[FM08] American Calcio

Friday, February 22
I am getting messages of support from old friends, both in and out of football.

The story about Patty’s accident and the potential criminality involved has hit the football news wires and it’s now spreading across Europe.

That has led to an array of text messages, e-mails and even a few bouquets of wired flowers for Patty from people I know in England, Scotland and the States including representatives of all my old clubs. So when she arrives at my apartment, she’ll have quite a nice assortment of things to look at.

Patty’s release from the hospital was delayed for a day, so I spent my evening watching a player who may soon fit into my plans before heading off to Venice.

Milan Grujic is an 18-year old central midfielder who has conclusively shown that he’s better than youth competition. My u-20 squad is leading its league by ten points and has really put some space between itself and its competition thanks in no small measure to a young midfielder who has dominated the entire league. Balló has had nothing but good things to say about Grujic, who has already declared for Serbia internationally.

I wanted to run the rule over him myself, not having seen the u-20 side play for about a month. He was ‘as advertised’, as our youngsters ran roughshod in a 5-0 rout over Pro Sesto.

So after the match I went to speak with the boy, who is already under contract to us, and caught up with him right as he left the dressing room. I was frankly looking forward to giving him the news I had.

“Milan, it’s time for you to take a step up,” I said. “Starting next week, I want you to begin training with the senior squad. You’ve shown me you deserve the chance.”

His eyes got very big for a moment, and he immediately brought himself back under control – something I really liked.

“I won’t let you down,” he promised.

“Milan, don’t go talking like that,” I said. “I want you to relax about this, and don’t think I have any expectations of you. I want to see how you train with the professionals. I know you are on a contract already and that’s great, but it is time for you to advance your game for a bit through working with the senior squad. We’ll try this for a couple of weeks and evaluate how things are going when it’s done. There is no pressure on you from my point of view and I don’t want you to place any on yourself. Just do the best that you can.”

Watching the dream of a young player unfolding in his eyes provides a great feeling. So much of modern football is veiled in cynicism, so it’s nice to see a young player’s reaction when he’s told he’s moving up for the first time in his career.

He’s obviously delighted but he doesn’t want to put a foot wrong with me. I understand that, but it’s my job to calm down the young player so he doesn’t pressure himself into poor performance or lack of confidence. It’s a big step and obviously the most important one he’ll take to this point in his career.

He’s determined to get it right and I give him full marks for that. I wish more of my senior squad players had such a willingness to get their heads down.


I also got an e-mail from Kate. She was to the point.

Dear Rob:

I wanted to write you to express my sorrow at Patty’s incident. Even Peter is shocked to hear of the sad news.

Please know that we both wish her well. She – and you – are in my prayers.

With love,
Kate

I closed my e-mail.

“With love,” I sighed. “Well, that’s nice.”

Hey, all. Apologies for a long and rather unannounced absence. On 4th February I took a new job and to put it mildly, the pace has been frantic. It involves considerable business travel and time and as a new employee I needed to get my head down and work in order to stay. I'm going to resume where I left off and hope that I didn't offend too many people, especially those who have read my works to this point.

Thank you,
ttl
___

Saturday, February 23
Both our main pursuers in the race will be strongly fancied tomorrow so there’s pressure on us to get a home result against Pro Sesto.

Sassuolo is at home to Ternana and Novara travels to Foggia, a club they are more than capable of beating. Venezia is at home on Monday, playing the last game of Round 24 against Hellas Verona.

With the end of the season in sight, I’m finding the concentration of my players seemingly improving with each passing training session. They are starting to realize there’s all to play for at the moment. Topping the table helps with that, of course, but the players are really focusing now and they’re doing it earlier in the week.

Of course, I have the right to expect that from them every week as professionals, but I think the added concentration I’m seeing is due to their rising self-confidence.

We really haven’t played like a dominant club for much of the season, as our eight draws will attest, but what we have done is learned how not to lose.

