Serie Aaaaargh!… : Sampdoria

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.

Del Piero celebrates as Cassano sulks

Richard Whittle — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:09:00 GMT

Alessandro Del Piero trotted off the San Siro pitch on Saturday evening a very happy and contented man.

There were five minutes remaining when he was substituted; having given Juventus a 2-0 lead at AC Milan, the little forward had all but finished his work for the evening.

You would have expected the Bianconeri faithful in the stands to rise to hail their captain – but clusters of home fans were also ready to applaud a vintage display from the veteran star. Not only vintage, but record-breaking: Del Piero’s goal took him past Giampiero Boniperti’s 178 Serie A mark for the Old Lady.

A job well done and time to flop into the comfy seats on the bench, or soothe those ageing bones in the bath? Not with a vital win tantalisingly within reach – and there he was alongside Luigi Delneri cajoling his team-mates to see out the game.

That moment more than anything sums up Del Piero’s undiminished love for the game and he obviously appreciates doing something he enjoys – especially when it produces special nights like Saturday.

At the final whistle he was back on to the pitch to celebrate with his team-mates who had held on for a 2-1 victory and in turn receive their plaudits for the part he had played in propelling Juve into the title race.

There's still a mental and physical toughness about Del Piero and an instinct for the half-chance that ensured he followed play all the way into the Milan penalty area after Momo Sissoko had made a right hash of his own.

When the midfielder regained possession, Ale was lurking and with no backlift dispatched the ball into the back of the net without a second thought.

Del Piero will be 36 next week and he joked before kick-off at the weekend that it could be his last appearance at the San Siro. With more and more players continuing well into their late thirties, he may have second thoughts about calling time on his career at end of the season.

The club seem to be working out a contract package which would see the player move upstairs to the boardroom – although that may come after a hiatus in the MLS.

Del Piero seems to have come through that mid-life crisis where every substitution or omission from the starting XI was taken as a personal slight and in the closing years of his career each minute on the pitch is now taken has a gift.

There is still unfinished business – a 200-goal landmark to reach, maybe one last Italy cap, a new Juve stadium to grace and of course playing in the Champions League where the rest of Europe took him to their collective hearts.

Already this season there have been standing ovations in Dublin and Manchester where Juve played in the Europa League but you just know that leading the team he joined in 1993 back into the premier competition still holds a special place in his heart.

In an age of big egos, it's Del Piero’s craving for success at the basic football level that makes him stand out. You could say that Alex has the perfect life – which is something the weekend’s other headline-grabber, Antonio Cassano, is a long way from.

By all reports, Italian football’s tortured soul insulted just about everyone associated with Sampdoria after refusing to attending a club awards evening.

President Riccardo Garrone got an earful of abuse, as did a few team-mates, followed by the usual round of slamming doors before he stomped off home.

The new domesticated Fanantonio claimed he just wanted to be with his pregnant wife: the club demanded a written apology and when none was forthcoming they basically sacked him. So much for player power.

However, the Football League must sanction any termination of a player’s contract and they are likely to oppose such a measure.

A chastened Cassano claimed he called Garrone to apologise, but get ready for a public kiss and make up followed by Samp selling their sulky star in the January transfer window for 20million Euro.

There will be no problem finding a taker but maybe at times Cassano must wish he could just find a way to play football and live his life in the perfect manner of Del Piero.

NEWS: Del Piero breaks remaining Juventus record

Serie A-ren't we terrible...?

Richard Whittle — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:47:00 GMT

It was another hellish week for Italian clubs on the continent - one which makes you wonder if there's any point battling all season to qualify for Europe only to then embarrass yourself at nearly every turn.

Not many will remember but Serie A teams once possessed determination and energy; now they are becoming better known for being weak-willed and lifeless.

The tactical masters can still play the perfect game in their heads, but have no answer to quick movement on and off the ball.

Even the usually dependable Inter almost allowed Spurs back into a game they were leading by a street, only to be nearly overtaken by the speedy Gareth Bale and the help of the befuddled Julio Cesar – sorry, where else is a left-footed player going to put the ball when he is speeding into the area on his stronger foot?

The far post of course, and it was more like the last post for Javier Zanetti, Lucio and Ivan Cordoba who must have seen the sun setting on their careers as they laboured behind a player over a decade younger.

Never mind. Serie A is full of old men dithering around the pitch every weekend only because the game in Italy is played at a pace in keeping with a summer’s afternoon in Sicily.

Like their ageing AC Milan counterparts across town, who had no answer to Real Madrid's direct approach, they are driving the Italian game forward at the speed of an OAP on a country road.

