Well, since most of people back there support England because of the Premier League influence( and because India won’t qualify until 20.. I thought of putting something down regarding the English national team. This obviously doesn’t mean that I, in any way support the Three Lions. I think “Ingeerr-land”, as most drunk Brits call them while watching them play, are quite rubbish. but I must confess being a fan of their manager - Don Capello.
What does Fabio Capello have in common with the managers of Brazil, Argentina, France, Chile, Ivory Coast, South Korea, Denmark, Ghana, Serbia, USA, Slovenia, Paraguay, Algeria, Honduras, Slovakia, Uruguay, North Korea and Nigeria?
Capello earns the same amount as all the others. Put together.
Yes, according to Spanish paper Marca, for the same price as the England manager you could afford a brains trust of the bosses from 18 of England’s World Cup rivals.
The £6.1 million Capello gets paid every year is more than three times the amount earned by the next best-rewarded boss - his countryman, World Cup-winning Italy coach Marcello Lippi.
On the face of things, it looks like a shocking waste of money and another example of outrageous largesse from the suits at Wembley. But then you look at the managers of the major teams named in the above list.
There’s Raymond Domenech and Diego Maradona, two of world football’s bigger laughing stocks, and two men who have ensured their countries have significantly less chance of winning the tournament than they ought to. And there’s Dunga, who appears to have done a good job with Brazil so far but is as yet unproven at squeaky-bum time.
Capello, on the other hand, has won Serie A seven times with three teams, La Liga twice in separate spells at Real Madrid, and the Champions League twice. As and when England get themselves into a pickle in South Africa - and they certainly will - you can trust Capello will know what to do. He cannot guarantee success, but he can provide clear, logical decision-making when it matters.
International football can be a frustrating business. The players you have are the players you have. If you don’t have a quality goalkeeper there is nothing you can do - except possibly make overtures to a screaming mediocrity like Manuel Almunia.
While clubs can spent hundreds of millions on new players, countries have much less room for manoeuvre.
The manager is the single most important member of staff a football team has, and that is magnified when you cannot change your players.
The FA reported operating costs of £245 million in 2008. Early Doors has no problem whatsoever with spending about 2.5 per cent of that on a manager. IF - and this an ‘if’ so big you can see it from space - you have the right manager in place, then £6m a year is a bargain.
As well as being something worth doing in its own right, winning the World Cup is the single biggest thing that can happen to boost grass-roots participation, increase public goodwill and bring in global sponsors. It is the silver bullet. Now we can’t really expect that from the Indian fed, can we?
I reckon England and France have roughly equivalent squads. Yet while the Three Lions are third favourites for the World Cup at a best-price 6/1, Les Bleus can be backed 18/1 - the bookies reckon the three Lions have a 14.3 per cent chance of winning the World Cup, and the French just 5.3 per cent.
Why the difference? Are France being punished for the sins of Thierry Henry? Are England just over-rated (well, a bit)? Or is it due almost entirely to the yawning gap in competence between the two managers?
So, if it costs 14 times more to employ Capello than Domenech, fine. Put simply, any time you have the chance to spend £6m-a-year on somebody who makes you three times more likely to win the World Cup, you have to do it.
WORLD CUP MANAGERS’ PAY LEAGUE Read the rest of this entry »
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