When you get points from 22 of 23 matches, you ought to be high in the table and that’s where we are. These players are not the most talented in Serie C1A, and neither are they the most explosive. Yet as of now, they are the top team in our league because they play as a unit.

Tomorrow, playing as a team should get the result against Pro Sesto. We had a quick session of shadow play this morning to fully prepare for what we expect to see from them, which is 4-4-2 with them laying back, inviting us onto them. They like to counter, and they showed us a fair amount of that during our first meeting, that lifeless 1-1 draw back in October.

Not much has changed for them since that match – they were fifteenth when we played them in October and are fourteenth now – and not much changed in their style of play either. The difference was that last time we played them at midweek and this time we’re getting a full week to prepare for them.

We will be ready. The question now is whether the added preparation time will be enough.


I thought on that question tonight when I took Patty home from the hospital. Press photographers were waiting for her departure this evening – which made me quite upset – but they were kept at a reasonable distance.

I did two things to protect us when I headed back to Venice tonight to pick her up. In anticipation of the press showing up, I rented a car, and before I entered the hospital I covered its license plates.

If there is really someone out to get her, or by translation both of us, it seemed a wise thing to do. In her state, she would have had a hard time sitting comfortably in my car anyway.

The photographers were kept at a respectful distance but I could hear their shutters going off as I slowly led her to the car. She managed a smile and even waved once, which surprised me quite a bit.

“I don’t know that I’d give those people the time of day,” I said, but she just smiled at me.

“If it keeps them away from your place, I’ll do what I have to,” she said. She has a savvy with media that I surely don’t have, and truly I’ve been a bit remiss in not asking her advice on certain matters. She does work with the press from time to time herself. Maybe that’s why she worked the Biennale instead of me.

I helped her into the car and moved around to the driver’s side. I backed out of the parking space and soon we were on our way home. As we drove, she shut her eyes tightly when we passed the opposite side of the accident scene, and she reached for my hand, gripping it tightly.

She tensed in her seat as a very bad memory flooded through her mind and my heart went out to her.

“They’ll find the people that did this,” I said, trying to reassure myself even as I tried to comfort Patty.

“I hope so,” she said. “I want to live my life and it has to be here.”

Sunday, February 24
Padova v Pro Sesto – Serie C1A

“Sometimes in football, you have to score goals.” – Thierry Henry

The answer to my question regarding adequate preparation time question is ‘no’, and I’m about ready to tear out my hair because of it.

Again, we didn’t lose – our unbeaten string is now at 22 matches in the league – but our lead was cut in half to two points due to other results. This came in spite of us being by far the dominant force today.

When we played Pro Sesto in October we were tired and listless. Today we were vibrant, creative and excellent in almost every respect, but we ran into a keeper that could stop the common cold. Yet, the end result was the same – we drew our opponents home and away this season.

Their keeper, Mathieu Moreau, made twelve saves from shots on target today as part of a day that saw us take eighteen attempts and hold the visitors to exactly zero shots on the mark. We played very well. We did everything but score.

Here’s the annoying thing – the crowds are picking up at Euganeo and we aren’t doing anything to send them home happy. Today, we drew 5,736 and despite piling on pressure for most of the match we didn’t dent their goal. I am concerned that the fans will stop coming out if we don’t entertain them.

We provided some of the best football we’ve played all season this afternoon, but we were lacking in the finish.

Muzzi was especially guilty of wastefulness, spurning two glorious chances within ten first half minutes. He was put clean through on Moreau first by Baú and then by Caputo. His first effort was parried over the top of the goal by Moreau for a corner and his second missed the target to the keeper’s left.

I tried to encourage the side at halftime but it just didn’t seem to be a day where we were going to score. Dominating the match, I moved us to 4-3-3 at the end playing with three true strikers. Even the introduction of our leading scorer, Varricchio, couldn’t net us a winner.