The cycle of such players is almost over but really it cannot come quickly enough, with the greying generation nearly on their push-bikes.

While the Champions League representatives may be labouring under pedal power, the Europa League is a dumping ground for the clapped out in the extreme.

Juventus were fortunate to grab a draw at Salzburg and remain without a group win so far, while Napoli played the tradition of Liverpool rather than the reality of the once mighty Reds - and of course the home fans kept the Italian game in the medieval age of stabbings and mob rule.

Sampdoria were shamed by ten-man Metalist Kharkiv and Palermo also had no answer to the rise of the East when they crashed 3-0 at home to CSKA Moscow who could also afford to miss a penalty.

Even the previously divine Javier Pastore has fallen into Italian petulance when the chips are down, and was duly sent off for applauding the referee having already been booked.

Inter may be champions of Europe but we cannot blind ourselves to the fact that there was a special reason for that. Italian clubs have been stumbling for a long time and are now fall guys not only for the traditional heavyweights but welterweights as well.

Apart from the Nerazzurri, there is a real danger of having no representatives in the knockout stages of either the Champions League or its lesser second-cousin the Europa League. This may dilute both competitions when they reach the more watchable rounds, but there can be no complaints if Serie A gets left behind.

If we cast our minds back into the mists of time, to 2003, Old Trafford was the venue for an all-Italian Champions League final. But drawing conclusions from this week there is little chance of Wembley Stadium repeating that feat. Dublin too need not worry about an invasion of dark shades and hair gel.

Mihajlovic suddenly cuddly as Dunga awaits

Richard Whittle — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:42:00 GMT

Sinisa Mihajlovic isn't one to go down without a fight, but even he must feel that fluffy Fiorentina need a cuddle rather than a slap round the back of the head.

Cesare Prandelli's humanistic approach is ingrained into the club's psyche and the big, brash Serbian has never come across as someone who is likely to put an arm around a player's shoulders – unless it was to grab him in a headlock.

He arrived at a club that was already feeling a little fragile after a season that had promised so much: they topped their Champions League group ahead of Lyon and Liverpool and came within a whisker of knocking the eventual finalists Bayern Munich out of the competition.

Ultimately, however, it all ended up as flat as a piadina and the domestic form suffered: since January, only 28 league points have been collected.

Adrian Mutu's suspension for lax dietary control and Stevan Jovetic's season-ending injury left the team shorn of two classy performers even before the new campaign had begun, but more than anything it was the departure of the saintly Prandelli that took away the team's heart.

Mihajlovic's idea of lifting the players is a denouncement that midfielder Adem Ljajic eats too much chocolate, spends his spare time playing too many video games and should get his hair cut - and after the home defeat to Palermo before the international break, describing the team as "weak-willed."

The shrinking violets clung to the wall once again, appropriately kitted out in all yellow, in Genoa. There they crumbled to allow Sampdoria back into the game in the last 10 minutes, conceding two goals in a blink of an eye to go down 2-1.

The result saw the Viola sink to bottom of the pile. The last time they were down in the basement was back at the start of the 2006-07 season, and that was only because they were docked 19 points on the back of the Calciopoli judgements.

Just one win in the opening seven games would leave any Serie A coach fearing for his future. Mihajlovic being Mihajlovic, he was as aggressive as ever going into Sunday’s game, claiming he's not one to resign and that he expected the players to turn things around.

They may do that but it could be with Dunga at the helm: the former club midfielder and Brazil coach was recently spotted chowing down with Fiorentina's sporting director Pantaleo Corvino in a fine eatery.

Even if they were discussing the merits of Tuscan cuisine, to be seen with an out-of-work coach could only have sent out one message to the players: this ordeal will be over soon.

The players have never gained an appetite for Mihajlovic's puritanical tactical approach, where possession is something you do to clear the ball as far up the pitch as possible. It may have worked at Catania but the Florentines are used to something a little more cultured.

Fear has replaced flair so it was no wonder some of the players were in tears after the final whistle yesterday as they walked down the tunnel to face an inquisition on another lacklustre finale.

Alberto Gilardino, Alberto Santana and the candy-loving Ljajic may have provided the soft touch that gave Fiorentina the lead, but Mihajlovic would say the hard edge is missing, with injuries to Gaetano D'Agostino, Cristiano Zanetti and Mario Bolatti.

Juan Vargas and Ljajic both limped off with those old niggles that seem to crop up in players when their confidence is shot to pieces, but at least the boss was not putting the boot in for once when he faced the media in the post-game press conference.

In fact he seemed to have an overriding urge to come across all new-age man as opposed to his default mode of stone-age man – talking about confidence building and how the whole team had to put the distress of the day behind them and look forward.

