Fifty years is a long time in any endeavour, but it is an eternity by football’s standards. Half a century has passed since Como and Lecco met in Serie B, and despite the best efforts of football’s bureaucracy, the Derby del Lario is back.



Despite Lecco’s Serie C playoff triumph in June, it might be Como that are most eagerly anticipating this first meeting. In 2020-21, both sides met in Serie C after the previous season ended abruptly thanks to the COVID pandemic, meaning the only derby that took place was a 1-1 draw in October 2019.



This was the first time the two sides of Lake Como, the ‘legs’ of the lake as they appear on the map, had met in a full season for almost ten years. In the first clash at Como’s Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium, Lecco won 3-0, much to the embarrassment of their more fancied rivals.



Como, owned by Indonesian tobacco giant Djarum, were on their way back up the Italian pyramid with the considerable wealth of the Hartono brothers behind them. Lecco, meanwhile, had been rescued out of bankruptcy by entrepreneur Paolo Di Nunno, who didn’t have £20bn+ of cigs money behind him.

> **W﻿hen the fixtures were released, the local media only wanted to know one thing.**

Como were top of Serie C/A ahead of the return game in Lecco, but their rivals went one better and beat them 4-0, proving that success really loses its shine if you must listen to your neighbour gloating.



Still, Como went up as champions and Lecco lost in the playoffs; though it hasn’t sated the Voltiani’s hunger for revenge. When the Serie B calendar was unveiled in Villa Olmo, home to the shrine of chemist/physicist/invention maestro Alessandro Volta, the local media in Como only wanted to talk about one thing when the fixtures were released. The derby. 



Yes, there are another 36 fixtures, but when do we get to have a go at that lot? It’s sure to be a cracking game at Giuseppe Sinigaglia, with the hosts undoubtedly keen to make sure there are no repeats of 2020-21.



Derbies tend to stem from some archaic grievance, whether mutual or one sided. It can be tribal or even just a case of one town getting a better shopping centre than the other. But the Derby del Lario is different. It’s Volta versus Manzoni. Physicist versus playwright, but most of all, it’s Como-Lecco.



The battle for Lake Como is as sophisticated as they come, and that’s before you even consider the idyllic backdrop within which Alessandro Manzoni set his famous novel ‘I promessi sposi’ (The Betrothed). Well, Manzoni’s location was Lecco and almost two centuries later, the Manzoniani returned to Serie B for the first time in fifty years.

For Lecco, the motivation is clear. Half a century since they played in B and a little longer since they were in the top flight (1967), but there is another edge to the Lario derby, one that has only emerged since they last met in Serie B. 

> **For the people of Lecco, it’s a case of civic pride that they now have a sense of autonomy from Como.**

Lecco was part of the province of Como, despite attempts to separate it, until 1992 when the Italian government created the province of Lecco. For the people of Lecco, it’s a case of civic pride that they now have a sense of autonomy from Como. For their old provincial roommates, it makes little actual difference to their daily lives, but it remains an issue they can mock their neighbours about. Lecco is Como, some say, but I doubt they really mean it. 



Despite having a fraction of their rival’s budget, Lecco should not be underestimated. They **[began this Serie B season in a courtroom](https://tmgitalia.net/posts/2023-08-25-legal-drama-in-serie-b)** but, thankfully, sense eventually prevailed, and they were allowed to take their well-earned place in the league. 



The debilitating effect this drama had on their pre-season is presumed, and this derby is one of three games that were postponed at the start of the season while footballing decisions were being made in legal institutions. 



Since 29 August, Lecco have had to bring their several new signings up to speed at double pace, navigate a managerial change in October and move back to their slightly renovated stadium; all of this done while adjusting to a level of competition they haven’t faced since 1973. 

> **Two clubs that feel like they’re on the ascendancy in a very competitive Serie B field.**

For them to be 17th and competitive in the fight for survival is a real achievement. In beating Parma and Palermo, two promotion contenders, they have demonstrated that it would be foolish to write them off like most have fellow promoted side Feralpisalo.



Como look like they have got their act together after underachieving for a couple of seasons. The decision to sack Moreno Longo after a strong start to the campaign is bold; replacing him with Cesc Fabregas even more so, but they are a team on the up and should be in the playoff mix.



Form, budget, and common sense says Como over Lecco, but football is rarely sensible nor linear like that.



This is a classic derby. A game of “Our national treasure is better than yours!” Two clubs that feel like they’re on the ascendancy in a very competitive Serie B field, duking it out in a grassy field for the right to say they ‘own’ Lake Como. Arts or Sciences, who wins?

Como-Lecco: Derby del Lario

The name Di Marzio is synonymous with transfers, at least in the Anglo-centric footballing world. Attaching Gianluca Di Marzio to a rumour is not quite a papal seal, but he has a level of authority that the iPad holders at Sky Sports News could only dream of. 

Still, in Calabria, the name Di Marzio belongs to another family member, the late Gianni Di Marzio, father of Gianluca.

Cosenza and Catanzaro meet this Sunday in the first Calabrian derby since 2018, and the first in Serie B since 1990, back when Gianni was Cosenza’s manager. He passed away in January 2022 and, as often happens, it was only in death that his true impact on Italian football was laid out for all to ponder.

