Genoa - The rise of 'The Griffin'

I'm just an young Romanian coach who's hungry for succes. My name is Adrian Mircea, I was born in Dracula's country, Transilvania, and after having a coach course at FIFA I received an offer from "The Griffin", Genoa C.F.C. from Italy. Honestly, I haven't been thinking very much about the offer: I can say that I automatically accepted it, Genoa being the first proffesional club which approached me.

I'm only 27, a considerable number of players are surely older than me but that can't be a problem: I love football as love as they do so I think that I will do my best at Genoa.


My goals are very simple and clear to make known ones: I want my team to play a simple, beautiful and competitive football. Having that kind of play, the results will come. I know that would take time, but what can make me not to wait? As I have already told you, I'm very young.

For my first season here, I want to know my group of players as good as possible and then, we will aim for performance.

Good luck

Justice Thanks, man.

Who doesn't know them? The photo-taking machines, the men able to annoy you in every moment: the press. Arriving in Italia, I had an experience with them and I don't actually know how to call it: a funny one, a nice one or a bad one.

Maybe you will take it as you think after reading it. So, let me tell you about my experience since my arrival in Italy.


After reaching an agreement with Genoa' board, I have decided to leave Romania from Sibiu International, with a flight to Rome and then, with a car to Genoa. But, judging that I could get tired and stressed, I have decided to go to our country's capital, Bucharest, for taking a Genoa flight. At first, I thought that I have an advantage, because I was thinking that the press won't come at Genoa Airport. Bad idea!

Landing with an Alitalia flight at the Cristofor Colombo Airport, some people from Genoa' staff were waiting me with a car. It seemed to be a two or three minutes thing before getting there. Only seemed: about 12 press journalist jumped on me, and, with all my "crew" looking to protect me, they reached what they were aiming: me, the Romanian "star" who is the new Genoa' Head Coach.




"What are your goals, Adrian?"
"How much you expect you will stay here, Adrian?"
"Are you ready for that kind of challenge, Adrian?"

Honestly, I have never heard my name said by that number of persons in that little period of time. My first reaction was something like:

"Ladies, ladies... gentlemen... please, keep an order and ask me slower!"

Then, I had to answer a lot of good... and bad questions.

"What do you feel now, being a pro Head Coach, Adrian?"

"What can I feel? I'm a star for you, an unknown for fans and I'm sure that I'm nothing more than a bet for my chairman. What can I feel, I have to ask you too."

"Do you expect your stay to be a long one?"

"Only God can kno... enough! My results will decide that. Nothing more."

"Any plans for the transfer market?" asked me a lady.

"Beautiful blonde princess, I haven't even met my squad. I haven't even seen my house, and you ask me if I have to replace the TV?"

For my "crew" (I like to call them like that), my responses were enough for that day and they decided to bring me straight to the Genoa' Headquarters. Forced!

Genoa C.F.C. is a big Italian club with a huge tradition, and I told myself that the club history really need to have a "page" in my coach story.


Genoa Football Club, is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria.

During their long history, Genoa have won the Serie A nine times. Genoa's first title came at the inaugural championship in 1898 and their last was in 1923–24. They also won the Coppa Italia once. Historically, Genoa is the fourth most successful Italian club in terms of championships won.

This slew of early successes may lie at the origin of the love professed for the team by the godfather of Italian sports journalists Gianni Brera (1919–1992), who, despite having been born nowhere near Genoa, always declared himself a supporter of the team. Brera went as far as creating the nickname Vecchio Balordo (Old Fool or Cranky Old One) for Genoa.

The club has played its home games at the 36,536 capacity Stadio Luigi Ferraris since 1911. Since 1946, the ground has been shared with local rivals Sampdoria. Genoa has spent most of its post-war history going up and down between Serie A and Serie B, with two brief spells in Serie C.


The club was founded on 7 September 1893 as Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club. In its earliest years, it principally competed in athletics and cricket. Association football was secondly practised. Since the club was set up to represent England abroad, the original shirts worn by the organisation were white, the same colour as the England national team shirt. At first Italians were not permitted to join as it was a British sporting club abroad. Genoa's activities took place in the north-west of the city in the Campasso area, at the Piazza d'Armi.

