april 2014michel

3 // What’s eating Gilbert Gress?

7 // Russia - The land of all evil?

15 // Prince and the poor. The great Giuseppe Giannini

21 // Wunderkind from Goodison Park. Ross Barkley

25 // Englishmen in Bari

April 2014

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What’s eating Gilbert Gress?M i c h e l M a g a z i n e p a y s t r i b u t e t o t h e c o n -t r o v e r s i a l r o c k ‘ n ’ r o l l m a n a g e r w h o p u t

t h e g l a m i n t o F r e n c h f o o t b a l l .

JEREMY SMITHWRITTEN BY

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Looking at Gilbert Gress now that age (and French cui-sine) have caught up with him, nursing some middle-age spread and with messy white hair combed over a large bald patch, he looks more like a retired geogra-phy teacher than a former footballer. In fact, Gress was not only a footballer of some repute, but also a rock ‘n’ roll manager who arguably revolutionised league football in France and has vicariously had an influence on Premier League football for the last two decades.

Gress, Swiss-French in nationality but born in Stras-bourg in 1941, was a very good footballer in his own right. Preferring to play in the centre or on the left of midfield, but equally able to fill in up front, the versa-tile player represented clubs in Germany and Switzer-land, for VfB Stuttgart and Neuchâtel Xamax respec-tively, but it was in France that he gained the most success, winning both the Coupe de la Ligue in 1964 and the Coupe de France in 1966 with his hometown Racing Club Strasbourg, and more particularly helping Marseille to the Ligue 1 title in 1970-71 and the Ligue and Coupe double in 1971-72.

His performances earned international call-ups but here was the first sign of Gress’s resistance to toeing the authority line: standing out for Strasbourg, where he was nicknamed l’Ange de la Meinau (the angel of the Meinau – Strasbourg’s home ground), he was strongly tipped to be part of Henri Guérin’s France squad for the 1966 World Cup. However, years before Redondo had the same idea, Gress refused to follow Guérin’s or-der to cut his hair, and as a result was omitted from the squad. Gress did eventually represent les Bleus, but he won only three caps, spread over four years between 1967 and 1971, and they all ended in defeat.

Despite his successful playing career, however, it is as a manager that Gilbert Gress has written his name into French football history. His final two years as a foot-baller, with Neuchâtel Xamax, were in fact spent as a player-coach. There, in the relatively peaceful sur-roundings of the Championnat Suisse, Gress served his apprenticeship, inheriting a team that had finished in ninth place in 1975, and improving to a sixth place and then a fourth place finish in his two year stint.

The call of Strasbourg was too hard to resist and, aged only 35, Gress came home in 1977, to take over as coach for the beginning of the 1977-78 season.

The return of the prodigal ange to La Meinau brought with it glitz and glamour as the larger-than-life Gress rocked up looking more like a member of T-Rex than a football manager, eschewing the standard tracksuit or suit options for wide collars, garish jumpers, big glasses, bigger fur coats and bigger still hair. There was sub-stance beyond the style, though…

Little was expected of the Alsatian club, who had just been promoted back to the top flight, albeit as Divi-sion 2 champions. However, Gress led the club to an impressive third place as Monaco, promoted alongside Strasbourg, went on to win the title. Gress’s achieve-ment was recognised by France Football magazine, which named him Manager of the Year. That first year was, however, only the entrée to what was to follow in the proceeding season.

As the 1978-79 season began, the two fa-vourites for the title were Nantes and Saint-Etienne, who had won 12 of the last 15 titles between them. Gress publicly suggested that he was not hopeful for Strasbourg, say-ing that, in view of their poor pre-season, his aim was only “to win the first match at home to Lyon and not lose the next one”.

Perhaps this was kidology on his part – after all, Strasbourg had gone 11 league games unbeaten at the end of the season – but Gress had quietly assembled a solid, talented group of players. The nucleus of the squad were Alsace natives, either at the beginning or the end of their careers. And, although rumours that Dutch legend Johan Neeskens was to be signed proved to be unfounded, he nevertheless succeeded in strengthening his squad with some shrewd signings, including rugged defender (and another who gained more notoriety as a coach) Raymond Domenech from Lyon, French international midfielder Roger Jouve from Nice and talented playmaker Francis Piasecki from PSG. He also signed a 29-year-old journeyman footballer from a local amateur team, in order to be captain of the reserve team. His name was Arsène Wenger.

Gress got his first wish as Strasbourg won that first match against Lyon, 1-0. He then got his second wish as they didn’t lose the next one, drawing 2-2 with Laval. The next two matches, at home to favourites Nantes and away to reigning champions Monaco, were a lot more daunting. Two wins later, however, and Strasbourg were suddenly being taken a lot more seriously. Strasbourg climbed to the top of the table after a 1-1 draw at Reims in Matchday 5 and, amaz-ingly, remained there for the rest of the sea-son. They didn’t concede their first defeat until a 2-1 loss at the Parc des Princes on 14 November 1978; an astonishing aggregate unbeaten run, including the end of the pre-vious season, of 29 matches.

