Serie Aaaaargh!… : Napoli, Palermo

Italian players lay out their demands as strike threat looms

Richard Whittle — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:24:00 GMT

“Right lads – down tools, we're all out.”

You know the world has gone crazy when footballers are threatening strike action. This Saturday and Sunday, full-backs will join fantasistas around the flaming oil drums on the picket-lines to protest at the “slave-like” conditions they're forced to work under.

Of course, not all players earn multi-million-Euro contracts like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who will have to forgo his €320,000-odd weekly wage packet if the union make good on a walk-out. The average top-flight weekly salary might be "only" €5,300 but the average office worker has to make do with less than €250 a week.

How one contract rebel made his point

However, the current agreement between the footballers’ association and the clubs has expired and now the players are filled with revolutionary zeal, just when they may need to toe the line for once. How many times has a player basically broken his contract to ensure a move to another club or sat around earning vast sums of money for doing nothing because he refuses to accept a transfer?

Both parties are to blame for the situation we find ourselves in now – the clubs have been handing out massive and lengthy contracts to players in their late twenties and expecting them to be at the peak of their powers in their early thirties or even later.

AC Milan are prime example. The players who avenged the 2005 Champions League final defeat by beating Liverpool two years later were rewarded with four-year deals – meaning that at the pinnacle of their careers, the whole squad was set up for life.

There was only one direction they were heading after that and Milan were saddled with the likes of Marek Jankulovski, Nelson Dida, Massimo Oddo and Kakha Kaladze – who simply didn't deserve the star status bestowed on them.

Milan attempted to get some value out of having Oddo hanging around by extending the full-back’s contract for another season but spreading the final payment over 24 months.
However, Jankulovski refused to budge and will no doubt literally sit out his final season before becoming a wealthy free agent at 33.

With this in mind, what concerns the players’ union is the proposal that will allow clubs to terminate the final year of a contract and pay the player 50 percent of what he was due if he refuses accept a move to another club of equal standing.

Tellingly, Oddo was the shop-steward at the press conference to warn the country that their national sport was heading the way of the public transport system – brought to a standstill on a regular basis by industrial action.

“We are not objects,” he bleated as he sat there in his designer shirt, sporting perfectly manicured sideburns and looking all for the world like the perfect object of footballing desire. Clarence Seedorf, Javier Zanetti and Rino Gattuso nodded gravely in agreement while the rest of the working world shook its head in disbelief.

Oddo, Seedorf, Zanetti and Gattuso: model professionals

Let’s face it, any current player who has been in the top flight for the last four or five years should be able to survive until the end of the century on their earnings, investments, luxury villas, cars and other trappings of material wealth. Even those players not given star billing can have few gripes about earning a very good living from playing football. Considering football is all about results and success, if you are good enough you will generally reap the rewards from the game.

There are a number of other issues. Clubs want to decide where a player has treatment for an injury and not the player. Under that arrangement it would be difficult to imagine Alessandro Nesta spending 18 months in Miami receiving treatment on a back injury. And the union has demanded that coaches must work with one group of players in training – ensuring that those no longer in their plans or in dispute with the club cannot be exiled to train with the youth team, or all alone.

There is no doubt now that the party is over but these issues can no doubt be solved through dialogue rather than threats of bringing the national game to a halt. Silvio Berlusconi would not have been taken too kindly with the stance taken by his Milan militants, especially in the light of the team’s defeat to the proletariat – newly-promoted Cesena, whose annual wage bill is less than Ibra’s basic annual pay.

FEATURE, 9 Sep 2010: Milan lead the way as wage bills revealed

However, only the under-fire prime minister could still profess solidarity for his hard-put-upon stars in the most political manner by claiming that the match referee’s political leanings were to the left.

Maybe he should have been questioning his own team's work ethic. But then, Inter aside, it wasn't a profit-making weekend for the top flight’s fat cats: Milan were humbled by Cesena, AS Roma thrashed at Cagliari and Juventus held by Sampdoria. On top of that, Palermo lost at Brescia while Fiorentina went down to Lecce and Napoli drew at home to Bari.

