Deja Vu

Better to be Loved

Tags:

Argentina,

Diego Maradona,

England,

Fabio Capello,

football,

Machiavelli,

soccer

2010: As Argentina gears up to play Germany, a recent comparison between Argentine coach Diego Maradona and England coach Fabio Capello has led some in the UK to wonder, would a more loving leader bring better results? Argentine striker Sergio Aguero explained the difference to the Daily Star.

Talking about man-management, Aguero examined Capello’s style with Maradona…He said: “I know that Capello keeps a very strict professional distance between himself and his players.

“And while I understand his logic, I don’t agree with it.

“Maradona loves us and we feel the love.

“If we do well you can see that he kisses us - that’s how close this team is.

“Perhaps if Capello got more involved with his players then that would benefit England has a team.

“Even when we are with our clubs, Maradona will call us or text us and tell us we are doing well.

“The Argentina team is like a family because we have a father figure. I don’t think England have a father figure, more like a strict school teacher.

“I would not want to tell a coach who has been successful how to do his job—but players respond to love and praise… “Footballers are still people and we feel the emotions just like everybody else.”

1532: It’s hard to know what kind of soccer team Niccolò Machiavelli might have coached (though fun to imagine!), but the icy temperament of Fabio Capello would have been right in line with the philosophy laid down in The Prince.

And here comes in the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both; but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved. For of men it may generally be affirmed that they are thankless, fickle, false, studious to avoid danger, greedy of gain, devoted to you while you are able to confer benefits upon them, and ready, as I said before, while danger is distant, to shed their blood, and sacrifice their property, their lives, and their children for you; but in the hour of need they turn against you. The Prince, therefore, who without otherwise securing himself builds wholly on their professions is undone. For the friendships which we buy with a price, and do not gain by greatness and nobility of character, though they be fairly earned are not made good, but fail us when we have occasion to use them.

Moreover, men are less careful how they offend him who makes himself loved than him who makes himself feared. For love is held by the tie of obligation, which, because men are a sorry breed, is broken on every whisper of private interest; but fear is bound by the apprehension of punishment which never relaxes its grasp.

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