When the curtain goes up on the new Serie A season tomorrow night (Saturday (August 21st), are we in for a major anti-climax? After Italy’s brilliant Euro2020 success this summer, will the Italian football world come crashing down to earth with a bitter jolt as it is forced to remind itself that, for all the wonderful achievements of Roberto Mancini’s Italy, the Serie A championship contest has slipped some way down the food chain?
Of course, club football and national team football have little in common. We have all understood that in the globalised world of modern football biz, the leading clubs look more and more like racially integrated, multi-ethnic juggernauts of the Haarlem Globetrotters variety. By this stage everyone (English and non) has worked out that having the world’s best league in town, does not mean that you also have the world’s best international team in town. A 65% ”foreign” (non English) player presence in the Premier explains that one.
Thus after its success this summer - Italy’s first major international football triumph since Inter Milan won the Champions League in the magic year of 2010 - does Italian (club) football now return to the humble pie diet it has eaten for the last decade?
Currently, and with all due respect to the best Italian clubs, it is hard not to predict that they will once again be bulldozed off the road this winter when it comes to crunch time in the final phases of the Champions League. The Premier League, and arguably also the Spanish Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga, for the time being seem simply richer and better organised. Or no?
In that context then, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this season’s Serie A tournament concerns the return of the “Special One”, Portugal’s José Mourinho, the mastermind behind Inter’s 2010 Year of the Treble. As the new coach of AS Roma, can he add some magic to Serie A, something akin to the tremendous buzz and excitement generated by his first Italian coming at Inter (2008-2010)?
Can The Special One Work His Magic With Roma?...
More importantly, can 58 year old Mourinho still work the sort of inspirational magic which saw him win Champions League titles with Porto in 2004 and with Inter in 2010, not to mention three Premier League titles with Chelsea (2005, 2006 and 2015) as well as Spanish and Italian League titles with Real Madrid (2012) and Inter (2010) respectively? Or to use the ever elegant parlance of football, has the Special One still got it?
It is intriguing that the current Roma owner, US billionaire Dan Friedkin, has opted for Mourinho. Friedkin, who bought Roma a year ago for a reported $591 million dollars from fellow American James Pallotta, is estimated to be worth $4.2 billion dollars thanks to his interests in the automobile industry (he has exclusive distribution rights for Toyota in five US states), in the luxury hospitality industry (Auberge Resorts) and in the cinema industry (Imperative Entertainment).
In many ways, Mourinho appears to be vital to the Friedkin plans for the club since he reportedly wanted an international manager with a winning track record, preferably not Italian and preferably a good English speaker. Nor did it do Mourinho’s prospects any harm that his reputation guaranteed an immediate, huge media impact.
Within days of the announcement of Mourinho’s appointment last May, the Roma fans were getting very excited. Pizza dishes were named after him whilst a huge mural in central Rome featured Mourinho on a Vespa, in an image straight out of the 1953 US comedy film, “American Holiday”, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Except that in this mural, of course, Mourinho had an AS Roma scarf around his neck.
When Mourinho first arrived in Rome during EURO2020, thousands of Roma fans forgot about Italy for the afternoon and turned out to greet him at Ciampino airport where he had arrived on Dan Friedkin’s private jet, with Friedkin himself at the controls. In brief, expectation is high and the return of the Special One has not gone unnoticed.
What can we expect? The task is certainly an uphill one given that Roma last season finished in 7th position on 62 points, their worst league showing for nine years. At Roma, Mourinho can call on Italian internationals, midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini, defender Bryan Cristante and recuperating boy wonder, Nicolò Zaniolo, as well as new signings, striker Tammy Abraham (ex-Chelsea), Uzbek striker Eldo Shomurodov (ex-Genoa), Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio (ex-Wolves) and Uruguyan left back, Vina (ex-Palmeiras). Two key players, however, English defender Chris Smalling and EURO2020 hero Leonardo Spinazzola are both currently on the injured list, with Spinazzola likely to be out well into the New Year and with Smalling due to return next month.
For what it is worth, and in deference to all those Premier League colleagues who argue that Mourinho is past it, we would argue that the Special One may well surprise you this season. Certainly, the initial impression made by his Roma on its first official outing, a 2-1 first leg Conference League win against Turkish side Trabzonspor on Thursday of this week, would suggest that Roma are already a better side than the one which limped home into seventh place last season.
We will learn more about Roma on Sunday night when they meet Fiorentina at the Olimpico (watched by an estimated 30,000 fans) in their opening Serie A game. One thing is certain. For all that some non-Italian critics tend to see today’s Serie A as an Elephant’s Graveyard (witness the roles of such as Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic and most recently Giroud), the return of the Special One is very welcome. Then, too, the quality of post-match Serie A press conferences is about to soar.