Chievo won at Genoa to leave the table-topping Flying Donkeys as the only team on maximum points. Power to footballer’s true workers, and long may it continue.

Preview: AC Milan look to reassert derby dominance over Inter

Richard Whittle — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT

FIXTURES Sat 13 Nov Fiorentina v Cesena, Juventus v AS Roma Sun 14 Nov Lazio v Napoli, Bari v Parma, Bologna v Brescia, Cagliari v Genoa, Palermo v Catania, Sampdoria v Chievo Verona, Udinese v Lecce, Inter Milan v AC Milan

With the derby coming up this weekend, going top of the table for the first time in two years couldn't have come at a more timely moment for AC Milan.

The Rossoneri swept past Palermo in the midweek round, despite having to put up with the ever-so-fragile Alexandre Pato limping off again: just what is going on at the much-vaunted Milan Lab that they can't keep the Brazilian on the pitch for more than 20 minutes at a time?

NEWS: Milan go top

And just when Filippo Inzaghi was feeling on top of the world, damaging knee ligaments means the end of the veteran’s season – and possibly his career at the club, unless Adriano Galliani takes pity on him.

NEWS: Inzaghi to miss rest of season

Anyway, things could be worse: they could be Inter, who for once come into the Derby della Madonnina needing all the help they can from the Virgin Mary.

During Jose Mourinho’s time in charge there was only one team in town as the Nerazzurri lorded over their old rivals on three consecutive occasions – indeed, Milan haven't even scored in the last two encounters.

Those were the days when Inter fans strutted around with the air of mini-Mourinhos, checking their look in shop windows and generally feeling smug with life. Now that exuberance, that top-of-the-heap numero-uno aplomb seems lacking, replaced by something else.

Like the onset of winter, there is a chilling acknowledgement that the wildest, craziest affair they ever had will most likely never be repeated – never again will they hit the heights of ecstasy as they did not once but thrice in one season.

Just one tiny thrill would probably do before everyone hunkers down for another long Milanese winter – and if it doesn’t come on Sunday then it’s going to have to be the Club World Cup.

Rafa Benitez isn’t exactly titillating locals who are missing that bit of devilment - that wild, reckless streak Jose brought to every occasion and especially derby encounters.

After a draw at Lecce as pale as Wesley Sneijder with anaemia, all the Spaniard could muster was that his team were unlucky and that he expected more from his players.

January joy as Inter celebrate a derby win last season

Across town Massimiliano Allegri – in need of another haircut a mere two weeks after getting a neat back-and-sides – has been doing little to get the pulse racing either, claiming that the derby will not be decisive in determining the outcome of the title race.

Well, so what? Inter are there for the taking: at this stage of the campaign last season, they were top with eight points more and had scored double the amount of goals. Now even Napoli have overtaken them.

Of course, it matters little if the coaches fail to ratchet up a bit of tension in the manner Mou and Leonardo did last season and even Carlo Ancelotti before that. A derby is most often remembered by what the players do when they take centre stage.

It will be interesting to see how both sides react to what on paper seems a bit of a role-reversal where Milan are the mean and moody bullies, as witnessed by the way likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Rino Gattuso and Mathieu Flamini have been snarling their way through games of late.

Inter seem almost retiring in comparison, even if they still have few tasty competitors in the side such as Douglas Maicon, Lucio and Ivan Cordoba.

However, beware the wounded beast, as they say and the club’s medical staff are confident that Esteban Cambiasso will be fit to start while a few days' rest will hopefully have brought a bit of colour back to Sneijder’s cheeks.

One man who knows what it takes to win a Milan derby, having appeared in 56 of them, is Paolo Maldini. He believes that his old club won't have a better opportunity that this to put one over their cousins and strike a psychological blow by opening up a six-point gap.