The tributes poured in from Palermo, Napoli, Genoa and across the media world, as Gianni had worked as a columnist, TV pundit, and spent years as a sporting director at Venezia and Palermo, as well as working with Juventus and QPR. But it was in Calabria, again, where his passing was mourned with the greatest intensity.

There are four big clubs in Calabria. Reggina and Crotone, Cosenza and Catanzaro. The former play in the Magna Graecia derby, to reflect their ties to ancient Greece, both cities in the former Greek colony. Cosenza and Catanzaro’s derby is one of campanilismo, the Italian term for civic pride, literally translating as pride in one’s own bell tower. 

> **C﻿osenza, a city with a chip on its shoulder, meets Catanzaro, the regional capital.**

It made sense back in the day when a town’s bell tower evoked grandeur, more so than the presence of designer shops or rich tourists. 

In Cosenza, they are proud of their rich history and architecture, as well as its working-class roots and socialist politics. A city with something of a chip on its shoulder, but one that embodies many of southern Italy’s positive stereotypes while showing a great compassion for its fellow humans, regardless of race or creed. Its football club and fanbase represent these ideals, and Tobias Jones’ 2019 book ‘Ultra’ makes a group of Cosenza ultras its affable, yet edgy, protagonists.

In Catanzaro, they sit between the Tyrrhenian and Ionian sea, at Italy’s narrowest point. Lucky them. A city known for silks that decorated the Vatican and its historical importance from the time of the Greeks, it became the capital of Calabria in 1970, prompting riots in the old capital, Reggio Calabria, thus making Reggina-Catanzaro a derby of vicious nature. 

Even with the violent edge of the derby with Reggina, it is the clash with Cosenza that gets minds racing in Catanzaro, and vice versa.

Catanzaro was the site of (arguably) Gianni Di Marzio’s greatest managerial triumph where, between 1974-77, he took a struggling side from 14th in Serie B to promotion in two years, one that had Claudio Ranieri at the heart of its defence. 

After relegation back to Serie B in his third season, Di Marzio left for Napoli, where he lost a Coppa Italia final, and later reunited with Ranieri at Catania, where they won another promotion to Serie A together; but it was 1987 where his Calabrian love triangle developed, taking over at Cosenza.

> **H﻿e guided Cosenza through the tragic death of Denis Bergamini and on to Serie B safety.**

Cosenza, who had spent over two decades between Serie C and D, hired Di Marzio with one intention; to take the club back to Serie B. This was their promised land, given they had never seen the bright lights of the top flight. He obliged, taking them up in 1988 before leaving that summer.

Eight weeks into the following season, and he was back in the dugout. Catanzaro had only one win and looked like relegation material, prompting them to reach out to Di Marzio, who came in and saved them from relegation. Once again, a club came calling after a rotten start to the season. This time it was Cosenza, who had sacked Luigi Simoni after two wins from fifteen games.

Di Marzio navigated Cosenza through the tragic death of midfielder Denis Bergamini in November 1989, which was declared a suicide but is currently in court with Bergamini’s then girlfriend, Isabella Internò, on trial for conspiracy to commit murder over thirty years after the fact, with several informants from the ‘Ndrangheta clan, the Calabrian mafia, called to give testimony.

On the pitch, Cosenza survived on the final day, spared by their superior head-to-head record over Monza and Messina. Their bitter rivals did not fare so well, with a meagre 25 points all season seeing Catanzaro finish bottom.

Di Marzio left the managerial role at the end of that salvation season of 1989-90 and became director of football at Cosenza, where he worked for several years until Mauro Zamparini took him to Venezia. Despite two stints at both Catanzaro and Cosenza, Di Marzio is still remembered fondly at both clubs.

His son, Gianluca, said this week that his father would not have wanted to watch the derby at either stadium, so as to not disrespect either fanbase. 

> **T﻿wo sides with legitimate playoff aims, the derby is at its best since the days of Di Marzio.**

Such was his impact on both clubs, you would struggle to even produce an educated guess as to which one club he ‘prefers’; and today, there’s little to separate the two. 

Cosenza have had the greater recent history, surviving in Serie B for the past few seasons, but Catanzaro will always have the played-in-Serie A card that Cosenza cannot play, having never made it to the top.

Catanzaro came up from Serie C and entered this season with serious momentum, racing into 2nd before three straight losses dragged them back down to something resembling reality.

Cosenza, meanwhile, have eased their way into this season. Having survived by the skin of their teeth, new manager Fabio Caserta has had to work out his best XI and manage an ever-changing picture with several injuries. 

They find themselves 8th heading into this weekend, with their rivals one place better. Two sides with legitimate playoff aims, especially after their respective starts to the season, a sign that perhaps this Calabrian derby is at its best since the days of Di Marzio.

Catanzaro-Cosenza and a shared legend

It’s only natural to feel that your football team is hard done by. A refereeing decision here, a poorly timed injury there. It’s never as bad as you think. Well, unless you are a Siena fan. 



Siena. Remember them? For the long-term calcio lover, it was the site of Enrico Chiesa’s late career revival, where he spent the last several years of his career keeping the club in the top flight. 



Two decades on from their first ever Serie A season, they find themselves in Eccellenza, Italy’s fifth tier, scrapping with semi-professional sides as they plot the long journey to regaining their honour.



Three bankruptcies in a decade would kill off most clubs, and it’s a small miracle that Siena are even still in existence; albeit as yet another phoenix club.