The fight for the title went to the wire, with Nantes and Saint-Etienne chasing Gress’s men until Matchday 38. But Strasbourg, in the image of their coach, showed coolness under pressure and ran out as comfortable 3-0 winners against Lyon at the Stade Ger-land, prompting wild parties throughout Alsace. The team finished the season with 56 points (at a time of two points for a win); they won 22 of their 36 matches, draw-ing 12 and losing just four; and they had the meanest defence, conceding only 28. Perhaps Strasbourg should have gone on to win the double but, no doubt still nurs-ing hangovers from the post-title parties, the team went down to a shock defeat on away goals, over two legs, to amateur side Auxerre.

The success of the Strasbourg players was well rewarded on the international scene too. Goalkeeper Dominique Dropsy was al-ready a regular in the France squad; right back Jean-Jacques Marx was called up to join his keeper; left back Raymond Dome-nech, who managed to avoid suspensions and play all but three matches, earned a recall after three years away from les Bleus; centre back Léonard Specht received his first call-up, as did the excellent Piasecki. Roger Jouve, already an international, re-tained his place in the France squad. Roland Wagner, scorer of 14 league goals, marked his international debut (in the event his only cap) with a goal. Top-scorer Albert Gem-mrich, who ended the season with 17 league goals, had won his place in the France team under Gress in the previous season, and re-tained his squad position.

The fact that those players made very few appearances for the France squad in subse-quent years arguably says a lot about Gil-bert Gress, and his ability to bring the best out of his players, both as a team and as individuals. He did this with techniques that sound perfectly normal today but were innovative in their time. He prepared the players physically with punishing pre-sea-son – and mid-season – conditioning trips to Germany, of the type that the players re-sented at the time but quickly appreciated once the season started.

As striker Albert Gemmrich observed: “if we are so strong at the end of matches, it is because we went through hell ‘over there’ pre-season – and then again in the winter”.

This physical training allowed Gress to im-plement a 4-3-3 system which promoted the “total football” made famous by the Dutch national team, where every player was expected to contribute to attack and defence: forward players were responsible for exerting a suffocating pressing game when the opposition had the ball, and the defenders were ordered to support their strikers in the opposing half. Even the lim-ited Raymond Domenech was inspired by this, in one match against Lille making a run from his own half, beating half the op-posing team, exchanging a 1-2 and slotting home. Whereas French football at the time was often a lot more direct, Gress encour-aged his players to use the whole of the pitch, to pass the ball around and wait for the opportunity to attack – the forerunner to Spain and Barca’s tiki taka. Gress knew that this would not necessarily be popular, either with the players, the fans or the view-ing public, but he was adamant: “the play-ers were scared that they would be booed for playing like that. But I insisted and we won”.

days of 1979, whilst Gilbert Gress has gone on to become a much-travelled coach. In the proceeding 30 years, he managed nine other clubs across France, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland, as well as a spell as coach of the Swiss national team. He had one prolonged spell at old club Neuchâtel Xamax, with whom he won two Swiss titles. And he returned to Strasbourg for three years in the early 1990s, during which he led them to promotion from Ligue 2 and an eighth place finish (they have not finished higher since), before another fall-ing out with the authorities led to his departure. One more return to Strasbourg followed in 2009, when Gress’s former star-defender Léonard Specht, now club chairman, appointed his ex-mentor. But after rubbing up the wrong way some of the players and many of the board – including the major shareholder – Gress was sacked after two matches and, as a direct result, Specht resigned.

The short episode left Gress feeling very bitter. He wrote a book to defend himself from me-dia criticism (inspired to do so, he said, by the support that he still received from the general public – indeed, Gress remains such a cult figure in the area that there are a few Chuck Norris-style Gilbert Gress Facts sites knocking around). He later remarked: “I told Arsène Wenger recently ‘you’re more intelligent than me, you never came to manage Racing’. He has more important values than money”.

Although he may not have followed him to Strasbourg, Wenger was one of many who clearly did follow his former coach, in terms of the promotion of entertaining passing foot-ball, of looking after all aspects of the players’ ways of life, and of encouraging the playing of the sport with panache, rather than pragmatism.

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Gress also involved himself in the players’ ways of life away from the training ground. He banned alcohol, prepared diets for the players and insisted that they went to bed early. He even befriended local taxi driv-ers, so that news of any players going out on the town would get back to him.