The legendary defender is of the opinion that Milan are well equipped to win the league title, more so than progressing to the latter stages of the Champions League, so now is the time to seize the moment.

For their part Inter will feel that this is the ideal occasion to get their season up and running again – which could yet make for an stirring evening of strong passions at the San Siro.

Still no clues as to who will go fourth and conquer in Serie A

Richard Whittle — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:09:00 GMT

The Easter weekend fixtures only reinforced the realisation that the title race will go down to the wire this season.

It was as you were for Inter, AS Roma and AC Milan, with all three picking up maximum points but it is the chase for fourth place where the jitters are really setting in.

Inter’s continued progress in the Champions League should ensure that Serie A still has a fourth representative for another season when the competition gets underway with the preliminary round in August.

And four teams have a realistic chance of taking fourth spot – Palermo, Sampdoria, Napoli and believe or not Juventus while Fiorentina and Genoa are outside hopes.

However, it seems that none of the pretenders can actually grab the opportunity to open up a gap heading into the last six rounds.

Palermo looked odds-on favourites to pull away from the pack a couple of weeks ago but lost the Sicilian derby to Catania, in what was their worst performance since the Valentine’s Day massacre at Roma.

On Saturday evening, a desire to play from the back was punished by their eager hosts who took advantage of shoddy, dawdling on the ball to enable Maxi Lopez to nip in for two quick-fire goals.

Quick-draw McLopez celebrates v Palermo

However, Palermo’s remaining away games are more than winnable – at Cagliari, Siena and Atalanta - with the latter two probably already doomed to relegation when those encounters come around.

Delio Rossi’s side can draw encouragement from their excellent home form; they have not lost at the Barbera Stadium so far and have only failed to win there once since the turn of the year – drawing with Inter.

Pivotal to the final push will be Fabrizio Miccoli: the diminutive striker was quiet for once at the weekend but the Romario of Salento is undisputed king-pin of the side.

His seven goals in the last three weeks demonstrate he can be the little man for the big occasion. Up in Genoa another mercurial showman could also have a major say in the European outcome.

Indiscipline, erratic form and general sloth seemed to have put an end to Antonio Cassano’s season, but the errant striker has found himself back in demand thanks in part to injury to Nicola Pozzi.

The gamble has paid off with the Bari Bawler now the Bari Buddha - such has been his on-field calmness that he has now become the decisive factor in why Samp are equal with Palermo on 51 points.

Napoli have also had a brief flirtation with fourth but after drawing at Milan and downing Juventus, the Partenopei have been off-song in the last two games despite picking up a narrow win over Catania and a draw at Lazio.

Cassano didn't wash his hands after eating his Wotsits

Once again, however, there can be few real complaints in terms of the fixtures ahead, with the likes of Parma, Bari and Chievo coming up – and Walter Mazzarri’s hopes may come down to the final game at his old club Sampdoria.

By that time Juventus may not even be in the running for a Europa League spot and it would be too easily taking a cheap shot at the Old Lady but really she needs a complete makeover from top to bottom.

The humiliation at Udinese at the weekend was another public insult to their long-suffering followers just when they thought that the team could not find new depths in which to plummet.

Despite all the shortcomings, Juve are still just three points off the pace for fourth but then again the vacant looks that accompanied the performance at Udine the question has to be asked, is there any life left in the team?

Things are so bad that they are even unrecognisable from Ciro Ferrara’s tame time in charge – and not in a positive way either.

Alberto Zaccheroni cannot even inspire the substitutes to warm up anymore as he tinkers with formations and systems to make even the more ardent Claudio Ranieri detractor long for last season.

In the meantime, the club have taken a vow of silence until further notice which is fine because no one was making any sense anyway.

The run-in does not give much hope of a late revival: of the bottom nine teams Juve have only beaten Bologna and Atalanta in the second half of the season.

With that in mind, they will probably have to take something from trips to their two trips to the San Siro over the next month, which would be something worth talking about.

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