The genesis of Siena’s downfall coincided with their greatest days; a tale all too familiar in Serie A. Their success and ambition outmatched their resources, and just as they got their feet under the table in 2005, the losses started to build like the Monte, the public banks founded in the Renaissance era, which translates literally as ‘mountain’.

> **W﻿hile fans were at their happiest, the grim reality of professional football lay beneath the surface.**

One of the oldest Monti, the Banca Monte dei Paschi, was Siena’s primary sponsor during the halcyon days. There is an edgy, witty joke about the banks in there, but I’ll let you make it.



Anyway, you get the idea. As the inspirational Enrico Chiesa gave Siena joyful scenes they could never have imagined possible, the club were internally fighting against financial fate. While fans were at their happiest, the grim reality of professional football lay beneath the surface, ready to remind them that all good things must come to an end.



With relegation back to Serie B in 2010, the bouncebackability that had kept Siena in Serie A for seven straight seasons was put to the test. With Antonio Conte in charge and the provincially prolific Emanuel Calaiò in attack, they scored their way to promotion. The most goals in the division propelled them to second place behind Atalanta. 



However, it was the summer of 2011 where the club’s finances started to catch up with them. The bleak economic outlook of Italian football made running a small provincial Serie A club difficult enough, but the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis hit Siena particularly hard.



They were reliant on around €7m annually in sponsorship money from Banca Monte dei Paschi, but the bank’s drift towards collapse meant they had to drastically reduce their sponsorship in 2011-12 and, in fact, severed ties entirely shortly after Siena’s next relegation in 2013. 



After one year in Serie B, Siena were bankrupt. Despite flirting with the playoffs, their inability to pay salaries and taxes resulted in points deductions and, eventually, exclusion from the league in July 2014. To Serie D, they were sent.

> **T﻿he club is bought out of bankruptcy by a group with political exposure to pro-Russian Nagorno-Karabakh.**

Refounded as Robur Siena, a reference to their nickname, from the old sports society that played a role in the formative years of football in Siena and immediately promoted from Serie D, they spent five years chasing promotion from Serie C until 2020 and COVID prompted another bankruptcy.



Things start to get weird at this point. With the city in the midst of a massive investigation into Russian money-laundering through investments in Siena, the club is bought out of bankruptcy by an Armenian group with political exposure to the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a contested region that is widely seen as pro-Russian.



The Gevorkyan and Gazaryan families took over in summer 2020, installing their adviser, Andrea Bellandi, to run Siena. Bellandi was under investigation for money-laundering for work done with Kazakh oligarch Igor Bidilo, known to own several buildings in Siena’s Piazza del Campo, the main piazza in the city, but still took the reins.



The Armenian group’s first season began with Alberto Gilardino in charge of Siena in Serie D; who had them challenging for promotion when he was unexpectedly sacked and replaced by Marian Pahars in January 2021. Yes, that Marian Pahars. A long way from Southampton, and his native Latvia, he struggled alongside his Russian assistant manager Gazzaev. Neither speak Italian, and were unable to communicate with the players.



Within weeks, they were sacked and Gilardino brought back. Siena won a place in Serie C through ‘ripescaggio’, a system that awards places in Serie C to clubs in the event that other eligible sides go bankrupt or fail to meet stadium/financial requirements.



The Pahars debacle created a rift between Gevorkyan and Gazaryan, not helped by another sacking of Gilardino after thirteen games of the following season. By the end of 2021-22, the Armenian group wanted out. The same group had bankrupted Uerdingen in Germany and there had been a match fixing scandal in Latvia involving their club Noah Jurmala. This football business, it’s not easy, is it?

> **G﻿iacomini almost bankrupted Triestina and hired his dad as 'Manager of the Technical Area.**

A Roman businessman, Emiliano Montanari, took over in summer 2022 and built a team mostly around Alberto Paloschi, who had struggled the previous season. The one-time Milan wonderkid lit up Serie C/B last season, scoring 13 times, but amid failure to pay tax and allegations that Montanari is something of an Armenian puppet, Siena went bankrupt this past summer. Again.



This time there is no Serie D, only Eccellenza. The club has a new owner in Simone Giacomini, who took over at Triestina last year, where he almost bankrupted the club and hired his dad as ‘Manager of the Technical Area’. Sort of like a Chief Football Officer, but not really. Maybe.



Anyway, it’s a redemption opportunity for Giacomini, whose CV so far raises only eyebrows and suspicion. They have started well in Eccellenza Toscana - Girone B, where they lead by eight points after only eleven games. 



Captained by ex-Leeds United midfielder Tommaso Bianchi and powered by the goals of former Grosseto striker Elia Galligani, they are going some way to kickstart the mending of the  damage caused by the past decade.



If they hadn’t seen such riches, perhaps the Sienese could live with being poor. For now, they will have to swallow their pride and take on all comers in the regional leagues. The hard work of the 90s and 00s may have been totally undone, but all it takes is a competent owner with vision to set a club on the right path.

Siena: From the Piazza to the rubble

Ragú v Ribollita. Marconi v Michelangelo. Baggio v, eh, Baggio. It’s Bologna v Fiorentina in the Derby dell’Appennino this Sunday, and everyone is excited; or at least they should be.

