Price of Fernando's loyalty card

It looks like Formula One’s biggest rogue ego is at it again after only two races with his new employers. Fernando Alonso revealed to a Spanish newspaper that although he returned to Renault to get back to his winning ways, he has “an option to leave so I can be in the best possible car, and it is clear Ferrari is one of the best.” Alonso's comments have come after his and the cars disappointing start to the season.

This made me think: in the globally engulfing, money-mad world of sport that we live in, is there such thing as loyalty and a challenge anymore? Certainly not in this case; it seems that the words ‘loyalty’ and ‘challenge’ are completely absent from Alonso’s dictionary. Unless Fernando’s Spanish-Italian dictionary has never been open at the words fidelización and desafier for him to become sufficiently familiar with the translations.

Indeed, pundits had speculated before Alonso even signed a two-year contract at Renault that he would join rivals Ferrari after this season. It is obvious that the length of contract is completely nominal to the man if he is already discussing his future so early on in his return to the Italian team. But then I suppose contracts themselves are nominal when one is filthy rich enough for the money required to buy them out being the simple matter of delving one’s hand into one’s back pocket. Alonso’s lawyer must have been laughing all the way to the bank the day he bagged the chance to be the Spaniard’s representative.

In business the comparison of this attitude seems equally as preposterous. Two weeks into a new job after moving from a rival company, you suddenly realise that you are performing substandardly compared to a third rival, so it’s time to thrown in the towel and pack up your desk again. Or if you see someone slightly better looking than your girlfriend, dump your current one and when the even sexier version comes along, dump her too. Life really seems to be that simple.

Plenty of examples spring to mind of top professionals whose loyal allegiances eclipsed the prospect of greater glory elsewhere. Look at not-so-good pundit but dynamite on the pitch former Southampton midfielder Matt Le Tissier. 16 years the England international spent on the south coast, consistently using his talent to keep the relegation strugglers adrift when he could have plied his trade at a far more successful club. His autobiography indicated that he rejected big-money moves to both AC Milan and Chelsea, places where he also could have achieved far more than the 8 international caps which his talent heralded.

Everyone thinks how greener the grass is on the other side, but is sport not about bringing the best out of yourself in the face of challenging circumstances? The true test of a sporting great is using ability to beat your rivals when the going is not perfect. Someone translate that into Spanish for Fernando because I am sure there are plenty of Italians thinking exactly the same thing.