Someone like Zdenek Zeman could probably never emerge in English football. An abrasive and confrontational yet quietly spoken man, puffing on cigarettes whenever he can, he cuts far too distint a figure to survive in English football’s sycophancy. One of his outbursts would be enough for him to be driven out of a country less…
Serie A reverted back to the nineties last night, with champions Juventus and Vincenzo Montella’s Fiorentina lining up in 3-5-2s to play out a pretty dull game despite the quality of some of the players on show. That the game was fairly uneventful wasn’t much of a surprise: the 3-5-2 doesn’t really lend itself to…
Lost amongst all the transfers this summer, the Milan clubs swapped strikers, which has been the most surprising and well planned by Internazionale. Inter’s 28-year-old Italian striker Giampoalo Pazzini suffered a poor year with the Nerazurri, playing in 33 matches and only notching 5 goals, and was to be one of many players offloaded in…
After his stint with England, Fabio Capello’s reputation has taken a hit that he has never really experienced before, throwing an interesting spin to his new role as Russia manager. Still, he has shown an ability to come back from failure before. In his only other management failure, Capello returned to a decaying Milan side,…
There is a legitimate argument to be made for Adolf Hitler being responsible for one of the greatest sides football has ever seen. Germany never impressed under Nazi rule and they didn’t even have a professional league until 1963 – Hitler paid more attention to the Olympics, using football to his advantage but not to…
The long term readers among you might notice that this isn’t the first time we have discussed Helenio Herrera’s Internazionale side. Seeing as we have already discussed this Inter side’s tactical set-up, there is little need to cover old ground, so we will look at some of the other reasons people believe they achieved greatness.…
On the 18th of May 1994, Fabio Capello became a European champion for the first and only time in his career. Having spent the week listening to the taunts of his opposite number Johan Cruyff over the boring style he employed compared to his predecessor Arrigo Sacchi, Capello’s Milan took the more impressive Barcelona Dream…
Although Napoli have disappointed somewhat this season, it wasn’t unfair to suggest they drew a long straw when they were lined up against relegation battlers Siena in their first ever Coppa Italia semi-final while Juventus and Milan locked horns in the other tie. However, clearly the advantage still wasn’t enough, with Giuseppe Sannino’s men emerging…
This is the first in a 12-part series examining one-by-one the teams I believe to be the twelve greatest club sides in football history. Bear in mind the selection is completely based on my own opinion and picking the twelve greatest sides out of the hundreds and thousands that have played the game down the…
In the opening game of the season, AC Milan and Lazio showcased a problem that has become increasingly noticeable in recent Serie A seasons. Miroslav Klose opened the scoring for Lazio after Stefano Mauri crossed from wide right, then they went two up when Mauri once again swung in a cross from the right for…