There are few derbies between cities with as much history and beauty as the Derby dell’Appennino, named after the Apennine mountains, which separates its two teams. Bologna in Emilia-Romagna to the north, and Fiorentina of Florence in Tuscany to the south. Two cities that have provided the world with more than you could ever expect from a ‘provincial’ city, and both home to successful football clubs.

It feels as though the mountains are merely a moniker, much like the Pennines are for Leeds United and Manchester United. While the derby dates back to 1928, both sides’ sporting success in the 1960s culminated in a competitive rivalry and, like many derbies, a regrettable incident in June 1989 gave it a more volatile edge.

A train rolled into Firenze Rifredi station when a petrol bomb was thrown into a carriage full of Bologna fans, causing injury to several people, including 14-year-old Ivan Dell’Olio who was left with permanent facial disfigurement. An utterly ridiculous thing to happen over football made even worse by the fact the person who threw the petrol bomb was only seventeen.

Thankfully, this is a derby that has almost always taken inspiration from what happens on the pitch. Double scudetto winning coach Hermann Felsner’s decision to leave Bologna for Fiorentina in 1930 could be seen as the birth of the rivalry, but it was the 1960s that made the Appennino the game it is today.

> **Cup wins, relegations, stolen titles; Bologna even ended up in Serie C1 at one point.**

In the post-war economic boom, Fiorentina and Bologna emerged as worthy adversaries of Grande Inter and Nereo Rocco’s Milan, as well as Juventus. Fiorentina won their first scudetto in 1956, thus challenging Bologna’s status as the premier team in the region; although the Rossoblù already had six titles before their rivals broke their duck. 

The battle for Apennine supremacy played out in the sixties, with Bologna winning their seventh (and most recent) title in 1964 under Fulvio Bernardini, who was Fiorentina coach in 1956. Revenge for Felsner in a way. The Viola won in 1969, losing only once all season to…Bologna. Both sides were powered by Scandinavian goalscorers, Harald Nielsen at Bologna and Kurt Hamrin at Fiorentina, though the latter had left Florence for Milan by 1969. It was the Derby dell’Appennino’s golden age, punctuated by the next two decades during which both sides’ fortunes fluctuated wildly. Cup wins, relegations, stolen titles; Bologna even ended up in Serie C1 at one point.

> **Bologna are only entering their hipster favourite era now.** 

While the scudetto is almost certainly out of the question, the derby today is at its healthiest since the late nineties. The nadir came when Fiorentina, who had recently recovered from a life-threatening bankruptcy, won on the final day of the 2005 season and escaped relegation, with Bologna sliding into a relegation play-off in their place. It would take three years for Bologna to recover from losing the playoff with Parma, while Fiorentina regularly qualified for Europe during that period. 

Both sides entered this current decade as underachievers, and while Fiorentina have enjoyed a resurgence of late, Bologna are only entering their hipster favourite era now. A cool young manager (Thiago Motta), a few exciting prospects (Ferguson, Calafiori, Zirkzee) and a sporting director with the magic touch. They are almost Italy’s answer to Brighton, but with more porticoes than beaches.

The derby’s revival is real, with Fiorentina pipping Bologna to the final European spot in 2022-23. That Motta’s team look like genuine challengers for the top six this year is a testament to the rebirth of Bologna under their new coach and the transfer wizardry of sporting director Giovanni Sartori, but also an indication of how competitive Serie A is today. While it may lack the star power of the nineties, we have had different champions across the past four seasons and seven sides chasing the top four, as well as the Appennino clubs in the mix for the top six. Basically, it’s the most fun league in the world and to hell with those who disagree.

> **Much like Ancelotti regrets not signing Baggio in ‘97, Bologna surely regret not expelling Ulivieri from the city limits in order to keep the star man happy.**

Perhaps we need another Roberto Baggio-esque player to add a new layer of complexity to the derby. When Baggio moved to Bologna in 1997, having been cast aside at Milan and rejected by then Parma coach Carlo Ancelotti, he became one of those rare players to capture the hearts of both sides; a man that you could not hate if you tried. Unless you were playing against him.

Baggio, an adopted son of Florence, joined a Bologna side that had been playing in Serie B 18 months earlier and his one season at the club ended with him winning Serie A Player of the Year as the club qualified for the Intertoto Cup. Still, fallouts with coach Renzo Ulivieri ensured Baggio’s stay only last a year. He considered his manager to be jealous because the media gave him, and not coach Ulivieri, the plaudits for Bologna’s success. Imagine the credit going to one of the best players to ever do it and who had scored twenty-two times in Serie A that season, rather than Renzo Ulivieri! Much like Ancelotti regrets not signing Baggio in ‘97, Bologna surely regret not expelling Ulivieri from the city limits in order to keep the star man happy.

The upcoming derby should be fiercely competitive; a match between two sides with lofty ambitions and impressive young coaches that play attractive football. Bologna have not lost since they hosted Milan on the opening day, going ten games without a defeat, while Fiorentina have played like a top four side until it comes to putting the ball in the net; plagued by profligate strikers since Vlahovic left for Juventus.

It may well be that a single spot separates the two sides again this year. An increasingly volatile Serie A season in which nothing seems certain beyond Inter’s status as favourites means that all it takes is a semblance of consistency to shoot up the table. There are ‘better’ teams with greater players, but both Appennino clubs can ruffle feathers among the top six if they can make it click. They have the players; they have the managers, and both clubs are trending upwards; so why not make the most of it?