Inevitably for such a strong character, controversy was never far away and, sadly, things quickly soured. Stras-bourg’s new chairman André Bord insisted on purchas-ing Argentine star and Larry David lookalike Carlos Bianchi to replace Bordeaux-bound Gemmrich. Gress was furious about this, as Bianchi was loath to defend and so did not fit into the manager’s team ethic. Al-though the 1979-80 season was relatively successful, as the team finished fifth and reached the European Cup quarter finals, the relationship between Gress and Bord was non-existent and the much-loved coach was sacked in September 1980. The sacking provoked the signing of petitions and even street protests from thou-sands of devastated Strasbourg fans.

Strasbourg have steadily declined since those heady

C h a m p i o n ’ s p a r a d e i n S t r a s b o u r g i n 1 9 7 9 .

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Some years ago people claimed that sports and politics were two separate entities, whose successes and failures had nothing to do with each other. Recently, sup-porters of such a theory have sharply declined. And the main reason for this is the uneasy relationship between two or more countries, often leading to conflict, loss of life and the destruction of everything in a country. In the past, when, for example, the US clashed with Syria or Yugolsavia, football and sports remained unaffected. But the latest political conflict, between Russia and Ukraine, seems to be affecting not only politics and the relationship between these two countries and the whole of Europe, but also sports and football. Why does this spilling of conflict into the world of sport occur, and why it is always Russia which manages to be involved in all the negativity?

Russia is often under the spotlight and has always been enemy number one for many other countries, usually for unfounded reasons based on a past in which Russia took part in many wars, including both World Wars. This has caused prejudice against Russia in many peo-ple’s minds. If, once in a year, a major plane crash oc-curred in Russia, then the mass media would accord it special importance, advancing comments such as “only in Russia...”; no matter that plane crashes occur every now and then and in many countries. Similarly, if a rac-ist incident takes place in a Russian Premier League football match, then again all focus is placed on Russia, not the specific incident.

When similar incidents occur in France, the US or Eng-land, those countries are not portrayed as the root of all evil. For Russia it seems to be the norm nowadays. And Russia’s military conflict with Ukraine over the Crimea region has gone so far that the one and only guilty party in this conflict is reported to be Russia. In reality, it is not as clear as many think.

Most people don’t know the main reasons for this con-flict. Of course, Russia is not perfect – like any other country – BUT... in the case of the Crimea, Ukraine is not an innocent country at all. Crimea and its adjacent territories were united in the Crimean Khanate during the 15th to 18th century, and fell to the Russian Em-pire, as the Taurida Oblast in 1783. The Soviet Crimean Oblast became the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within newly-independent Ukraine in 1991.

The status of Sevastopol, a strategically important port and the peninsula’s largest city, was disputed by the Russian Federation, and only after a lengthy pro-cess was it declared a “city with special status” within Ukraine in a Russian-Ukrainian treaty in 1997. So, Ukraine has owned it, but it also once belonged to Russia. One should therefore think twice before claim-ing that Russia is totally in the wrong. Instead, the issue has snowballed, so that it is now also affecting sports and the upcoming 2014 World Cup, for which Russia has qualified, as well as the 2018 World Cup, which is due to be hosted by Russia.

US ASKS FIFA TO KICK RUSSIA OUT OF WORLD CUP 2014!

In light of Russia’s recent decision to invade Ukraine’s Crimea region, two Republican senators have called for FIFA President Sepp Blatter to exclude Russia from the 2014 World Cup and to change the location of the 2018 World Cup. Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois and Dan Coates of Indiana insisted in a letter to Blatter last week via the Guardian that Russia “doesn’t deserve the honor of either hosting the World Cup or partici-pating in one.”

As precedent, the Senators cited the Yugoslav wars, which consequently banned Yugoslavia from the 1992 European Championships and the 1994 World Cup.

THE LETTER READ, IN PART:

“In light of Russia’s military occupation of sovereign Ukraine, we respectfully ask that you urgently convene an emergency session of FIFA to consider suspending Russia’s membership in FIFA, stripping Russia of the right to host the 2018 World Cup, and denying the Rus-sian national team the right to participate in the up-coming 2014 World Cup in Brazil.”

“Since Russia has similarly displayed a brazen disrespect for fundamental principles of FIFA and international law, I hope you will agree that it does not deserve the honor of either hosting the World Cup or participating in one. We ask that a more deserving World Cup 2018 bid should be re-considered instead.”

On the face of it this is surprising; on the other, this could be seen as an expected move from the United States. It is clear that Russia and the US have histori-cally not had an easy relationship. Both countries are “giants”, who have it all but want more. And although their culture and politics are quite different, they have one thing in common: both Russia and the US want to be the best in the world in all areas. If it is sports, then at the Olympics, for example, they compete against each

RussiaThe land of all evil?

WRITTEN BY ROLANDS JUHNA

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other to win the most medals. If it is a military conflict, then each of them wants to assert their own authority and prove their power. The competition between them appears to be growing. So Russia’s response to the US was not a surprise.