On 10 April 1897 the footballing section of the club, already existing from 1893, became predominant thanks to James Richardson Spensley. It was among the oldest in Italian football at the time, the only other founded clubs were four in Turin. Italians were allowed to join and found a new ground in the form of Ponte Carrega. The first friendly match took place at home, against a mixed team of Internazionale Torino and FBC Torinese; Genoa lost 1–0. Not long after, Genoa recorded its first victory away against UPS Alessandria winning 2–0. Friendly games also took place against various British sailors such as those from HMS Revenge.


Football in Italy stepped up a level with the creation of the Italian Football Federation and the Italian Football Championship. Genoa competed in the first Italian Championship in 1898 at Velodromo Umberto I in Turin. They defeated Ginnastica Torino 2–1 in their first official game on 8 May, before winning the first championship later that day by beating Internazionale Torino 3–1 after extra time.

Genoa returned for the following season, this time with a few changes; the name of the club was altered to Genoa Cricket & Football Club, dropping the Athletic from its name. A change in shirt colour was also in order, as they changed to white and blue vertical stripes; known in Italy as biancoblu. Genoa won their second title on a one-day tournament which took place on 16 April 1899, by beating Internazionale Torino 3–1 for the second time. On their way to winning their third consecutive title in 1900 and also beat local rivals [Sampierdarenese] 7–0; a winning margin which would not be bettered by any team in the league until 1910. The final was secured with a 3–1 win over FBC Torinese.

The club strip was changed again in 1901, Genoa adopted its famous red-navy halves and therefore became known as the rossoblu; these are the colours used even to this day as many other Italian club do as Cagliari, Bologna and an endless list of minor clubs. After a season of finishing runners-up to Milan Cricket and Football Club, things were back on track in 1902 with their fourth title. Juventus emerged as serious contenders to Genoa's throne from 1903 onwards, when for two seasons in a row Genoa beat the Old Lady in the national final.
Genoa CFC championship winning side of 1904, their sixth league title

Notably Genoa became the first Italian football team to play an international match, when they visited France on 27 April 1903 to play FVC Nice, winning the fixture 3–0. As well as winning the Italian championship in 1904, the year was also notable for Genoa reserves winning the first ever II Categoria league season; a proto-Serie B under the top level. From 1905 onwards when they were runners-up, Genoa lost their foothold on the Italian championship; other clubs such as Juventus, Milan and Pro Vercelli stepped up.

The fall in part during this period can be traced back to 1908 when FIGC agreed to Federal Gymnastics protests forbidding the use of foreign players. Since Genoa's birth they had always had a strong English contingent. They disagreed, as did several other prominent clubs such as Milan, Torino and Firenze; as thus they withdrew from official FIGC competitions that year. The following season the federation reversed the decision and Genoa was rebuilt with players such as Luigi Ferraris and some from Switzerland. The rebuilding of the squad also saw the creation of a new ground in the Marassi area of Genoa, when built it had a capacity of 25,000 and was comparable to British stadiums of the time; it was officially opened on 22 January 1911.


The club was purchased by Calabrese entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli in 1985 and despite no longer having Simoni as manager, Genoa were finishing in the top half of Serie B. After a slip in form during 1987–88 (failing to be promoted by a mere point in 1986–87, then having to struggle not to be retroceded the following season, being spared that fate again by a mere point), Genoa refocused their energy and were able to achieve promotion back into Serie A in 1988–89, finishing as champions ahead of Bari. Genoa, with an experienced trainer as Osvaldo Bagnoli who knew how to make the best out of underdog teams (he managed to win a championship at the helm of Hellas Verona in the eighties) and with a team sporting the talents of Pato Aguilera and Tomáš Skuhravý among others achieved highs during the 1990–91 season where they finished fourth, remaining undefeated at home for the entire campaign, winning games against all the big sides including Juventus, Inter, Milan, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina, Napoli, as well as their local rivals Sampdoria who won the title that season.
Signorini had the No. 6 shirt retired for him.