Fiorentina-Bologna: Derby dell'Appennino

Genoa have weathered the storm, and now it is time for Alberto Gilardino’s men to show just how good they can be.

Eight points from their first nine games may be unremarkable, even for a newly promoted side, but Genoa’s run of fixtures to start this season would stress every side in Serie A. Fiorentina, Lazio, Torino, Napoli, Lecce, Roma, Udinese, Milan and Atalanta, in that order. Facing five of last season’s top six by the middle of October; the fixture computer must have something against the Grifoni.

After a 4-1 home thumping by Fiorentina on the opening day, you could have forgiven Genoa for allowing themselves to be consumed by the pressure of Serie A; especially having to go to the Olimpico to face Lazio. A header from Mateo Retegui gave Genoa an extremely impressive 1-0 win to kickstart their season. Retegui, a summer signing from Tigre, has settled into Serie A nicely, scoring three times already and looking like a player that very few promoted sides in the past twenty years have been able to call upon.

> **G﻿enoa's relegation in 2022 did wonders for them.**

I was there on that beautiful Saturday afternoon in May when Genoa were promoted back to Serie A at the first attempt. You could have been convinced they had been away for two decades, such were the celebrations, but it was merely a celebration of the pride they have for their club and their city; and that they had bounced back so quickly.

In a way that could only make sense in football, Genoa’s relegation in 2022 did wonders for them. It allowed them to blood players like Albert Gudmundsson and Morten Frendrup, who arrived amid a failed relegation battle, but thrived in Serie B; which has perhaps allowed them to hit the ground running this season. It is a lot easier to come into Serie A off the back of a strong Serie B campaign, rather than arriving and being asked to save the club from its fate.

Last season also gave Radu Dragusin a chance to play a full season of first team football, having arrived on loan from Juventus. He played every game as Genoa went up and has even been rumoured to have attracted interest from Newcastle, though I would recommend staying in Genoa. Even on a basic level: fresh focaccia > Greggs.

Sacking Alexander Blessin for Alberto Gilardino last December was another great decision, one that ended with promotion and could prove to be the season that forged Gilardino the Coach. Managing a side expected to win each week comes with its own pressures, but it’s certainly preferable to struggling for survival when you’re in your first coaching role outside of Serie C. Gilardino thrived in making his team the protagonist, starving the lesser opponents of space and using Gudmundsson’s combination with Massimo Coda to create goals.

> **T﻿he underlying numbers paint a brighter picture than 15th.**

While their owners, US-based private investment firm 777 Partners are busy trying to buy Everton, the Grifoni will just hope that the good times have returned permanently. 777’s tenure at Genoa has been a welcome change of pace to the Preziosi years, at least the latter years, but it has not been all plain sailing for 777 in their pursuit of a football empire, with allegations of fraud, illegal loans and failure to satisfy agreements, as well as failure to provide basic financial documents to support their attempted takeover of Everton.

Back on the pitch, where football is all that matters, Genoa have reasons to be cheerful going forward. Their underlying numbers paint the picture of a side better than 15th, while their run of fixtures across the next six weeks are favourable.

The time is now. Genoa have a squad capable of pushing towards mid-table, spearheaded by Retegui and carefully guided by the ever-improving Gilardino. They have taken the punches from the big boys, and now it is time for them to dish out some punishment of their own.

Genoa: Taking the next step

Many of Italian football’s most memorable days involve the feats of a great centre forward. Silvio Piola, the top scoring Italian of all time, fired the Azzurri to the 1938 World Cup, as did Paolo Rossi in 1982. Still, strikers have contributed immensely to Italy’s rich footballing tapestry, but their output has fallen off in the modern era.

Is this purely coincidental, a case of too much emphasis placed on other positions? Is it poor management and development of young strikers? Is it the changing nature of the role? A little bit of all three, I think, along with the unrealistic standards of striking beauty from sections of the media and fan worlds. Once Messi and Ronaldo normalised scoring 50 goals a season, being a striker would never be the same.

Each fan, pundit, coach, or whoever will have their view on the ‘last great Italian number nine', but a general consensus appears to be that it was Luca Toni.

If we have no ‘great’ Italian centre forward, then who could be the next Luca Toni? Nobody, really, but someone has to take the mantle of Italy’s number nine. For me, it’s Gianluca Scamacca, but he's some way off the level. He’s a modern take on the traditional centre forward. A big boy with supreme technical skills and ability to attack from deep. His party trick is smashing goals in from anywhere. I can’t pinpoint another centre forward with the ability to consistently score from outside the box.

An entertaining footballer, but one who finds his career at something of a crossroads. I didn’t like his move to West Ham last summer because David Moyes’ track record managing centre forwards had been rather poor to that point, something that didn’t change with Scamacca.

> **S﻿camacca was subjected to chasing long balls and wrestling with defenders, rather than playing to his strengths.**

Moyes saw a 6ft 5ins striker and thought he’d found himself a continental Andy Carroll, and as such subjected him to a year of chasing long balls and wrestling with defenders, rather than let him play to his strengths. Having missed much of pre-season due to his late move from Sassuolo, it was a little more difficult than it needed to be for him to settle in, made even worse by living in a hotel and struggling to fully connect on a linguistic level with teammates and staff. Combine all this with being made to play hoofball and it’s no wonder Scamacca wanted out.

