FABIO CAPELLO has slammed Roy Hodgson for his treatment of Roberto Carlos at Inter Milan.
Inter sold Carlos to Capello’s Real Madrid in 1996 and the Italian said it was ‘all Hodgson’s fault’ for not handling the legendary left-back properly.
Carlos has previously criticised the Crystal Palace boss for playing him out of position in his one-year spell at Inter.
He was sold to Real at the end of the 96-97 season and went on to become a Los Blancos icon and will forever be remembered as one of the greatest left-backs of all time.
But Capello could not believe it when he heard Carlos was available and says Hodgson and Inter ‘did not understand’ the Brazilian.
Capello said: “One day [Giovanni] Branchini arrived and told me that Inter wanted to sell Roberto Carlos.
“I thought he was joking and I didn’t believe it. But he sent me a fax where there was even the price already fixed and not questionable.
“I immediately called the president of Real and told him to fly immediately to Italy, because as soon as the news spread, they would all arrive in Milan.
“We closed his purchase in less than 24 hours. Inter did not understand what player Roberto Carlos was.
“In Milan they were convinced that he could not mark, all Hodgson’s fault.”
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Hodgson has previously had his say on Carlos’ criticism and labelled the claims he played him out of position ‘nonsense’.
The former England boss said: “Well that’s nonsense.
“Anybody who watched us play at that time, he no more played left wing than I did. Every game he played for Inter when I was there was at left back.
“What I remember, when I was at Inter, he scored four goals I think in the first six or seven games from free kicks. During the rest of the season he took about 28 free kicks and never scored one.
“So I don’t know if that was my fault as well.
“But him playing out of position? Unless he wasn’t a left back, but that’s where I was told he played and what he came to the club as.
“He was a very attacking left back, he was much better going forward than he was defending.
“But he was young, I was new to the job. We didn’t have a bad relationship I wouldn’t say per se while we were actually working together. But of course, when he left, all hell broke loose.
“The decision to let him go was a club decision, and it was mainly to do with the fact that the new managing director of Inter, Luigi Predeval, was very anxious to reduce the amount of money that was being spent on transfers and to bring some money back into the club.
“And Roberto Carlos was one of the players who was sellable. So he got sold.”
Hodgson managed Inter twice, the first between 95-97 and then again as a caretaker coach during the first part of 1999.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
