fabio Capello the mercenary?

We all remember Fabio Capello from his time with the England national team. He threatened success for a period but his tenure never really took off and he was probably best remembered for being particularly well remunerated by his then employers.

Now Capello is coaching Russia and has a contract which runs up to 2018 when the nation hosts The World Cup. But he’s found himself in the middle of a storm relating to finances.

His assistant, Christian Panucci, has hit out at Capello after the Ex-England man refused to back his staff over a pay dispute. Panucci is quoted in The Guardian as saying:

“I thank Fabio for the opportunity he gave me but he behaved in a shameful way towards me and all the other Italians on the staff. I will tell him that to his face the next time I see him. A great manager has to defend his men and he hasn’t done that.”

In terms of the dispute itself, the coaching staff appear not to have been paid for some time:

“When we returned from Brazil I was promised a new deal several times but that never happened. I worked without a contract and in the end I just had to say: ‘that’s enough’. And to think I turned down other jobs for that,”

Capello himself has worked without pay since June as the report states that the Russian FA have admitted that they simply can’t afford Capello’s huge £6.8m yearly wages.

It would be somewhat hypocritical of members of the football community to label Capello mercenary when the entire sport is utterly driven by money.

On the flip side we agree that a top manager backs his staff and there would appear to be some apathy on the part of Capello to get involved in this particular discussion, on behalf of his colleagues.

What truly amazes us is that Capello can still command such wages after doing nothing of note for years. It’s certainly caused consternation amongst some areas of the public. Russian MP Oleg Pakholkov, for one, isn’t happy.

“I think Capello knew very well he would achieve nothing with our team, but he simply decided it was a good way to make money, he wanted to hoover up bundles of cash for his retirement.”

So England’s loss has been Russia’s…erm…gain?