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Serie A Restarts - Can the Special One Refind His Old Magic At AS Roma ?
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When the curtain goes up on the new Serie A season tomorrow night (Saturday (August 21st), are we in for a major anti-climax? After Italy’s brilliant Euro2020 success this summer, will the Italian football world come crashing down to earth with a bitter jolt as it is forced to remind itself that, for all the wonderful achievements of Roberto Mancini’s Italy, the Serie A championship contest has slipped some way down the food chain?
Of course, club football and national team football have little in common. We have all understood that in the globalised world of modern football biz, the leading clubs look more and more like racially integrated, multi-ethnic juggernauts of the Haarlem Globetrotters variety. By this stage everyone (English and non) has worked out that having the world’s best league in town, does not mean that you also have the world’s best international team in town. A 65% ”foreign” (non English) player presence in the Premier explains that one.
Thus after its success this summer - Italy’s first major international football triumph since Inter Milan won the Champions League in the magic year of 2010 - does Italian (club) football now return to the humble pie diet it has eaten for the last decade?
Currently, and with all due respect to the best Italian clubs, it is hard not to predict that they will once again be bulldozed off the road this winter when it comes to crunch time in the final phases of the Champions League. The Premier League, and arguably also the Spanish Liga, the French Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga, for the time being seem simply richer and better organised. Or no?
In that context then, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this season’s Serie A tournament concerns the return of the “Special One”, Portugal’s José Mourinho, the mastermind behind Inter’s 2010 Year of the Treble. As the new coach of AS Roma, can he add some magic to Serie A, something akin to the tremendous buzz and excitement generated by his first Italian coming at Inter (2008-2010)?
More importantly, can 58 year old Mourinho still work the sort of inspirational magic which saw him win Champions League titles with Porto in 2004 and with Inter in 2010, not to mention three Premier League titles with Chelsea (2005, 2006 and 2015) as well as Spanish and Italian League titles with Real Madrid (2012) and Inter (2010) respectively? Or to use the ever elegant parlance of football, has the Special One still got it?
It is intriguing that the current Roma owner, US billionaire Dan Friedkin, has opted for Mourinho. Friedkin, who bought Roma a year ago for a reported $591 million dollars from fellow American James Pallotta, is estimated to be worth $4.2 billion dollars thanks to his interests in the automobile industry (he has exclusive distribution rights for Toyota in five US states), in the luxury hospitality industry (Auberge Resorts) and in the cinema industry (Imperative Entertainment).
In many ways, Mourinho appears to be vital to the Friedkin plans for the club since he reportedly wanted an international manager with a winning track record, preferably not Italian and preferably a good English speaker. Nor did it do Mourinho’s prospects any harm that his reputation guaranteed an immediate, huge media impact.
Within days of the announcement of Mourinho’s appointment last May, the Roma fans were getting very excited. Pizza dishes were named after him whilst a huge mural in central Rome featured Mourinho on a Vespa, in an image straight out of the 1953 US comedy film, “American Holiday”, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Except that in this mural, of course, Mourinho had an AS Roma scarf around his neck.
When Mourinho first arrived in Rome during EURO2020, thousands of Roma fans forgot about Italy for the afternoon and turned out to greet him at Ciampino airport where he had arrived on Dan Friedkin’s private jet, with Friedkin himself at the controls. In brief, expectation is high and the return of the Special One has not gone unnoticed.
What can we expect? The task is certainly an uphill one given that Roma last season finished in 7th position on 62 points, their worst league showing for nine years. At Roma, Mourinho can call on Italian internationals, midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini, defender Bryan Cristante and recuperating boy wonder, Nicolò Zaniolo, as well as new signings, striker Tammy Abraham (ex-Chelsea), Uzbek striker Eldo Shomurodov (ex-Genoa), Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio (ex-Wolves) and Uruguyan left back, Vina (ex-Palmeiras). Two key players, however, English defender Chris Smalling and EURO2020 hero Leonardo Spinazzola are both currently on the injured list, with Spinazzola likely to be out well into the New Year and with Smalling due to return next month.
For what it is worth, and in deference to all those Premier League colleagues who argue that Mourinho is past it, we would argue that the Special One may well surprise you this season. Certainly, the initial impression made by his Roma on its first official outing, a 2-1 first leg Conference League win against Turkish side Trabzonspor on Thursday of this week, would suggest that Roma are already a better side than the one which limped home into seventh place last season.
We will learn more about Roma on Sunday night when they meet Fiorentina at the Olimpico (watched by an estimated 30,000 fans) in their opening Serie A game. One thing is certain. For all that some non-Italian critics tend to see today’s Serie A as an Elephant’s Graveyard (witness the roles of such as Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic and most recently Giroud), the return of the Special One is very welcome. Then, too, the quality of post-match Serie A press conferences is about to soar.
ends