That surely wasn’t due to lack of effort, but it was very much due to Moreau’s brilliance. He was a deserved man of the match and unquestionably saved the point for his side. By contrast, Orlandoni was not called upon to touch a ball in anger today, earning his easiest clean sheet of the season.

A frustrated group of players congregated in the changing room after the match to listen to my teamtalk. It seems that is getting more and more challenging with each home disappointment we suffer.

“Playing like that will get you the points nine days out of ten,” I assured them. “Unfortunately, this was day ten. I saw good things today; in fact I saw everything except a goal. We can build from this, so I don’t want you to lose heart. We’re still going to take tomorrow away because I don’t consider you to have lost the right to a day off after watching you apply yourselves for ninety minutes today. You were good. They just got a blinder out of their goalkeeper and that stopped you from getting the points you deserved.”

Naturally, the first media question was about Patty, though not directly. “Do you think your preparation was good?” I was asked – and not by Emiliani.

“I think it was fine,” I said. “We played quite well. If they have another goalkeeper in net today, we might win by five or six goals. Moreau was excellent for them and we can’t lose sight of that. I thought we were by far the better side and we were ready to play them.”

“How big a distraction was the accident this week to you and to the players?”

“To me, it was a distraction for the first day, but I have staff and they were able to get us past it,” I said. “After that, I have been taking care of my personal business after training hours and since I spend a fair bit of time watching video at night, I can do that either at the hospital or at home. I think we had a good plan and we applied it. They just got a brilliant goalkeeping performance and that sunk our chances of getting a win.”

“Football is cruel sometimes,” I added. “I wish I could be more original than that, but I really can’t say it any other way. We didn’t get what we deserved today and that’s unfortunate. But that’s the game sometimes.”

“Could you be a little less philosophical and explain what went wrong?” I didn’t need to look up to know who had asked the question.

“We didn’t score a goal,” I said. “How’s that for an explanation?”

“Better than the one you gave,” he answered. “But then I suppose you aren’t really in the mood to talk about it.”

“Could you be a little less philosophical and ask me a question?” I asked.

“All right. Why aren’t you scoring goals?”

“There’s no doubt that we haven’t taken enough chances lately, especially at home, and other teams have packed men behind the ball when they see us taking over play. You do have to earn it in this game and the last couple of matches, especially at home, we didn’t earn it. We should have won today but we couldn’t make the breakthrough. We have to hope it doesn’t cost us.”

Padova 0-0 Pro Sesto


I updated the table in my office after seeing the results of the other matches. Sassuolo had no trouble with Ternana, winning 3-1. Novara found its scoring touch again and overwhelmed Foggia 4-2 away.

We still lead, but now by only two points:

                 P	W	D	L	Pts
Padova	        24	14	9	1	51
Sassuolo	24	14	7	3	49
Novara	        24	14	6	4	48
Venezia	        23	13	5	5	44

Venezia’s home match tomorrow night with Hellas Verona is also important. That’s their match in hand and a win would put then on 47 points with thirty still to play for.

The league has come down to losses at this point, with all three leading teams on 14 wins. We have one loss, Sassuolo has three and Novara has four. That’s the difference between the clubs. It’s going to be a wild finish and right now there is no margin for error.


I walked home from the stadium to relieve a little nervous tension. Emilani’s edge is starting to bother me again so I thought pounding the pavement would be a good thing for me to do.

Arriving home to see Patty resting on the couch took a lot of the angst of the day away. I approached, and bent over her reclining form for a kiss.

“You’re still in first place,” she reminded me. “Don’t forget that.”

“You wouldn’t guess it from the press today,” I said. “We still have to get better.”

“Where are you playing next week?”

“Paganese,” I moaned. “Another trip to Salerno. Not exactly the best time for more miles in the coach.”

“Well, hopefully after that things will work a little better in terms of being closer to home,” she said. “I should be up and around by that time and on the mend. I’m ready for some quiet time with you, Rob. What do you think about that?”

I sat beside her on the couch and softly stroked her hair. “I think that would be great,” I said. “I just need to re-focus a bit. Care to help me with that?”