Russia’s response read: “In light of US’s military aggres-sion against several sovereign states such as Yugoslavia with no particular reason; Iraq and Libya -- alleged search chemical weapons; attempt to invade and oc-cupy Syria and numerous cases of human rights viola-tions all over the world revealed by E. Snowden, we respectfully ask that you urgently convene an emer-gency session of FIFA to consider suspending US’s mem-bership in FIFA, and denying the United States team the right to participate in the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil.”

Overall, this situation has become childish and the only “fool” in this situation remains the US. I believe that Western Europe is now having similar thoughts, but would have to admit that they are totally wrong. The Russian football team, just football players, have noth-ing to do with Russian political actions outside of their field. They are just sportsmen, who deserve the right to play in a unique tournament – the World Cup. And what is the US actually trying to say with this? Why do they care so much about the Russian football team and want them to be banned from taking part in the World Cup, especially since it is being held in Brazil, and not North America? Once again, this is an example of a situation when one “giant” wants to use a situation against the other. It just looks comical.

PLATINI ON RUSSIA’S SIDE

This statement from the US caused much agitation all around the football world and many people shared their view. UEFA president Michel Platini was loyal to Russia and expressed, probably, the most logical sen-tence throughout this farce:

“I don’t know why 11 players would not be allowed to play at the World Cup. Where is their responsibility?” he said.

Platini might now be an administrator, but he speaks from personal experience of how politics is never far away from sport. The former France international had a similar decision to make when considering whether to contest the 1978 Argentina World Cup or not. There were calls from various quarters to boycott the finals because of the repressive measures being undertaken by the military junta, which took charge in a coup in March 1976 and would rule until 1983. One of the most infamous periods in Argentina’s history followed, as thousands of individuals -- primarily with left wing leanings -- disappeared during the ‘Dirty War’. As the South American nation prepared to host its only World Cup to date, calls for a potential boycott were led by the Dutch whose team -- perhaps ironically -- would not just attend the event but reach the final as well. Amnesty International was also a prominent cam-paigner as was a group in France called COBA, the French acronym for the ‘Committee for the Boycott of the World Cup in Argentina’, who wanted the compe-tition scrapped altogether. Despite the pressure, Platini -- who was just 20 at the time -- chose to play.

“It’s always better to go and explain what you think is good rather than boycott. I think it’s better to explain that you are not happy, which is the same opinion I

had in 1978 when I was in Argentina for the World Cup. I thought it was better to go and explain that we were not happy with what was happening in Argentina. It could be the same in Russia,” said 58 year old Platini.

PROBLEM NUMBER TWORUSSIA TO LOSE WORLD CUP 2018?

When it was announced that Russia would host the World Cup in 2018, there were only few dissent-ers, who came out with comments such as “is it good idea? How about safety in Russia, how about racism?” Typical phrases, expected from the West but nothing more. Now, after the incident with Ukraine, FIFA is be-ing pressurised from many in the West about the host venue for the 2018 World Cup.

British Labour politician Andy Burnham said that he was not “comfortable” with the idea of Russia host-ing the prestigious tournament after its annexation of Crimea. And the problem appears right here - the EU has extended travel bans on Russian officials and frozen assets. A further 12 individuals – pro-Russian of-ficials in Crimea and prominent supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin – have been added to a list of those prevented from travelling to EU member states, taking the number to 33. After a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, Prime Minister David Cameron said the EU had also agreed to rapidly implement economic, trade and financial restrictions on occupied Crimea.

“WE WILL ONLY ACCEPT CRIMEAN

GOODS IN THE EU IF THEY COME FROM THE UKRAINE AND

NOT RUSSIA” DAVID CAMERON

The US and UK have also threatened wider economic and trade sanctions on Moscow in the event of any fur-ther attempts to “destabilise” Ukraine.

Mr Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said he sup-ported these measures but believed the international community needed to think differently in how they punished Russia for its behaviour.

“We have had the Sochi Winter Olympics. In 2018, we are all supposedly going to the World Cup in Russia. Are we comfortable with that idea? Let’s do something that actually the ordinary Russian on the street will un-derstand. I can’t understand how we can all say ‘that’s fine’. On every level we have to send a different mes-sage. We have to be prepared to take him (President Vladimir Putin) on. It is FIFA’s decision but I think they need to revisit it because you can’t pretend that he is part of the club, strutting the world stage, and then take steps like this which are in fundamental violation of international law.”

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“ T h e W o r l d C u p h a s b e e n v o T e d T o r u s s i a a n d W e a r e g o i n g f o r -W a r d W i T h T h a T W o r k , ” s e p p b l a T T e r

Asked about the issue at a press conference in Brussels, Mr Cameron said it should be “left to the football authorities”. FIFA general secretary Sepp Blatter rejected calls for Russia to be stripped of the tournament.

