A long time ago, the self-sacrifice of one Jesus of Nazareth is said to have saved mankind from certain doom and damnation. I am convinced that around 2,000 years on, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite of Brasilia, Brazil, has saved the small world of football from a similar fate.
I was absolutely delighted for the sake of the game that Kaka rejected a potential record-breaking move to the world’s richest football club.
Despite the unprecedented weekly salary and the reported £100 million that Milan stood to make from his departure, Kaka stood firm and resisted the temptation of money, as well as the bling, the tat and whatever else that comes along with being a current English Premier League 'star'.
Arsene Wenger was recently quoted speaking out against the proposed transfer, claiming City “do not live in the real world”. He claimed that he, and Arsenal, deal in the real football world of surviving on “gate receipts, the sponsors’ cash and the television money”. I have tremendous respect for Arsene and must agree with him and all that he says on this matter.
Kaka was a junior player at Sao Paolo when I worked at the club during the summer of 1997. He benefited greatly from being nurtured by such a well structured and organised football club.
Juninho explained to me that, when he came to Middlesbrough, the standard of coaching, training and attitude to preparation was beyond his comprehension when set against his experience developing at Sao Paulo Football Club.
Middlesbrough have since drastically improved their Rockcliffe Park facilities to the point where they are amongst the best in the land but, sadly for the country as a whole, the standard of coaching has not moved on at all since that time in terms of both direction, quality, thought and duration.
When, during a visit to Carrington in 2004, I asked Sir Alex Ferguson why the team didn’t train twice daily, his reply was that any more than once a day and the players would be 'too tired'.
Sir Alex's record is absolutely superb at United, yet his response makes absolutely no sense from a physiological point of view. Better conditioned players would pick up far fewer injuries and would recover from games and training much quicker, and therefore, perhaps, a better focus on training at United would result in a lesser need to pay large transfer fees and wages and allow for a smaller squad!
Juninho did warn me before my first trip to Brazil that I would find that the smallest, street corner football team would be better prepared, better organised and more structured with regards to training than the biggest and best known clubs in The Premier League.
I scoffed at his suggestion initially, but I certainly didn’t after living and working on a daily basis at clubs at all levels in both Sao Paulo and Rio during 1997 and 1998.
We now have some of the best facilities the length and breadth of the country, but facilities do not make good footballers – coaches do.
In Brazil, the coaching culture is the cornerstone of the success of the national team and the many, many wonderful players that have graced the game throughout its recent history.
The proposed Kaka transfer filled me with absolute dread. In Milan, the club is well structured, disciplined, very well organised in all aspects that concern the player, and not too dissimilar in many respects to a Brazilian club. Kaka in Italy has remained true to himself, true to his Christian faith and has not been corrupted by anything or anyone, on or off the field.
How would he have fared in Manchester given the unsavoury tales of South American imports and their off-the-field activities whilst here in The Premier League?
I worried for Kaka should he come here. In Leeds, we were visited in the middle of last week by a group of players from a Premier League club, 'on tour' and 'on the champagne', trawling through the city's night spots until almost 5am, ludicrously asking locals if they would mind not taking their pictures as they were supposed to be training the next day!
Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the Manchester City 'project' pans out.
If I was the manager I would get Robinho right into line and show him who was in charge, if this is at all possible.
I might also think of sticking Micah Richards at right back in the number two spot. It is his best position - he is not off-form, not out of sorts, not off the boil, but simply playing in an area where he is not terribly comfortable.
The best right back in the country, without any doubt, is sitting week after week at centre half. Yes, I am biased, yet Micah has never complained to me on this issue, nor have his family, and I haven’t in fact spoken with them on this. Micah just gets on with it and plays where he is asked to play.
Yet can any City or England fan recall a bad game that the lad played at right back? I certainly can't! His debut against Holland for a boy at that age was remarkable and he maintained his form for England until suffering a serious injury at the back end of last season.
Other Premier League clubs may be looking at Micah presently but, with the greatest respect, he is a little better than some of the clubs being mentioned as potential suitors at the moment.
If the owners of Manchester City really do want the best in the world then I would get some more flight tickets, get back out to Milan sharpish, get hold of a local and find the house of a Mr J. Mourinho, break the bank, break the records, break his door down, get him, put him in charge, make him your manager – let him lead and let him manage.
The players, the success - everything that you want, hope for and desire - just might follow. At the very least, you certainly won’t be having to sign Real Madrid cast-offs and walk-offs for daft money and wages or Craig Bellamy for £14 million. Anything's got to be better than that, hasn't it?
Brazilian Soccer Schools (www.icfds.com) is the world’s largest football coaching organisation, working with over one million children on a weekly basis in locations such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
SOCATOTS is the fastest growing pre-school programme for youngsters aged from six months to five years. The syllabus uses football as its medium, enhancing each child's motor, literacy and numeracy skills among others, with each graduate able to use all parts of both feet to manipulate the ball. The sister organisation to BSS has 700 centres worldwide, in locations such as Dubai, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Holland.