Cassano the sideshow cries off
Tuesday 29 January 2008 14:52
There was little doubt that Antonio Cassano would duck out of his return to the Olympic stadium.
There were hints of it on Saturday evening at home to Siena as he put on his wobbly Charlie Chaplin walk after being substituted.
The official reason coming out of the Sampdoria camp is that the 25-year-old has a bad back although it didn’t stop him from travelling to the capital for the Italian Cup tie on Tuesday evening.
In other words, what they really meant was that he had cried off from facing one of the most hostile receptions in the Eternal City since the Visgoths turned up for a bit of rape and pillaging back in the day.
The Bari bad-boy kicked up such a stink at missing out on the league game in December due to suspension that you began to wonder if the lady doth protest too much.
Could a person with such a fragile temperament survive 90 minutes of unrelenting abuse – and that’s not just from Christian Panucci’s size 43s?
How would he explain to Francesco Totti why he had spent the last two years slagging-off his former ‘good’ friend?
Admired but never loved by the Romans, once hailed as the future of Italian football, now reduced to knocking in goals against the likes of Siena and Palermo, it’s just one more act in what is becoming the Cassano side-show.
It’s hardly worth the entrance fee.
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About Richard Whittle
Despite the name,
Richard Whittle is so at home in Italy that some call him Riccardo Rossi. He has lived and worked in Italy for the last 15 years as a football journalist and works as Italian soccer commentator for the English-speaking world covering Serie A, Champions League, Europa League and Italian Cup matches as well as Italy internationals. With Paul Visca, Richard concocts the regular
Calcio & Coffee podcast.