Despite his July interview with Gazzetta dello Sport in which he batted his eyes at boyhood club Roma, it was Atalanta who came in for him. Gian Piero Gasperini’s record of getting the best from forwards like Luis Muriel, Duvan Zapata and, more recently, Rasmus Hojlund will undoubtedly have stood out when it came to Scamacca making his decision.

Where Luca Toni was the prototypical goalscorer who relied on physique, aerial ability and that sixth sense for finding the net that great forwards have, Scamacca uses his technique and mobility to trouble defenders and link up play. The penalty area was Toni’s domain and Scamacca is arguably at his best outside the box but, at 24, he has time to improve on that front.

Ciro Immobile’s time has been and gone. One of the greatest goalscorers in Serie A history, he couldn’t replicate that form at international level. Still, 17 goals from 57 games isn’t to be scoffed at. Does winning the Euros make up for playing a role in Italy missing consecutive World Cups? For me, it’s a narrow yes, but I’m not Italian. 

Perhaps a new era has arrived with Scamacca’s first Azzurri goal against England. Perhaps not, but Italy will need someone to drag them over the line in these big moments. I was momentarily shocked when the commentator announced it was the first time Scamacca had scored for Italy, but I suppose that’s the point of writing this piece. Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the Gods, I ponder.

The best Italian striker in Serie A right now? Quite possibly the one that isn’t ‘Italian’. Mateo Retegui has given Genoa a threat that few promoted sides have ever possessed and offers Italy another option with plenty of potential. It’s not quite Toni, Inzaghi and Gilardino, but it’ll have to do. 

> **T﻿alkSPORT scoffed at Scamacca daring to score against England, after everything that happened with West Ham.**

Before Scamacca does anything else, he’s got to get fit, stay fit and score goals for Atalanta. After the brutal mistake of moving to West Ham, his time in Bergamo could, and hopefully should, serve as a rehabilitation required to make up for a year of David Moyes. 

His goal at Wembley (predictably) drew the ire of TalkSPORT and the usual suspects, who scoffed at the idea that this ‘£35m flop’ dared to score against England after a whole year of nothing at West Ham, the club who halved Sebastien Haller’s value and whose best striker in over a decade is a failed right-back.

If Scamacca utilises this moment to kickstart a strong year in nerazzurri, then maybe he can start dreaming of taking the Azzurri to World Cup 2026. Luciano Spalletti’s massively revamped side might have found some form by then. Who knows.

Those who proclaimed Luca Toni’s retirement as the death of the great Italian centre forward weren’t doom and gloom merchants, it seems, but maybe there’s hope for the future with Scamacca. Or maybe it’s Retegui. Andrea Pinamonti has time yet. Massimo Coda is still banging them in for Serie B clubs; is 34 too late to bloom? I jest. Unless…

> ***D﻿on't forget to sign up to our newsletter, which you can do at the bottom of [this page](https://tmgitalia.net/about)!***

Gianluca Scamacca, could it be you?

Last season’s Bologna-Inter games proved to be seminal moments in Thiago Motta’s first year as Bologna coach. Losing 6-1 at San Siro after three straight wins before the World Cup was a reminder that Bologna shouldn’t get carried away and showed the ‘naivety’ of their incessantly aggressive approach. 



Three months later, a 1-0 win over Inter highlighted the “symbiosis”, as Motta put it, of his side. An effective press caused Danilo D’Ambrosio to lose the ball just inside his own half and one pass put a perfectly positioned Riccardo Orsolini through on goal to score the winner.



Rijkaard, Gasperini, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Emery and Conte. Those are the names that jump out on a list of managers Thiago Motta played for, so it’s not surprising he instantly transitioned into coaching upon retirement in 2018, nor that he now appears to be the coming man in Italian coaching.



In four years, he’s come a long way from being the guy the media mocked for suggesting his team could play a 2-7-2 formation. He was (kind of) joking, theorising that a 2-7-2 is merely a 4-3-3 read horizontally; an attempt to highlight that not everything is binary when it comes to tactics. 

Like most ‘new’ ideas in football, perhaps Motta’s biggest crime was to think outside the box without the sufficient reputation as a manager to add weight to his ideas. The clickbait cynics failed to appreciate that twenty plus years working with some of the sport’s great minds might teach a player a thing or two.



After a short stint at Genoa ended in December 2019, the 2-7-2 was brought up again and used to beat Motta, failing to take into context that when working for Enrico Preziosi, you’re often better staying in a hotel than bothering to settle anywhere while under the thumb of a prolific manager eater. Eighteen months later, he was back in work at Spezia, replacing Vincenzo Italiano after he left to be Italy’s next top manager at Fiorentina.

> **S﻿pezia steered clear of relegation and Motta was lauded as the hero.**

Spezia had just survived against the odds in their first ever Serie A season and much of the credit lay with Italiano. A transfer ban for breaking the rules on signing underage players loomed and most expected Motta to return Spezia to Serie B. Instead, they steered clear of relegation and Motta was lauded as the hero. Still, he walked away at the end of the season, like his predecessor, with bigger things on the horizon in Bologna.



At Bologna, he has finally been given the tools to play football his way. It is there that Motta has truly transformed into the hot property that attracted interest from PSG in the summer, but it would be foolish to suggest that it has been anything like smooth sailing. There have been mistakes, but he’s been given time to fix them, perhaps a luxury afforded by the fact that he’s no longer managing a side with a real imminent threat of relegation.