Expect then a group hug at training sessions from now on, but will the new sensitive Mihajlovic be enough for this Fiorentina side to overcome their insecurities? Do feel free to find your inner self and discuss the issue over an herbal tea.

Party over as players threaten to strike

Richard Whittle — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:51:00 GMT

"Right lads, down tools we are all out."

You know the world has gone crazy when footballers are threatening strike action.

September 25th and 26th have been earmarked as the dates when Italian football comes to a standstill as the country’s players take to the picket-lines to protest at the ìslave-likeî conditions they are forced to work under.

Of course, not all players earn multi-million Euro contracts such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic who will have to forgo his €320,000-odd weekly wage packet if the union make good on a walk out.

However, the average salary is still around €23,000 a month in the top flight so on the surface there seems little to protest about – unlike the average office worker who has to make do with less than a €1000 a month.

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 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 contracts over four years to players in their late 20s and expecting them to be at the peak of their powers in their early or some cases mid-30s.

AC Milan are prime example, having awarded the players who "revenged" the 2005 Champions League defeat to Liverpool two years later with four-year deals which meant that the whole squad was set up for life at the pinnacle of their careers.

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 you could never say deserved 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 give an employer the right to terminate the final year of a contract and pay the player 50 per cent of what he was due if he refuses accept a move to another club of equal standing.

Tellingly, 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 - was Oddo.

Massimo money mo' problems...or something

'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, Rino Gattuso and Javier Zanetti nodded gravely in agreement while the rest of the non-football playing work shook its head in disbelief.

Even those players who do not warrant star billing have little to complain about: earning a very good living from playing football – and isn’t football all about results and success so if you are good enough you will generally reap the rewards from the game.

There are a number of other issues on the table, so to speak: clubs want to decide where a player has treatment for an injury and not the player. So now we know why Alessandro Nesta spent 18 months in Miami receiving treatment on a back injury.

There is another good one: the union has demanded that coaches must work with one group of players in training thus 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.

Maybe he should have been questioning his own team work ethic and apart from Inter, it was not a profit-making weekend for the top flight’s fat cats: Milan 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 Flying Donkeys as the only team on maximum points and top of the table – power then to footballer’s true workers and long may it continue.

More from Serie Aaaaargh!

Italy News * Stats
FFT.com Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact Twitter * Facebook * Forum

Inter prepare to board managerial merry-go-round, thanks to the Deserting One

Richard Whittle — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:57:00 GMT

Not only did he skip the celebrations back in Milan, he failed to even board the team coach outside the Bernabeu stadium - preferring to jump into his new sugar daddy’s car to whizz off into the Spanish sunset.

The spurned Massimo Moratti certainly felt he had been letdown and much of the shine had been taken off the club’s defining moment, with the future of his soon-to-be former coach grabbing the headlines.

Like any divorce involving the obscenely rich, it usually comes down to splitting the filthy lucre – and in this case it was a €16 million settlement at the centre of the final split.

However, even if Inter did wring €8 million out of the Deserting One, the former object of Nerazzurri affection still walked away without a second glance.

Moratti knows that Florentino Perez will be back sniffing around for Douglas Maicon, so expect a few extra million euros on the price tag and of course Real can forget about the €3 million that it is still owed on Wesley Sneijder

And now Inter have to join the summer merry-go-round to install a new coach.

While the majority of them are quite happy where they are, it is a fact of life for an Italian coach that the summer will be spent house-hunting and getting to know a new club.

Over half of the Serie A misters will be on the move over the next month or so as presidents up and down the country look for instant success.

While Inter have been linked with Fabio Capello (the firm fan favourite), Carlos Dunga, Luciano Spalletti and Luiz Felipe Scolari, Serie A rivals Juventus have already signed up Luigi Del Neri – a man who seems permanently stuck in fast-forward mode, so quickly does he speak.

Taking Sampdoria to fourth place was an achievement in itself but doing the same with the ailing Old Lady will just not do, so Del Boy has his work cut out - especially as the team needs a complete overall. Then there’s the small matter of keeping Juve’s other Del Boy happy too...

Samp have gone for another middle-of-the-road manager in Domenico Di Carlo, while AC Milan are edging towards Massimiliano Allegri only because Silvio Berlusconi cannot spare the time from his duties of running the country into the ground.

AS Roma will retain Claudio Ranieri, but he cannot be overjoyed that the famed fan of life’s simpler pleasures, Adriano (yes, that one), will be hitting the spa town that is known as Rome.

Fiorentina have lost Cesare Prandelli to the greater cause that is the Italy national team and the candidate list for his replacement is as long as the weekend traffic jam coming off the motorway outside Florence.