Obviously, there is no harm in trying. But the World Cup in Russia will go ahead. A different question is how “easy” it will be to get there. If one thinks back to Euro 2012 in Ukraine and Poland, then there was not such a fraught political situation at all, yet we still had to go through concerns over racism, feminist actions and general scepticism from the West. In the end, the tournament was organized very well, everyone was happy and nothing bad happened there. Arguably, it was one of the best Euros of the last few years.

WHAT ACTUALLY IS RUSSIA?

We can go even into ever more deep discussions about Russia as a country and Rus-sians as a nation but one thing is clear for me – Russia is no better or worse than any other country in the world. Some will agree, the majority, but such negative views towards Russia come only from propoganda. Mass media sources have portrayed Rus-sia as the one and only evil place and nation in the world, painting them as very bad, while other countries, especially Western European countries and the US, are only por-trayed in a positive light. But this is hypocritical. If once again we compare these two countries, then why are crimes in Russia reflected as something horrific, with people immediately warned that it is dangerous to travel to Russia, while at the same time a 14 year old child goes into school and shoots dead 30 or more people? Such situations happen often in the US but on each occasion it is reported as an “accident”, while in reality the problem runs much deeper, in all educational system in the US.

Bureaucracy is a real problem in Russia and there is much talk about this on the in-ternet, on television and in newspapers. However, this is just as much of a problem in other countries yet is not reported as much. Why? Once again it is only one country that is criticised: if media sources reported all “dirty” business deals in the US, then it would affect public opinion and the US would lose its status and image. And then it won’t be only “the evil Russia”.

Often we are told how bad the crime problem is in Russia but then we forget that peo-ple get killed, raped, robbed and tortured all around the world and the only difference is how often we hear about it.

Only in Russia do people drink – nowhere else! Even the consumption of alcohol is used as a tool to shame Russia. No matter that, for example, in Finland you might see even more drunk people in any given place than in Russia.

Everything is relative and I don’t want to say that Russia is a good land. It has a lot of negative points and will continue to do so in the future. Politics in Russia is strange and people clearly have a different mentality there. But at the same time it doesn’t mean Russia is a lot worse than other European countries. It is a very large country, so it is only logical that there will be a lot more problems than in, say, the Netherlands. But let’s remember the recent Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Were they bad? Not at all! Did something criminal happen during the games? I believe not! We heard a lot of negativity before the Games, that many were afraid to go there and take their families, but after they ended, there was much positivity. Why do people want to ex-aggerate everything all the time? There is no need for that. Although Russia often ex-periences problems because of its Soviet mentality, recently it has tried and continues to try to become a better country. And World Cup 2018 is another step towards that. With the Olympics, Russia proved that it can host such a major event. Why shouldn’t Russia host the main football tournament as well? Just because right now Russia has a very strained relationship with Ukraine? It is a stupid argument and football must be excluded from all that. I am sure that the World Cup in Russia would be something memorable and even romantic. We all know the atmosphere in Germany or France, Spain or Brazil but we have never felt it in Russia at such an important tournament. Let it be held in Russia and you will have further evidence that Russia is not a land of all evil.

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Prince and the Poorthe great giusePPe giannini

Il ragazzo si fara,anche se ha le spalle strette,

questo o altro anno giochera,con la maglia numero sette.

WRITTEN BY ALESSIO LOGINOV

12 years old boy Nino lived in a poor neighborhood of Rome. As many young boys, he dreamed about the career of profes-sional footballer. Then he came to the local football club for a try-out. His heart was full of fear, but he understood that coach could give him a chance and that’s why he fearlessly broke into the penalty box, closed his eyes and took a shot on goal. Fortu-nately, goalkeeper couldn’t save that shot and since that day, Nino took the jersey with number 7 on it’s back and became a footballer. Later, he also became the main hero of Francesco De Gregori song La leva calcistica della classe’68.

Many years later, the Eternal City enjoys the rise of a new Nino. New legend is born. He’s named as the eighth King of Rome. That’s not a very clever nickname, especially remembering fact that that seventh one - Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was shame-fully exiled by the citizens of Rome. For the chosen fews, fans are giving them a special nicknames. They named Francesco Totti - The Emperor, but his childhood hero Giuseppe Giannini was named - The Prince. Giuseppe got such name because of his elegant manners and grace on the pitch & outside of it. Beppe always was a bit snob.