Motta replaced Sinisa Mihajlovic last September after Bologna failed to win any of their first five games of the 2022-23 season. Mihajlovic had overseen four seasons as manager while receiving chemotherapy for leukaemia, even going through treatment in the summer prior to being sacked. Three months after Motta took the job, Mihajlovic passed away from complications due to leukaemia.



The new coach had earned just one point from his first four games, and even that was met with boos at Renato dall’Ara after a limp 1-1 with an awful Sampdoria team. A home win over Lecce sparked a run of four wins from five before the World Cup, setting the tone somewhat for their run to a respectable 9th place finish. 

> **B﻿ologna can start to look up the table now.**

Bologna are building something. President Joey Saputo brought in recruitment wizard Giovanni Sartori as sporting director last year, who had worked wonders with Atalanta recently, and Chievo before that. Cultivating a squad to meet Motta’s needs and provide the club with sufficient resale value, as is (unfortunately) necessary in this era, Bologna can start to look up the table, rather than just making sure they aren’t worrying about what’s happening below.



Sitting in 8th place and unbeaten since losing to Milan on the opening day, they go to San Siro a totally different side from the raw, easily exposed one that Inter thumped last time. Granted, Inter are a more frightening prospect now, but Bologna’s ambitious attack and reasonably solid defence should give the scudetto favourites a real challenge.



Can Motta follow in the footsteps of the man who saved his career and take a provincial side into the Champions League, just like Gasperini did with the help of Sartori at Atalanta? Perhaps asking too much, but you would have said the same a few years ago about La Dea.

Inter-Bologna: The Making of Thiago Motta's Side

How hard is it to say sorry? Just sorry. Not sorry you feel that way. Not sorry, but…Not sorry if I did this or that. Just say sorry. Seemingly, it is beyond the wit of Napoli. Their two days late ‘apology’ to Victor Osimhen for mocking him on TikTok was so heavily caveated, you’d think it was written by an AI lawyer.

 

Mocking your best player for missing a penalty on a social media site made for 12-year-olds is one thing, but I’d say the previous video of him with racial overtones was more problematic. Nevertheless, it was the twelve second clip of a baby voice making fun of a missed penalty that almost broke Napoli’s season in September.

 

The club’s statement on Thursday iterated that they never wanted to offend a “treasure of the club,” reinforcing their position by saying they rejected bids for Osimhen during pre-season. Ok, cool, but what about the weird videos?

 

“Social media, in particular TikTok, has always used an expressive form of language with a light heart and creativity, without wanting to, as in the case with Osimhen as protagonist, have any intention of insult or derision.” Great. Now we know it’s not TikTok’s fault. Maybe they’ll just throw the social media manager under the bus? That would be sensible.

 

“In any case, if Victor perceived any offence towards him, this was not what the club intended.” And there it is, the non-apology.

 

Look, if that’s how he feels, then we’re sorry. But only if that’s how it made him feel. Not because some wannabe comedian made a silly video for engagement. Must feed the content machine, otherwise how can we call ourselves a big club?

>  **Who else would alienate their manager right after winning the title?**

Perhaps I’m being swallowed up in reactionary fervour, but the more I think about how Napoli are run, the more I’m convinced that owner Aurelio De Laurentiis is a bit of a balloon. Who else would totally alienate their best manager in a generation, and probably ever, right after winning their first scudetto since 1990? How many clubs would reluctantly let their ultras ‘protest’ during their biggest home game in decades, rather than just placate them and deal with the consequences later? 

 

But worst of all, I can’t think of another club daft enough to mock their star player days after he missed a penalty in a poor draw that put pressure on your new manager that seems to lack the support of (some) key players. 

 

A silly video about a player who you seem to value so dearly yet have twiddled thumbs while presiding over his new contract. It’s entirely possible that Osimhen gets through this season and runs down his contract through to 2025, when he can leave for nothing, or Napoli cash in on him for a fee well below what they could/should get. All because of TikTok.

 

There really isn’t a rationale to writing this piece, other than to ponder how hard it is to just say: “We’re sorry.”

 

Maybe it’ll all be fine and some of us, me included, are overreacting. Probably. It usually is, but Napoli’s unapologetic apology can’t have done much to help persuade Osimhen to stick around. Rather, it’ll once again be the undying adulation of the fans and people in the city that acts as the tie that binds Naples and Osimhen.

Too Many Words

Author (and Hellas Verona fan) Tim Parks once described Chievo as: “A miserable case of working-class suburb overflowing into declining semi-industrialised fenland.” Its football club, ChievoVerona, spent six decades in the wilderness of regional football after its formation in 1929 and only joined the professional ranks in the late eighties once president Luigi Campedelli, owner of Paluani confectionery, stepped up the push to give Verona a second team.



The post-pandemic demise of Chievo Verona was different to the fate of far too many of Italy’s football clubs. There was no reckless spending, financial mismanagement nor dirty laundry aired in court.



After almost two decades in Serie A (with a brief return to Serie B in the middle), Chievo’s financial limitations caught up with them. A team from a Verona suburb, their Serie A attendances were far lower than their city rivals, Hellas Verona, were putting up during their years in the third tier.