However Sinisa Mihajlovic will probably already have a Viola scarf around his neck by the time you read this, having resigned from Catania in the mistaken belief that Moratti would take him back.

Francesco Guidolin and Pasquale Marino only need to swap notes after swapping clubs with the former heading to Udinese as the latter gets ready to speed down the motorway to Parma.

Plenty more kilometres will be eaten up as too many coaches chase too few jobs but all eyes will be on that very special job – the real tasty one at Inter.

More from Serie Aaaaargh!

Italy: News * Stats
FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forum

Balotelli could learn a thing or two from maturing Cassano

Richard Whittle — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:46:00 GMT

Wearing a hoodie and jeans, Mario Balotelli looked little different from the group of huddled youths gathered outside Inter’s Appiano Gentile training ground.

The only difference, apart from the lean and imposing frame, was the fact that he leapt into a sports car, which would not have been out of place in a Batman movie, and scattered the civvies to the four winds as he swept through the exit.

Welcome to another day in the hum-drum life of Italy’s newest bad-boy who only last Tuesday threw his shirt on the San Siro pitch not in celebration but in disgust before stomping off to the dressing room – this after his side had just downed Barcelona.

Inter owner Massimo Moratti called the act of petulance “public suicide” although the teenager’s reaction to a few well-placed boos and whistles could have led to an act of homicide if reports of Marco Materazzi’s forceful manhandling of the youngster are to be believed.

Balotelli has been in the limelight ever since breaking into the first team under Roberto Mancini at the age of 17 and controversy has never been far away from someone who has just about alienated everyone apart from AC Milan supporters, in equal measure.

However, the forced excuses for donning a Milan shirt – the team he supported as a child – and for flinging away the shirt of the club that pays his wages have a hollow ring now.

“Clear off, Balotelli” was the spray-painted-greeting on the fence of the training ground on Friday, which the club have yet to remove.

Jose Mourinho could have easily scrawled the ‘advice’ and most of the senior players would not miss him so in an attempt to calm any discord in the dressing room Massimo Moratti was forced to sit the seriously-flawed upstart down to impart a few home truths.

The upshot was that the surly teen would be better off watching Saturday’s game even further away from the pitch than his usual perch on the substitutes’ bench.

There is no doubt that all the lectures and moralising from above will fall on a deaf ear if the youngster feels an outsider.

There was certainly that idea of soap opera villain surrounding the cocksure young fella as he drifted off to his home town to watch Brescia in Serie B whilst his team-mates went about the routine business of defeating Atalanta in the more salubrious surroundings of the San Siro.

And all the grins and waves to a few selected friends at the Rigamonti stadium could not hide the fact that he will be a side-show in Inter’s main event come Wednesday just as he was against Chelsea.

However, Balotelli certainly has a long way to go to out-sin the original case of arrested development: Antonio Cassano

The Bari Bawler has gone from prodigious talent to massive irritant to comic purveyor of third-person one-liners such as “only puppets play for Italy and Cassano is no puppet.”

An outsized ego has overshadowed what he has actually achieved in the game: a destructive streak scuppered a stellar career at AS Roma, sweet talking a move to Real Madrid only led to a cake binge and most recently there has been the massively delusional belief that he would ever play in this summer’s World Cup.

For all his cockiness and strutting, at 27 he has never really turned it on against the top sides since returning to Italy – until Sunday evening that was.

As it is with those of volatile nature, redemption can usually be found in more benign surroundings and so it has proved for Cassano at Sampdoria where in the less challenging environment anything he does stands out.

And this proved to be the case when he provided the perfect outlet along with the equally-impressive Giampaolo Pazzini for his hard-working team-mates against his old club Roma - and in doing so all but ended the Giallorossi’s title hopes.

Fit and focused and with the ball at his feet, he stood up to some hefty challenges without a word of complain before delivering the killer cross from the left for Pazzini’s close-range header to cancel out Francesco Totti’s opener.

His endeavours ended in him cramping up but even off the pitch he had a say in the outcome as Claudio Ranieri sacrificed right-back Marco Cassetti for Luca Toni thus leaving a gaping hole from which substitute Daniele Mannini could sweep in a cross for Pazzini’s winner.

The heartfelt hug for Totti at the final whistle (above) demonstrated Cassano’s new-found maturity. It has been a long time arriving so let’s hope it doesn’t take Balotelli a decade or so to grow up.

More from Serie Aaaaargh!

Italy: News * Stats
FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forum

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.

More from Serie Aaaaargh!

Italy: News * Stats
FFT.com: Features * News * Interviews * Home
Interact: Twitter * Facebook * Forum