You will rarely hear the name of Giannini at Curva Sud nowa-days - new generation has a new heroes. Even experts gonna say that Il Principe was just an intermediate link between the titans of second Scudetto - Agostino Di Bartolomei, Bruno Conti, Roberto Pruzzo, Carlo Ancelotti - and the era of Sensi - Totti. In the days of Giannini i Giallorossi couldn’t win any major trophies. Scudetto of 1986 was almost in the pocket, but it was misspent by the team of Erikkson in a match against Lecce. Similar story occured in the final of 1991 UEFA Cup, when they lost to the “German” Inter of Trapattoni. There were three Coppa Italia titles, however it wasn’t enough to impress the fans, even in 80’s. Fans, who appreciate only titles, say: “The Prince was the guy, who captained our team till Abel Balbo came in. We never won anything valuable with him.” Those people will never under-stand that Giuseppe Giannini still remains unmatched.

DISCOVERY OF VICINI

On 29 October 1986, Squadra Azzurra lost to Spain in the pen-alty shoot-out in the final of 1986 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. The Prince made a decisive mistake in this match. Azeglio Vicini was the manager of Italy national team and Italy Under-21 at the same time back then. He was given a task from FIGC to prepare the team for the upcoming 1990 World Cup. That Under-21 squad featured such names, as Wal-ter Zenga, Riccardo Ferri, Paolo Maldini, Nicola Berti, Fernando De Napoli, Stefano Borgonovo, Roberto Mancini, Gianluca Vialli

and Giuseppe Giannini. All these play-ers, except Borgonovo, became the key players for the squad that Vicini had to prepare for the World Cup.

Shortly before the World Cup Italian manager tried the 4-3-1-2 formation, which he used with Under-21 squad. In this formation, key roles were given for a two players - playmaker Giuseppe Giannini and attacking midfielder Rob-erto Baggio. In Under-21 squad role of The Prince was assigned to Gianfranco Matteoli, but Giannini was given the role of trequarti. It was the first time in the history of Italian football, when there happened the splitting of the role of Number 10. Now there were two similar positions with similar tasks. Significance of such new assignment of roles could be compared with the inven-tion of nuclear bomb. Usually, fantasista was always taking the care of the func-tions of regista. Even more, those terms were always identical. When everything changed, regista Giannini was dictating the tempo and directions of the attacks, but fantasista Baggio was responsible for the creation of the goal-scoring op-portunities for the strikers. Beppe initi-ated the attacks in that late phase of attack, but Roberto did everything to bring that idea to the logical outcome - shot on goal.

In the center of midfield, alongside Giannini, there were two agile play-ers surrounding him - Donadoni and De Napoli. Baggio was playing behind the two strikers - Vialli and Carnevale. Unfortunately, in the final stage of the World Cup Vicini preffered the more conservative formation and Baggio was played as the second striker. In re-sult, Italian attack lost it’s versatility. In crucial game against Argentina, Italian manager returned to 4-3-1-2 forma-tion but he left Giannini on the bench and Baggio took his place. Vicini didn’t

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Roma players greetingtheir fans after a another

Serie A match.

took the risk to play regista and trequartista at the same time. He returned to this idea only after the World Cup, but it was already too late, as Italian morale was clearly damaged after finishing just third. Nazionale faced a failure in the qualifiying round of Euro-1992 and Vicini soon left his position.

REFORMS OF SACCHI

Arrigo Sacchi took the place of Vicini. He was the most trendy manager back then. Conqueror of Steaua and Benfica, support-er of the attacking 4-4-2 formation, which totally excluded the role of fantasista. He also could not stand the individualists. Im-mediately after his assignment, some of the players faced prob-lems. Players, like Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Vialli couldn’t find the common language with Sacchi. Others, like Roberto Baggio had to convince Sacchi that team needs them. Giuseppe Giannini became the only player, who was immediately left out of the team. His love affair with national team suddenly ended. Player, who enjoyed his prime and was the leader of national team, never again got a call-up to Coverciano. In the era of Vicini, he was the key player of Azzurri and he started 47 of 49 games in starting line-up. “I’ve never had a conversation with Sacchi,” Giannini said. “It’s sad, because I could play alongside another fantasista - Baggio. Same way as we did in Under-21 squad with Matteoli.”

Some tried to defend Beppe. Aside from Vicini, who defended his student through the press, indignant was Nils Liedholm, who believed that Giannini was the strongest midfielder of the early 90’s. “Sacchi stunned me,” said the Baron. Giannini for-mer coach Luigi Radice also defended his former player. How-ever, all this support didn’t gave any result. It was impossible to change the decision of Sacchi. He insisted that formation is more

important than some individuals. Play-ers shouldn’t become irreplaceable and they all should bring their contribution in defense. Few years later, Italian inno-vator took away the second fantasista from Vicini era - Roberto Baggio. Even despite all the great individual perfor-mance in 1994 World Cup in USA. His al-ternate - Gianfranco Zola was put in the strict frames of seconda punta position. Everything turned the wrong way for Sacchi after Euro-1996. He faced failure in all clubs he went to work later on and soon he retired from coaching because of health issues.