“C’mere,” she smiled. “I think I can do that for you.”

Again, just reading the last few updates (will read from the start a bit later) you are a fantastic writer and you know exactly how to keep the reader interested.

Scott, that is very kind of you. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of the work!
___

Monday, February 25
With the club taking a rest day, I watched Venezia and Verona play to a goalless draw at Pierluigi Penzo tonight. Due to the events of the last week, I could nearly drive right up to the ground with my eyes closed.

Here’s the thing – it wasn’t a very good game. In fact, it was quite ragged and that tells me something about Venezia. They are now winless in their last four matches and tonight’s draw pulled them to fourth place, within six points of us.

They are going through some of the same struggles we are in terms of scoring goals but they aren’t getting the wins we’ve sometimes gotten in the last six weeks to keep the pace. However, they can say something we can’t – they managed to beat Pro Sesto.

That said, they may have a problem.

I saw a significant amount of frustration on the pitch tonight, most of it wearing the home colors. Marco Veronese, Venezia’s fine forward, was forward in a different way, showing his displeasure at being substituted with ten minutes to play in a goalless match.

He’s one of the top four or five striking talents in our league and to see him coming off really raised my eyebrows.

He had a choice word for manager Paolo Favaretto as he left the pitch and I smiled at the irony of it all. The man who once told the media he didn’t think my team had the strength to last the pace is now finding it hard to keep pace himself.

Veronese went straight up the tunnel to the changing room – a definite no-no everywhere I’ve played and an absolute no-no on my team – which means Favaretto has more problems than just sliding down the table to deal with.

However, speaking from a purely cynical point of view, I hope those problems don’t come to full fruition quite yet. Venezia has drawn Novara in the Serie C Cup quarterfinals at the first of April. I’m hoping that is a high-scoring, physical, emotional, morale-sapping Cup tie.

But then I’m a manager. I’m supposed to think like that about someone else’s club, right?


Not surprisingly, Patty showed absolutely no interest in going to Venice with me tonight. So she stayed home, snug in my apartment, and watched a movie. We kept in regular contact by text message.

I’m still worried about her. She is healing well from the surgery but a little of that spark seems to have gone out of her. I think some of it is down to recovering her strength, but it’s also fair to say that I have worked hard to help her along and I wish she were better emotionally.

That’s going to take some time. The experience had to have been terrifying for her and since the police don’t seem to have much in the way of leads, she’s still uneasy. So she wanted to have me with her in some way.

Tonight, that was by electronic means and I hurried back to Padua from the match to give her an emotional boost.

I returned to a darkened apartment. She had gone to sleep early and I checked on her, sleeping peacefully in my bed.

Moonlight peeked through a crack in the bedroom blinds and a soft beam of light spilled across her face. She turned her head toward it and without waking up rolled in the opposite direction as she began to dream.

Just the hint of a frown creased her lovely brow before a soft smile finally erased it from her face. She took a deep, contented breath and let it out slowly.

She just looked angelic. I leaned over and kissed her cheek while she slept and her smile grew wider. I looked down at her and a soft chill raced up my spine.

“Honey, how can I get you to smile like that during the day?” I whispered. “I wish I knew!”

Hopefully Venezia's problems blossom does not become one which you share, but I'm sure you can see out the rest of the season with ease if they continue to struggle

Venezia is in a funk right now. Sassuolo and Novara are worrying me a bit more at this point in time. But you never know .... do you? :)
___

Tuesday, February 26
We had a new face in training today, as Grujic joined the senior squad for the first time.

He showed up ready to work, and I know from prior conversations that he has a great deal of respect for Muzzi. So when the two of them reached the practice pitch I called them together.

“Roberto, you know Milan Grujic,” I said, and the two shook hands. “Will you please take him under your wing for these first few training sessions?”

Muzzi has never been known as a great teacher anywhere he’s played, but he understands how I want the game to be played. He smiled, happy to accept the veteran’s obligation to a younger player.

