This blog was created...

... as a place to put the monthly round-up blogs that I wrote for Channel 4's Football Italia before a site redesign consigned them to the void. Four of the eleven are here; the others may (but probably won't) turn up in the future.

If you're reading this, you're probably Martin Belam. Hi Martin! Gissa job?

June 2009

The season has ended on a high for Padova and Crotone, their playoff triumphs meaning they join Cesena and Gallipoli in Serie B next year. Padova overcame Pro Patria 2-1 on aggregate and will begin their centenary in the second tier, eleven years after they last played there.

Crotone (known as 'the Pythagoreans', naturally) defeated Benevento, also 2-1, but their manager Francesco Moriero will not be there to hold their hands next year, having agreed to look after Frosinone instead. His place is taken by ex-Pro Patria tactician Francesco Lerda.

Moriero’s ex-teammate Giuseppe Giannini has also left his post at 1-B champions Gallipoli, citing disillusionment with the board. President Vincenzo Barba may decline promotion to Serie B as the local stadium is not up to scratch. Fans are planning to occupy one of its maligned curvas in protest. This means the Supercoppa win over Cesena to secure third-tier bragging rights for the 'Magic Rooster' was Giannini’s last game in charge.

At the bottom, Pro Sesto, Sambenedettese, Pistoiese and Juve Stabia have lost their Prima Divisione status at the last. Venezia, Lecco, Foligno and Lanciano, thanks to their relegation-playoff victories, can put the horrible experience of this season behind them and look forward to the horrible experience of next season instead.

Moreno Torricelli, despite failing in his almost-impossible mission to keep Pistoiese up, impressed all and sundry and quickly found another job at Figline, newly promoted from Lega Pro 2 with the help of 90s stars Enrico Chiesa and Anselmo Robbiati. With them come Varese, Cosenza, Como, Giulianova and Pescina, blinking into the light, while from Serie B come Rimini, Pisa, Avellino and Treviso, cursing the darkness.

Elsewhere, Clarence Seedorf has bought Monza for some reason, meaning their future seems secure. The same cannot be said for several other clubs, including Arezzo and Foggia, and newly-relegated Avellino and Pisa, all of whom are for sale or deeply in the red. After the experience of last summer,
it would be unwise to imagine this season’s shenanigans are finished with just yet.

January 2009

Pro Patria recorded two draws and a loss in January, a run that has seen them drop to second place in 1-A. The defeat was all the more costly for coming against Reggiana, who have taken their place at the top.

Of the chasing pack, Cremonese have pulled off a potential coup with the signing of Domenico Morfeo, last seen sauntering away from Brescia because he didn't fancy football much any more. The chance to work again under the avuncular Emiliano Mondonico may have reignited the competitive instinct of the wayward ex-prodigy, or, it may not. This one really could go either way.

Anxious times at Hellas Verona, as president Pietro Arvedi makes an agonisingly slow recovery from the car crash that left him in a coma. The sale of the club, and with it the long-hoped for cash injection, is now on hold until the elderly aristocrat is capable of resuming negotiations.

Further down the food chain Venezia, a big club in nothing but name, have suffered (yet another) 2-point penalty for (yet more) administrative misdeeds, leaving the cash-strapped side four points adrift at the bottom of the league. Their only permanent signing in this window has been the manager's 18-year old son.

In the other division it's as you were at the top, with Gallipoli still leading by a point from Benevento, the 'Magic Rooster' having controversially signed Gianluca Sansone from under the warty noses of the 'Little Witches'.

The biggest name to move in 1-B is Francisco Lima, 'The Duracell', who at the age of 37 has returned to Italy to be clipped into place in the middle of the Taranto midfield. Was this what inspired relegation rivals Lanicano to make public overtures to Pavel Nedved? The approach was, like Lanicano's results so far in 2009, pointless

We must also mention the most extraordinary match of the season so far, a 6-5 victory for Arezzo against Sorrento. Sorrento ace Mirtay scored a hat-trick against his former club, who trailed 3-0 until the 41st minute, until an unprecedented flurry of goals culminated in an 89th-minute winner from Kelwin Matute.

