Cesena suffer a difficult second Serie A season
Cesena were one of last season’s most loved upstarts, but after a catastrophic second season in the top flight look almost certain to remain rooted to the bottom of the table and return to the purgatory of Serie B.
The club had not featured in the top flight since the early 90s when they were relegated while under the guidance of a young Marcello Lippi, but following two promotions in three seasons their overflowing and vivacious fans would be unleashed on Serie A once more. Whether it was after their whirlwind defeat of Milan – a club whose wage bill was over 16 times greater – or after Emmanuele Giaccherini’s scuffed, deflected, safety-securing goal against Brescia, lowly Cesena were admired by many in Serie A last season.
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Milan-Juventus: What on Earth have you done now?
Here we are, almost a week after the fact, still scratching our heads and trying to work out what on Earth went wrong during Milan-Juventus. Commenting now is like turning up at half-past seven in the morning to a house party. The whole place smells of vodka, the living room is covered in empty bottles, there is vomit all over the stairs – Estigarribia, probably, he’s only small bless him – the upstairs bathroom door has been smashed in – I’m looking at you Mark Van Bommel – and some poor soul has had their head drawn on with permanent marker – Antonio Conte, eh?
Serie A recoils from its own form of vandalism
Milan versus Juventus was supposed to be a title decider, in February. It would be the game from which the winner would march boldly towards another league title. Instead it was a phoney war, the presenting of arms in the week leading up to it racked up the tension and the shots fired from both sides after the match turned a good game into an irrelevant chain of disgraceful events.
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Trouble at Lazio for Edy Reja and Lotito
“I don’t know how long I can go on for” were the words uttered by Edy Reja just under a year ago upon receiving a hail of abuse from the fans following a 1-1 draw against Cesena, and it wasn’t to be the first or last time that the Lazio boss would threaten to quit the Rome club.
Lazio's brave eagles have had a very confused week
The last week has been beyond farcical in Rome with the coach tendering a resignation before having it thrown back in his face. All is not well at the club and while the relationship between Edy Reja and Claudio Lotito has been super-glued back together, a departure now feels inevitable.
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The problem with Wesley Sneijder
“Inter collapse, now it’s a real crisis” reads the headline in La Repubblica over the match report from the San Siro on Friday night, with Diego Costa beginning the piece saying “Inter are a side who are lost”. Fabrizio Bocca, also La Rep, allowed himself a single word to describe the result, “Amen”. That is to say, that while the current run is shocking it is completely believable and somewhat unsurprising. The root causes of the problems affecting the Milan club are numerous, and well documented elsewhere, but throughout this season and more specifically the recent poor run one aspect of the Inter team has been particularly interesting to follow: the deployment of Wesley Sneijder.
- It’s been a while since the San Siro held a party in black and blue (Image via Flickr)
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Serie A Transfer Window roundup – A winter of bitter discontent
“Now is the winter of our discontent…” the Duke of Gloucester boomed jealously in the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Gloucester spoke enviously toward his King, but for Serie A fans this has been a winter of bitter discontent – a rotten transfer window.
There were plenty of rotten apples among the bargains on the winter market.
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Napoli lack alternative plans, they play like a broken record
Napoli have captured the hearts of fans and neutrals with their performances in Europe this season, but in their domestic games they have conspired to shoot themselves in the foot again and again, and again. In Serie A they have beaten the best but have been beaten the weaker sides as well. So why are Napoli enduring such a mediocre season?
Napoli lack variation in their play (Credit: Flickr, TrueArtCrew)
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As you were in Serie A – the imminent return of the natural order
Serie A is boring, again. Last season saw an end of season run-in where four sides were potential candidates for the Scudetto. Post-World Cup seasons can often throw up surprises, perhaps because players in the top sides will have exaggerated schedules.
Alessandro Del Piero: a reminder of how things were
The league enthralled neutrals worldwide as Napoli, Udinese and Lazio chased Milan all the way to the title. This season, though, we are seeing a return to the normality of the pre-Calciopoli era – at one point Inter even threatened to re-assume the position of perennial losers.
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