“Sure, boss,” he said, and turned to Grujic. “Come on, then. Let’s get to work.”

The two headed off to stretching and the least experienced member of my senior squad spent his morning learning from the most experienced member of my senior squad. That’s how it’s supposed to work and that’s how the torch is passed from one footballing generation to another.


We did a little light work this morning before breaking for video on Paganese. We watched our first match against them in October, which we won 2-0 at Euganeo, and also some bits and pieces of other selected matches.

They have a threat to goal in striker Andrea Cossu. Though we bottled him up effectively at home, we have to watch for him at Marcello Torre on Sunday. With our lead down to two points, a meaningful mistake can drop us off the top of the table.

Again, our concentration was quite good. Our application, on the other hand, wasn’t so good and even though Muzzi is tutoring young Grujic, neither player may wind up in the XI on Sunday. Varricchio is showing signs of returning to his old self in training and he may well get the chance to play instead.

Massimiliano needs to know that even though he’s gone through a dry spell he’s still an important part of the team. Paponi is on a decent run of form even though he didn’t score either last weekend, and my inclination is to have him keep his place.

Daniele is the kind of player who can wreck an opposing team all by himself at this level – but he needs to be involved early on in the match to help that happen. As Sir Alex Ferguson might say, “he’s only young”. I need to harness him – positively – and then turn him loose.

We’re also on a bit of a short schedule this week due to the travel. Due to the distance between Padua and Salerno, we’re traveling Saturday morning and will return during the late hours of Sunday night. As a result, we have three days after today to train instead of the customary four.

Yet at this point in the season that’s not a bad thing. Legs start to get heavy, there’s far less conditioning in the training most days and players start to conserve their energy a bit.

Thankfully, though, we are in a stretch of the fixture list where there aren’t any midweek games. Injured players are starting to come back – even DiVenanzio, who was injured in the first game of my tenure, is at full speed again – and touch wood, we’ll be in good health at a time when we need all hands on deck.

Hopefully Grujic will prove to be a big part of the club's future in years to come!

I like Grujic. Whether he can cut it or not remains to be seen ..
___

Wednesday, February 27
Today was quite a day. Police have made two arrests in Patty’s case and the initial information we’re getting is frankly disturbing.

Two men were taken into custody early this morning after a tip led police to one of the two cars believed to have been involved in forcing Patty’s vehicle off the road. One of the men is 29 years old and from Venice. The other is 31 years old – and he’s from Padua.

I received a call this morning in my office from Inspector Cipriani, who gave me the details.

“Don’t read anything into the localities of the two men,” he said. “Also, we may not be done making arrests at this time. You are asked not to comment to the press about what has happened though it will surely be in the media later today. Remember, this is an active investigation and to comment might compromise it.”

“I understand, Inspector,” I said. “I’m sure Patty will have nothing to say either. Especially since she’s hardly left my apartment over the last few days.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Cipriani replied. “Do you not feel you can leave your home?”

“I think I can, but she’s pretty nervous,” I said. “And today’s news that one of the drivers is from this city isn’t likely to help that.”

“If you like, I will call and reassure her,” the policeman offered. “I am glad we have this person in custody.”

“I am too, Inspector,” I answered. “Thank you for your good work.”

Grujic continues to adjust very well to training. He is rising to the occasion, perhaps out of adrenalin as much as anything else, but he’s showing that he’d like to stick around for awhile.

He shows very good balance, pace, stamina and above all he appears to be quite gifted at passing the ball. While these are all things that are important for a midfielder in my tactic, the central midfielder – which Grujic is – must be able to finish, preferably as a late raider into the opposing team’s penalty area. Milan’s skills in that regard are still limited, though I am hopeful they can be taught.

If he continues to train well, I might just stick him on the end of the bench for the trip to Salerno. Rabito’s play since his winning goal against Cavese hasn’t exactly inspired me, but it’s been better than Gentile’s. So I may choose to make a decision involving one of those two players and introduce some young blood into the mix in return.

