Recession not leaving top managers in poverty

When he was in Dublin yesterday to launch the annual Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind fund-raising campaign Roy Keane admitted these weren’t the best of times to be asking folk to dip in to their pockets for charity. “People,” he acknowledged, “are struggling for a few bob.”

Well, judging by the Sunday Timeslist of the richest managers in British and Irish football, it looks like Keane is recession proof. Only England manager Fabio Capello has more in his piggy bank than the Cork man, whose fortune is estimated at €35 million.

Lest there’s any misunderstanding, €35 million isn’t his salary at Ipswich Town, rather the earnings he has accrued through his playing and managerial careers to date.

While you’d have to assume that Alex Ferguson would never begrudge the good fortune of any of his favoured past pupils, he might just utter a very loud “och!” when he spots that he trails his former captain by €7 million in the rich list. Still, he’s earned €1.16 million for every year he’s reigned at Old Trafford, and if his dismissal of retirement rumours is anything to go by he could yet add a couple of zeros to his yield by the time he’s done.

Ferguson has, though, out-earned three more of his old-boys, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes (currently unemployed, but unlikely to be going hungry) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the reserve team coach at United, who tie for 10th on the list, along with Martin O’Neill and Gianfranco Zola, with earnings of €11.6 million.

Bruce is the only English manager to appear in a list that features five Italians, Capello, Chelsea’s Carlo Ancelotti, Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini, Zola and our very own Giovanni Trapattoni.

Trapattoni is nested between Ancelotti and Arsene Wenger, his career earnings of €21 million putting him in fifth place in the list. Again, generous as they are, it should be clarified that the Football Association of Ireland only deposit a ninth of this figure in Trapattoni’s account every year, the rest largely coming from his time in charge of AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Cagliari, Fiorentina, Benfica, Stuttgart and Red Bull Salzburg.

Luckily, before Capello had to make do on an alleged €7.5 million-a-year contract with England he earned a few bob managing AC Milan, Real Madrid, Roma and Juventus, just to tide him over through the lean years.

Capello’s CV, though, looks positively sparse next to Sven-Goran “more clubs than Tiger Woods” Eriksson, his latest money-spinning venture taking him to the Ivory Coast, who he will manage at the World Cup finals. “I don’t think I am paid that well,” he said of the €2.3 million he’s getting for taking charge of a country where the average daily wage is €4.

Managers' rich list

1. Fabio Capello, England €40m

2. Roy Keane, Ipswich Town€35m

3. Alex Ferguson, Manchester Utd€28m

4. Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea€24m

5. Giovanni Trapattoni, Rep of Ire £21m

6. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal£20m

7. Sven-Goran Eriksson, Ivory Coast€19m

8. Roberto Mancini, Man City€15m

9. Rafa Benitez, Liverpool£13m

10. Steve Bruce, Sunderland, Mark Hughes, Man City (2008-09), Martin O’Neill, Aston Villa, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Man Utd reserves, Gianfranco Zola, West Ham Utd £11.6m