FOLLOWER OF MAZZONE

Nevertheless, there was a man, who was able to continue the work of Azeglio Vicini. Carletto Mazzone was that man. He saw the rise of Giancarlo Antognoni in Fiorentina in the middle of 70’s. Even at that time, Mazzone predicted that there will be a time, when there will be a need to move the playmaker closer to the defensive line. However, it took almost 20 years to bring this idea to life. In the summer of 1993, Mazzone became the head coach of Roma. There he had Giannini, but there was no second relia-ble fantasista available. Francesco Totti was still too young and Mazzone had to

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do his best to keep the future Emperor in the club. Despite the supportive attitude from tifosi, Carletto didn’t stayed with Roma for a long time. Soon he left team together with Giannini. Fans continued to recall that missed penalty in derby even despite the fact, that Beppe just few years ago decided to reject attrac-tive offers from Inter and Juventus. His famous goal against Foggia that helped to avoid the relegation to Serie B was also forgotten.

A year later, Mazzone and Giannini met again in Napoli, but at that time it wasn’t the best place to make experiments with tactics. In the end, career of Giuseppe came to the end in humble Lecce. Mazzone had to wait for a chance for next few years till there came an offer from Brescia. Even Roberto Baggio came to help arrange the move of experienced manager to Brescia. There Carletto found a talented youngster. Af-ter one of the training sessions he said: “Andrea, I need your help. I see that you have a good flair for tactics and you know how to move the proper way. Till this day, you was a trequartista, now I want to ask you to change your position. You will become a playmaker and take a place of regista.” In Brescia, Mazzone managed to revive the dying role with a help of Andrea Pirlo. Together with Baggio, they taught Andrea to take those functions that Giannini took in Rome and in Italian squad under Vicini. Few years later, Francesco Bovaio gonna write: “If Giuseppe Giannini would play nowadays, he would be same as Pirlo.”

Arrigo Sacchi and his companions almost destroyed a very talented generation of Italian football. It’s good that some of his students were smart enough to make decisions by their own. In his early managerial days Carlo Ancelotti expelled Gianfranco Zola from Parma, blocked a move of Roberto Baggio to the same team and he also left Alessandro del Piero on the bench in Juventus. He inherited a same “love” to the fantasista role as his teacher. However, when he decided to bring the ideas of Mazzone to life and move Andrea Pirlo deeper to role of regista, results saw a rapid increase and forever second Carletto finally started to win those titles. Sacchi couldn’t stand even a mentioning of word “trequartista”, but his favorite student decided to use two of them in his formation. Later on Ancelotti admitted that he changed his at-titude against this tactics after case with Baggio: “What a mistake! System can’t be more important than the players.” True words, but it was already too late.

So much effort turned to be useless in 90’s, when Italy had more money than any other European country and all the leading foreign players were playing there. It all could take a great turn, if spectacular football would be a priority! New stadiums could be built, great financial boost could be possible! There would be a lot of young talents, who could get a great experience in England! And today, Cesare Prandelli shouldn’t be desperately looking for a new genius, while looking on players, who can’t even give an accurate pass for longer distance, than 20 meters. Everything turned to be useless and great potential was left unfulfilled. Italian was left without any good future perspectives for a two waves of financial crisis or maybe even forever. Italy was impoverished, giving their place not only to England and Spain, but also for Germany.

Giancarlo Antognoni recently said: “Italian managers don’t like to use trequartista. Many talented players have to switch their position and take the roles of second striker, as Antonio Cassano or move to the wing, as Stephan El-Sharaawy. More courage is needed, because fantasistas are a synonym for a spectacular and exciting football.”

Dream of Azeglio Vicini and Giuseppe Giannini was fulfilled in Italian national team. Last fantasista and regista took a gold medals in 2006 World Cup in Germany. Andrea Pirlo and Francesco Totti did some-thing, that should’ve happened 16 years earlier, when in a fairy nights all country was going crazy under the music of Edoardo Bennato. But it’s impossible to bring back that Italian summer. Everything was ruined by a single shot from the penalty spot in Naples.

Story of The Prince began with a missed penalty against Spain. His team, where he was a leader, lost to Argentina in a penalty shoot-out. Team that he and Baggio could lead to the title, faced the same painful loss in USA. Francesco De Gregori predicted all this. However, he left a hope that once there will be a day, when geniuses, like Giuseppe Giannini will be finally appreciated.

Ma nino non aver paura di sbagliare in un calcio di rigore,non e mica da questi particolari che si giudica un giocatore

Don’t be afraid to miss a penalty, Nino. Footballers aren’t appreciated only for that.