I can’t and won’t get too far down on the players, though – we are still playing very good to excellent team defense and that has to count for something. We didn’t let Pro Sesto near our goal for the full ninety minutes on Sunday so before we get criticized for not being a scoring machine I need to make sure people understand this is a two-sided game.

Managing a professional club takes patience. Managing a low-scoring one takes even more patience. Mine is about to be tested, in the high-pressure atmosphere of a promotion chase.

# # # If you’ll pardon the expression, I managed to swerve past the media’s questions after training. They asked about football, which was fine. But when they switched subjects, I clammed up.

“Believe it or not, ‘no comment’ is an acceptable answer to this question,” I finally said. “And I have been asked by the police to keep it that way, so quite frankly your attempts to draw me out are as annoying as they are ineffective.”

“Can you tell us how Patty is doing?” An odd question, since all they cared about until this afternoon was my girlfriend’s news value.

“She’s recovering,” I said. “She’ll be fine and I am happy to report she is facing recovery quite bravely.”

This off-the-pitch action is becoming more and more intriguing!

Justice, the off-pitch activity is just getting started ...
___

Thursday, February 28
After what passes for an Italian winter, the weather is starting to warm up nicely. Today was a harbinger of what we’ll see coming up over the next couple of months.

The temperature rose to 26 degrees Centigrade this afternoon (for the rest of us Yankees, that’s 79 degrees Fahrenheit), which isn’t bad for late February.

I grew up in a cold, snowy climate and I hate winter. Actually, to be absolutely honest about it, I detest winter. As a result, moving to Italy has been the very best thing that could happen to me from that standpoint. I simply don’t like being cold.

Meeting Patty was obviously another great thing about Italy (once we got a few little details ironed out), but while I hope to have her with me wherever I go from now on, I realize I may not always get to work where it’s warm.

She doesn’t seem to mind, though, and today was the day when she finally started to come out of her shell.

When I arrived home from training today, I found her sunning herself on my small deck outside my bedroom window. She wore a summer hat and sunglasses along with a beautiful one-piece pink swimsuit that hugged her shape perfectly.

“Well, look who’s back in the land of the living!” I smiled, advancing to her for a hello kiss.

“I never left,” she answered, as we lingered for a soft, sweet moment. “I just wasn’t feeling up to much.”

“You look tremendous,” I marveled, and a soft blush crept up into her cheeks.

“Wish I could look better,” she said. “But surgery isn’t really good for that, at least not at first.”

“Understandable,” I said. “Did Inspector Cipriani call you today?”

“Yes,” she said. “We had a short talk but a good one. How about you and I head out for dinner tonight?”

I was surprised. “Sure, that’d be fine,” I said. “You just tell me where you want to go and I’ll take care of it.”

“Anyplace public,” she said. “It’s time to stop being afraid.”


So we did. We selected a nice restaurant just out of the downtown area and I drove us to our reservation. It was her first time out of the house since Saturday and at first she looked around hesitatingly.

We entered the restaurant and were shown to our seats. Gingerly, she sat, and I made sure she was comfortable before I sat down opposite her at our little table.

One by one, people started to notice our presence. Finally, a supporter stood and began to applaud.

Others picked up on what was happening and one by one, the room broke into spontaneous applause for Patty. It was a lovely moment and as my sweetheart realized the clapping was for her, she began to blush.

“Raise your hand or something,” I smiled. “Otherwise they’ll never leave us in peace.”

She did a half-turn in her chair, about all she could do given the state of her healing abdomen, and waved with a sheepish smile. The place returned to normal and we were finally able to eat our meal.

That gesture told me something about the real people of Padua. Emiliani has tried to turn them against me at times, and tried to turn me into some sort of know-nothing foreigner in their eyes.

Yet when it mattered most, these people embraced an American woman living in their midst despite her involvement with me, and I thought it was wonderful. They may not yet be sold on the Yankee leading their beloved Biancoscudati, but they seem to like Patty.

