AC MILAN coach Fabio Capello has a particular corner of the club's Milanello training centre where he likes to do all his television interviews. You could call it his good luck corner, underneath the vine bedecked pergola just outside the club house.
Last week, your correspondent was at Milanello far a series of television interviews with Capello and his cast of international stars. Out of curiosity, we asked Capello to do the interview in a different corner,, of the Milanello garden. No way. "We do my interviews in this corner," said Capello. "This is my spot." That is his superstition.
It is encouraging, in a way, to discover that someone as successful as Capello is attached to his superstitions. The discovery adds a human dimension to a success story so inexorable that it can appear machine made. Capello was in good form, thinking positive. Speaking just four days after only his second league defeat of the season - a painful one at that against Inter in the city's fiercely contested derby - Capello could have been forgiven for sounding cautious. Not so.
On the subject of the championship contest, for example, he conceded that while the league season is long, Milan have done most of the hard work and if they lose it now, then they will have only themselves to blame. Six points clear and with nine games to play, one can only agree.
Perhaps the most interesting observation made by Capello concerns this Milan side, 1996 vintage. Asked how it compared or differed from the Milan sides of his previous four seasons in charge, four seasons when the club won three league titles and a Champions Cup, Capello said: "George Weah . . . Last season, we would have had as much possession, pressurised the opposition as much and created as many chances as this year, but there was no big man in the centre to finish it all. This year, there's Weah, and he puts them away." There can be little argument about that, really. In the pressurised world of Italian soccer, Capello's success has not even guaranteed him security of contract. For most of this season, there has been heavy media speculation that he is on his way from Milan to Parnia, or perhaps to AS Roma, or to Real Madrid in Spain. Capello, however, refuses to discuss such speculation, saying only that when the time comes, he will let us know. In, the meantime, he does admit to", being fascinated by the prospect of professional soccer starting up once again in the USA, via Major League Soccer. "It's always been a dream of mine to go and coach in the United States, but just at the moment I've other things to do. I think this time, though, soccer could work in America. They have their soccer enthusiasts: Hispanics in America and there is the big university participation." His positive attitude comes across, too, when he reflects on the infamous Bosmn judgment, which stands poised to change the shape of soccer as we know it, with the abolition of transfer fees and the removal of restrictions on foreign players.
"Bosman, in the long run, will be good for soccer. Not only will clubs have to run themselves in a radically different manner, but players, too, will have to learn to handle themselves and their careers very differently. Clubs can no longer write a player into the annual balance sheet as an asset. Players will also have to plan their own futures to a greater degree.
"Clubs will have to create revenue in a different way, looking to marketing, sponsorship, television rights, etc, to keep themselves viable." For Milan, such talk might seem easy. The team manager, Silvano Ramaccioni, reckoned last week that a good run in the Champions' League next season could earn the club up to $15 million. In the meantime, coach Capello is preparing for a UEFA Cup quarter final, second leg tie away to Bordeaux tonight. Milan have a 2-0 lead from the first leg. Striker Dejan Savicevic told The Irish Times: "With a two goal lead, this Milan side won't make any mistakes in France".
More positive thinking.