The fallout of the pandemic meant that by August 2021, Chievo’s parent company, Paluani, found itself on the verge of bankruptcy. Production shut down at their factories as Italy suffered terribly in the early days of COVID-19, which set in motion a chain of events that ended with Chievo being put out of existence over unpaid tax bills.



I’m always curious to see how the messy aftermath of these situations unfold, as parties scramble to form a phoenix club rather than leave thousands with nothing to do each weekend. 

> **P﻿ellissier departed after falling out with the board just before the club went into bankruptcy.**

The bid to save Chievo was led by club legend Sergio Pellissier, who had spent 17 years at the club as a player and joined the recruitment team upon his retirement after Chievo’s relegation in 2019. Pellissier had since departed the club prior to bankruptcy after falling out with the board, but returned in its hour of need.



He scrambled to find an investor to buy Chievo but no interest materialised, leading to the dissolution of the club. The glass ceiling presented by their lack of marketability and catchment area likely dissuaded any realistic investors, especially at a time when businesses were reeling from the effects of COVID.



After failing to meet Serie B and D requirements, ChievoVerona were no more. The club, as an entity, died that day but its history, albeit brief, remained intact, encased forever in the short period of ‘relevance’.



While their rivals, Hellas Verona, celebrated winning a highly unlikely scudetto in 1985, Chievo were toiling away against semi-professional sides around Veneto. It wasn’t until the following year that they achieved promotion to Serie C2 and were playing in C1 only three years later as two decades of toil from Luigi Campedelli began to pay off.



He assumed the club presidency in 1964 at the age of 33, and poured almost half of his life into Chievo before dying of a heart attack in 1992 and being replaced by his son, Luca, who, at 23 years old, became the youngest football club owner in Italy (since broken by Alessandro Ruggeri of Atalanta).



Based in the Chievo suburb just west of Verona, home to less than five thousand people, they still shared a 39,000 capacity stadium with their rivals, having moved from their decrepit old home near the city’s dam. Two years after Luca inherited the throne, they were in Serie B for the first time ever.

> **\
> H﻿ellas fans said Chievo would only ever reach Serie A if donkeys could fly.**

After several years of Serie B consolidation and stagnation, Chievo hired Luigi Delneri ahead of the 2000-01 season and achieved an unexpected, historic promotion. They became known as the ‘Mussi Volanti’ (Flying Donkeys), a reference to the fact their rivals Hellas said they would only ever reach Serie A if donkeys could fly. 



Twelve months after promotion, they were in the UEFA Cup, while Hellas were relegated to Serie B. Smart recruitment, a consistent theme in Chievo’s success, helped Delneri take the side into Europe, having briefly led the league at Christmas. Take Simone Perotta as an example. Picked up for a small fee from Bari, he played a vital role in Chievo’s midfield for a few years before heading to Roma for €7.2m, four times his original fee.



Although their foray into Europe ended at the first hurdle against Red Star Belgrade, Chievo’s greatest days were still to come. As the league reeled from the Calciopoli scandal, Chievo took the last Champions League spot, vacated after the punishments were handed down.



However, they were knocked out immediately again, losing in the qualifying rounds and setting the tone for a season that would end, bizarrely, in relegation. However, their stay in Serie B was brief, largely due to Pellissier’s 22 goals as Chievo went back up as champions.



The subsequent decade in Serie A was a tale of mid-table purgatory, with the odd flirtatious dance with relegation. As the wealth gap in football widened, Chievo’s glass ceiling became increasingly lower and, well, no longer made of glass. They limped to relegation in 2019, winning twice all season and finishing on 17 points, after a three point deduction due to false accounting.

> **T﻿he failure to return to Serie A and the financial chokehold of the pandemic made Chievo's survival unlikely.**

While they reached the Serie B playoffs in both seasons after relegation, the inability to bounce back and the financial chokehold caused by COVID made Chievo’s survival increasingly unlikely, and eventually they crumbled. 



The aftermath has been a juicy drama to the neutral but painful for the grieving Chievo fans. The war for the club’s soul rages on still, as Sergio Pellissier founded FC Clivense, referring to ‘Clivensi’, the name given to Chievo’s fans. Too late to join Serie D, they joined Terza Categoria, Italy’s ninth tier, which they romped, with Pellissier even appearing in the final match, scoring twice at the age of 43.



A successful merger with Eccellenza (fifth tier) team San Martino Sperme meant Clivense climbed from three divisions and took a place in Eccellenza Veneto, while Luca Campedelli attempted to merge ‘Chievo’ with Sona in Serie D, but the courts rejected his use of the old name and the deal collapsed. The same thing happened later with Vigasio, where Campedelli tried and failed to use the old club branding with ChievoVigasio.



Another successful campaign for Clivense, winning the league by seven points, means that they play in Serie D this year, where they have four points from four games. They’re building something, while Campedelli is suing the FIGC, Clivense and Pellissier for the club’s “appropriation of the Chievo brand”. The ‘Chievo brand’ is up for auction currently, and Clivense have been crowdfunding to raise enough money so that they might return the brand to the fans, or at least what remains.



How this plays out remains to be seen, but the events to date would indicate that Campedelli’s race is run, and Clivense may eventually end up winning out. Then again, what’s in a name? Is it worth spending valuable funds on a brand, purely for pride or to make a point? Isn’t it better to give the fans a better team to watch, rather than a name from years gone by? Perhaps, but this is football. There is no place for reasoned debate here, only emotion.