I’ll take that tradeoff, thank you very much.

Some rich story writing....26 degrees in February though?!?

Some of the match-time temperatures have been a bit on the goofy side. Maybe El Nino or something ... :P
___

Friday, February 29
It’s going to be a warm one on Sunday. We’re traveling south and the forecast is for the hot weather we enjoyed this week to continue, and we haven’t played in those conditions in some time.

Winter weather may been a small source of our difficulty in front of goal, in fact. Mind you, it’s not like England or Scotland, where the wet cold can cut right to your bones. We’ve still just come through winter, though, and the conditions haven’t been optimal.

I don’t want to make excuses for anyone but sometimes poorish weather can play a factor, especially in windy conditions which can play havoc with a direct passing game. Our known shortcomings in the short passing game can make playing in poor conditions a real concern.

My hope is that traveling south will open things up for us a little bit. We need to score a couple of goals for the sake of our confidence, but even as positive as I have tried to be with these players, we need to put up a big number to soothe the psyches of some of our more offensively gifted players.

The only two players who don’t seem to suffer from this problem are Baú and Caputo. When Paponi is on form he’s probably the most confident player I have, but the steady play of my wings have really been a huge factor in the success we’ve enjoyed so far.

I also have to tender these slightly negative thoughts with the facts. We’re on a 22-match unbeaten run. We have to be doing something right.

We could score more goals if I could buy a top-class attacking midfielder, for example, but that isn’t in the cards. We’ve done very well with what we have.

However, the fact that not losing since September has earned us exactly a two-point advantage in our league with automatic promotion by no means assured tells me I still have cause for concern. The papers aren’t going to let up on me until that promotion is achieved, and the board’s expectations are starting to change as well.

They like winning, which isn’t surprising. Now they’re expecting it, which meant the smile on my face during today’s board meeting was a bit forced at times. It’s Leap Day today, and with tomorrow being a travel day I was asked to meet with the board a day early this time.

They’re still quite pleased with my performance, and that’s good, but the club is still losing money and has now lost about €700,000 this season.

They haven’t told me to cut wages for next season, they haven’t told me to sell before I can buy in the close season – but I do wonder how long this sort of attitude can continue. I’ve been praised for holding the wage bill well under budget while winning matches, but there has to come a time when the other shoe will fall.

That is, unless the crowds continue to pick up, which I’m sure is the board’s hope. We’ve seen a steady rise in paying customers over our last several matches so perhaps the good people of Padua realize there’s hope after all.


I’ve made one decision that will be seen as aggressive. Grujic will not only travel tomorrow, he’s going to make the substitutes’ bench.

That will come at the expense of Music, who has dropped considerably off his form from earlier in the season. He realizes the international door is shut for him now and the result has been an overall dropoff in his performance that I’ve had no choice but to recognize.

I’m bringing three central midfielders on the trip – Rabito will start, Gentile might play, and then there’s Grujic.

Thankfully I get a seven-player bench, which usually includes Cano as the spare keeper, Cotroneo and Donadoni as defenders, and Crovari, as Paz becomes first choice holding midfielder. The remaining places go to either Gentile or Rabito, whichever of my three main strikers isn’t playing and usually Music.

Gentile and Grujic can both play the left side of midfield and both Rabito and Muzzi can play the right, so it’s not as though my bench will be unbalanced. I favor versatile players as a rule and the flexibility I get from that is comforting during some match situations.

The usual XI of Orlandoni, Gotti, Faísca, Sacchetti, Antonazzo, Paz, Baú, Gentile/Rabito, Caputo, Muzzi and Varricchio/Paponi has done well and they now have good understanding. So with ten league games to play, I’ll stand or fall with the men listed above.

They know each other and they know how I want the game played. It is up to them to get the most out of their ability and bring this club success.

Hopefully these selected men will bring glory home!

good luck man!