Finally, Carlo Sabatini has left Padova, to be replaced with Attilio Tesser, a man who has averaged twelve games before being sacked in each of his last three jobs. Surprisingly, Tesser has never managed Perugia.

December 2008

The Dolphins are dead. Pescara have gone into administration, bringing to a conclusion seventy-one years of proud history and fifteen months of abject chaos. The shadowy società will be allowed to play out the rest of the season, though the promotion push looks to be over

Better news for Legnano, another club that had been at risk from the bailiffs. The £400,000 hole in their finances has been filled with public money at the eleventh hour, after the mayor apparently despaired of finding any civic-minded generosity among the burghers of his town.

Pro Patria still top 1-A as we enter the winter break, continuing to defy the pundits who’ve been predicting their demise since August. Three wins from three in December saw them go four points clear of Spal and five above Cesena and Novara. Their finances aren’t in great shape though, and they could struggle to keep hold of their best players in January if Serie B sides come looking for a bargain – or if someone decides to give manager Franco Lerda a chance at a higher level.

In 1-B Gallipoli lead from Arezzo, who are two points back, with Benevento and Crotone a further two adrift. Gallipoli look well positioned for 2009, with a bright coach, a well-balanced team and an excitable but generous chairman who appears no more crackpot than most calcio impresarios. Ambitious, affluent Benevento may supply the strongest challenge to Giannini’s 'Magic Roosters'; they’ve taken winger Gianluca Sansone on loan from Serie A Siena with two of his team-mates poised to follow him.

Elsewhere Ivo Iaconi has run out of time at Cremonese, who have turned once more to ex-boss (and part-time Dolmio puppet) Emiliano Mondonico to get back on the promotion trail. Taranto’s new coach is Paolo Stringara, whose admission that he loves relegation struggles may explain why he’s on his fourth job in three years. And finally, the ultras of Hellas Verona have ended 2008 in traditional fashion, with a 10,000 euro fine for racist abuse of opposition players. Readers can expect 2009 to continue in a similar fashion for the 'Mastiffs'.

November 2008

November was the month in which the trigger fingers of several chairmen became too itchy to bear: Potenza, Venezia, Benevento and Foligno all dispensed with the services of their managers. Of the four, the dismissal of Venezia’s Sereni is the least surprising. His team, expected to challenge for the play-offs at least, sat second from bottom when he got his P-45. Replacing him is local boy Stefano Cuoghi, who is yet to make an impression on the squad: Venezia are now dead last, behind even the upstart tadpoles Portosummaga from down the road.

At the right end of 1-A, Pro Patria remain top after riding through their blip. Round 11’s 3-1 win over Cesena was the 1,000th in their history. Spal and a much-improved Padova lie one and two points back respectively, the Biancoscudati having impressively seen off Cremonese 3-2 in the match of Round 12.

But it’s 1-B that has seen the majority of this month’s bloodletting. After just nine matches in charge, five of them defeats, Potenza have decided that Carmine Gautieri is not the man for the job. Replacing him is Pasquale Arleo, who previously oversaw Potenza's promotion to the third tier in 2007. He faces a stern task with his team two points adrift from Foligno at the bottom.

Foligno, the ‘Little Falcons’ from Umbria, are another of the clubs who made a change at the top. Paolo Indiani, who readers may remember from his brief role in the sitcom that is Perugia, is the new boss, presumably chosen because the directors wouldn’t have to find him a new house. His appointment means that all three of 1-B’s bottom sides now have new men in charge.

None of them, though, are in nearly as much trouble as Pescara. Having previously refused to train in protest at a million euros’ worth of unpaid salaries – a tactic that saw them climb the table to 7th – the club's players have now threatened not to play at all. Questions are now being asked as to how the team was allowed to compete in the Lega Pro with such catastrophic finances. It could get even worse for the Dolphins, though – miss three games and the club will face expulsion from all professional competition, which, as fans of Messina and Spezia will tell you, is no fun at all.