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For example, Daniel Alves is still jeered by a section of the Sevilla fans for trying, unsuccessfully, to switch to Chelsea in summer.

 Coaches, in contrast to players, have usually been regarded as loyal, trustworthy stalwarts, motivated more by service for the club than avarice, setting an example to the players by their fidelity to the club.

 But does that distinction still hold water?

   The recent deplorable actions of Juande Ramos and Henk Ten Cate - under contract at Sevilla and Ajax until June 2008 - suggest that it doesn't.

 Indeed these two have established a dismal new trend for coaches, of walking out on their clubs at the drop of a hat, unilaterally tearing up their contracts - as soon as they receive a more lucrative offer.

 So who are the real "mercenaries" of Planet Football today, the players or the coaches?

   It is, in fact, much easier for a coach to jump ship than a player. Players have to wait until the end of the season - hiding their intentions from team-mates, fans and media - or maybe even until the end of their contract, when the "Bosman Law" of 1995 makes them "free agents".

 Ramos and Ten Cate have shown, however, that an ambitious, money-minded coach can walk out, without any real accountability or legal comeback.

 The club of a departing coach can take the case to the law courts. A more pragmatic approach, nowadays, is to demand compensation from the "poaching" club, as Sevilla are planning to do with Tottenham Hotspur and as Ajax have apparently done with Chelsea.

 So much for FIFA and UEFA regulations about not approaching a player or coach under contract at another club.

 Club stalwart Manuel Jimenez will have to pick up the pieces at Sevilla, just as Adrie Koster has had to do at Ajax in the past month.

 As soon as I heard, on Thursday night, that Spurs had sacked the hapless Martin Jol (apparently even before the UEFA Cup defeat at home to plucky Getafe), I felt a sense of foreboding for Sevilla.

 After all, Spurs had almost succeeded in luring Ramos away from the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan in August (though officially denying it at the same time). Surely they would come in again for Ramos now that Jol had finally been taken off "Death Row" and dispatched...

 On Friday night Ramos unilaterally ended his Sevilla contract, with club president Jose Maria del Nido saying that "this will do a lot of damage to Sevilla."

   I was irritated - though far from surprised - to read on Saturday morning Ramos describing the Spurs offer as "unrejectable", and claiming that it would have been "unforgivable" for him to have turned it down.

 He accepts that "there will be people who will get annoyed and will not understand this decision". Well, isn't that thoughtful of him? And what a shining example he has set for the likes of Alves.

 I wonder what Sir Alex Ferguson and Guy Roux will make of Ramos' decision.

 These two "old school" gentlemen are throwbacks to the managerial tradition of loyalty and service. Ferguson has, apparently, received many lucrative offers to leave Manchester United in his imperious 21-year reign at Old Trafford. He obviously didn't think it would be "unforgivable" to turn these offers down.

 Roux also received several big-money offers during his world-record 44-year stint (1961-2005) at Auxerre, but he clearly didn't think that they were "unrejectable."

   Sir Matt Busby turned down many offers to quit Old Trafford during his 24-year reign in Manchester(1945-1969). So did Miguel Munoz when coach of Real Madrid from 1960 to 1974.

 So did Giovanni Trapattoni when in charge at Juventus from 1976 to 1986 - unlike Fabio Capello, who enfuriated the Juve fans by jumping ship for Real Madrid in 2006 when the "Old Lady" was against the ropes, relegated to "Serie B" on corruption charges.

 I fear that the example of Ramos and Ten Cate will have more followers in the years to come than the example of Ferguson and Roux.

 As Bob Dylan observed (It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding) back in 1965: "money doesn't talk, it swears." By Duncan Shaw, dpa