Papin`s 2 year spell at Milan had been a chequered affair. Capello had signed him mostly for what could be termed "political reasons": The presence of another world class striker was meant to let Van Basten know that even he, despite being the greatest striker and arguably the world`s greatest footballer at that point in time, was by no means indispensable to Capello`s designs. By the end of Papin`s 1st season in Italy, in the 1st final of the newly introduced Champions League, Marco Van Basten suffered a grave injury that eventually would force him to retire from football at the age of 28. With Van Basten out of the picture, it looked as though the road was clear for Papin to take his place and become Capello`s 1st choice attacker.

Even though he had scored as many goals as Van Basten in the 1992/93 season, Papin saw his position at Milan weakened due to the arrival of 2 more foreign attackers - Brian Laudrup (Dane) and Florin Raducioiu (Romanian) - at the onset of the 1993/94 season. Capello`s stubborn reliance on Italians Massaro and Simone didn`t help either.