Subsequently the club gained entry to the UEFA Cup in the 1991–92 season. Genoa had a good run, making it to the semi-finals before getting knocked out by Ajax, the final winners of the competition; notably Genoa did the double over Liverpool in the quarter-finals becoming the first Italian side to beat the reds at Anfield. Unfortunately for Genoa, this success was soon followed by a 'dark age' following the departure of Osvaldo Bagnoli (who chose to move away from Genoa to spend more time with his daughter, whose health was rapidly declining) and the failure of the management to replace key players as they grew old or were ceded to other teams. Noted Genoa players during this period included Gianluca Signorini, Carlos Aguilera, Stefano Eranio, Roberto Onorati and John van 't Schip.
It has to be said that chairman Spinelli had a very different management approach from that of most businessmen turned football team owners. While his colleagues saw football as a marketing and public relation investment and were quite ready to siphon funds out of their main business to keep their teams afloat and replenish their player roster Spinelli saw Genoa as another business whose main aim was that of generating revenue for its owner (namely, himself) and so was more than happy to sell esteemed players for hefty revenues of which just a minimal fraction was then re-invested in the team, often for the acquisition of lesser-valued replacements or virtual unknowns. Thus he proved all-too-eager to sell Uruguayan striker Carlos Aguilera and to replace him with the markedly inferior Kazuyoshi Miura from the Japanese Yomiuri Verdy (a deal that especially pleased him since the Japanese sponsors were actually paying him to let Miura play in Italian Serie A).
The same season as their UEFA Cup run, they finished just one place above the relegation zone; in the seasons following Genoa remained in the lower half of the table.

During the 1994–95 season, Genoa were narrowly relegated; they finished level on points with Padova after the normal season period. This meant a relegation play-out was to be played between the two in Florence. The game was tied 1–1 at full-time and went to a penalty shootout. Genoa eventually lost the shoot-out 5–4. While back down in Serie B, the club had another taste of international cup success when they became the final winners of the Anglo-Italian Cup by beating Port Vale 5–2 with Gennaro Ruotolo scoring a hat-trick. Chairman Spinelli sold Genoa in 1997, moving onto other clubs (Alessandria and, currently Livorno). The late 1990s and early 2000s would be the most trying time in the history of the club, with constantly changing managers, a poor financial situation and little hope of gaining promotion, outside of a decent 6th place finish in 1999–00. From 1997 until 2003, Genoa had a total of three different owners and four different chairmen, before the club was passed on to the toys and games tycoon from Irpinia Enrico Preziosi, already chairman of Como football club he previously owned.


Preziosi took over in 2003, when Genoa should have been relegated to C1 series after a dismal season, but was instead "saved" along with Catania and Salernitana by the football federation's controversial decision to extend Serie B to 24 teams. Things started to look up for Genoa; they won Serie B in 2004–05. However, allegations were raised that the club had fixed a match on the last day of the season between themselves and Venezia. The 3–2 victory in the match saw Genoa win the league, with a draw having been good enough to maintain its position in the end. The Disciplinary Committee of FIGC saw fit to instead place Genoa bottom of the league and relegate them down to Serie C1 on 27 July 2005.

For their season in Serie C1 for 2005–06, Genoa were hit with a six-point penalty from the previous season. After leading for much of the season, they eventually finished as runners-up and were entered into the play-offs, beating Monza 2–1 on aggregate to achieve promotion back into Serie B. During the summer break Gian Piero Gasperini was brought in as the new manager, he helped the club to gain promotion during the 2006–07 season, it was ensured on the last day of the season where they drew a 0–0 with Napoli, both clubs were happily promoted back into Serie A.

The first Serie A championship played by Genoa in 12 years saw it finishing at a respectable tenth place, right after the "big ones" of Italian football. A careful summer market session saw President Preziosi strengthening the core of the team while parting from some players on favourable economical terms (for example selling striker Marco Borriello to Milan for a hefty sum). Genoa's aims for the 2008–09 season were set on a UEFA Cup spot. This was achieved after a strong season which saw the team besting traditional powerhouses like Juventus, Roma, and Milan, and winning both Genoa derbies against Sampdoria, with Diego Milito finishing among the top scorers of the championship. Genoa subsequently lost Milito and midfielder Thiago Motta to Internazionale, but were able to bring in striker Hernán Crespo. They then invested considerable funds (approximately €40 million) in an effort to expand the club's player quality.

Things however didn't go as planned, however, with the injury-plagued team eliminated in the early stages of Europa League and Coppa Italia and reaching a rather disappointing ninth place in Serie A.

The 2010–11 season saw Genoa, whose ranks had been revolutionised once again save for some long-serving players, struggle along in the mid-positions of the league; a slew of questionable results early in the season led President Preziosi to fire trainer Gian Piero Gasperini, who had led the team since the 2007–08 season, and to select Davide Ballardini as his successor. The newcomer, despite not securing memorable successes, kept the team steadily afloat in the "left part" of the ranking, managing to win two consecutive derbys against rivals Sampdoria in December and May.

The 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons saw Genoa place in 17th both times, one spot away from relegation to Serie B football.