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Ross BaRkleyWundeRkind fRom Goodison PaRk

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NIKITA NIKULIN

WRITTEN BY

„Scouser since childhood – it is Ross Barkley. Young player, who was born in Wavertree, in area which is located in the south-west from Liverpool, in Mer-seyside, went through the whole youth school of „Everton”, getting there at the age of 11. At the age of 16 he made his debut for the team, but during one of the matches for the English youth national team he got triple leg fracture after the collision with his teammate. This injury could force him to forget about future career of a footballer, however, he managed to get through this situation to make others talk loud about him later.

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For two years while working with David Moyes Barkley participated in twice less matches for „Everton” than now with Roberto Martinez. Perhaps current manager of „Manchester United” simply underestimated the talent of young Ross Barkley, who had to prove his abilities in a games for „Shef-field Wednesday” and „Leeds United” in Championship.

Long ago Marouane Fellaini was linked to move to „Red Devils” but when head coach moved to Manchester, it was only a question of time when Marouane will join that team too. „United” wanted to see in their squad another „Everton” leader – defender Leighton Baynes. However, such shamelessness with two main key players getting taken away at the same time people from Liverpool club excluded. After that move „Everton” al-most didn’t feel they have lost one of their leaders. After Roberto Martinez was appointed as a head coach, it was chance for 19 years old Ross Barkley.

And he used this chance fully. Work, while sitting on the bench with David Moyes managing the team – it was not what, probably, one of the most talented players of current national team of England expected. From the first days when Martinez started to work with the club, he underlined Bar-kley’s importance in the squad of „Everton”, saying good words about his abilities and character. Martinez proved his belief not only in words but also in actions, giving him big playing time and letting him play in the position where he likes to play the most – attacking midfielder.

Already in the debut match in the new season Barkley scored a goal against „Norwich”, with phenomenal shot from outside of the penalty box. Getting the ball on his left foot, British guy made hard and precise shot, forcing John Ruddy concede a goal.

Confident play, universal, technique of the ball control, great shot and speed – all these qualities couldn’t leave the head coach of English national team Roy Hodgson uninterested. Often he plans his free time to attend „Everton” matches. In Martinez tactics Ross is a „free player under striker”, „free-lancer”, who is almost unlimited in his actions and movements on the pitch. Similar role he has in English national team too. Sometimes coach sets him play also deeper in his own zone but also there Ross plays like that would be his natural position.

«Ross is just grabbing different challenges week by week. His understanding of the game is developing with every match.

He can take different aspects of variation in his positional play, and we’re delighted with how he’s coming along.

It’s good that Ross can play in two different positions, and we have players in wide positions who can play in three different positions».

Not only Roberto Martinez is impressed by the performance of wunder-kind. Delighted is also guru of all head coaches Arsene Wenger, who admit-ted that from future hope Ross has grown to true talent and player with huge potential.

Ross at the same time is grateful to the current head coach of „Everton”. And it is no surprise that journalists mainly are interested in the dif-ference between Moyes and Martinez, on what Barkley gave an answer:

«Martinez and Moyes both are similar in such way that they like to manage training sessions and be in the centre of attention.

However, Martinez pays more at-tention to tactics. We spend long time on the work of tactics and it is very useful for me, since I am still young and keep learning stuff.

Martinez came here and drove into us confidence. He is very positive person and never talks about some-thing negatively».

Former „Everton” player, Tim Cahill, who now plays for American „New York Red Bull”, was so impressed about Barkley’s performance and behaviour during the trainings that he called him „the most talented player, with whom he could play at the same team in his career”.

Avoid from comparisons with past time heroes didn’t manage Barkley as well. Specialists see him being similar Michael Ballack, who ended his professional career two years ago. Wunder-kind often leaves defenders of the opponent clubs owned, making of them total fools, with his effective movements he lacks balance and confidence of others. Apparently, Jose Mour-inho will try to get this youngster to „Chelsea” already this summer.

But things are not that easy. Other clubs shouldn’t bring hopes to their fans about get-ting English wunderkind. Management of „Everton” let others know long ago that Ross is out of sale and even offer, similar by its price from transfer of Gareth Bale won’t make „Everton” change its mind. Because people in this club realize that such players appear not that often. And also we can’t say that brilliant is done for the 100% and ready to get higher and reach new destinations.

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Men are having a good time in Bari.

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JOHN CHARLES, PAUL GASCOIGNE, TREVOR FRANCIS, PAUL INCE, GRAEME SOUNESS, DAVIDPLATT, IAN RUSH - ALL ARE PART OF A LIST OF HIGH PROFILE BRITISH FOOT-BALLERS WHO HAVE PLAYED IN SERIE A. HOWEVER, IT’S SIMPLE TO SAY THAT THOSE BRITISH PLAY-ERS PRODUCED MIXED RESULTS, AS SOME WERE ABLE TO GET THE JOB DONE, OTHERS WERE VERY POOR AND FAILED TO MAKE THEIR MARK IN ITALY AS THEY WERE SIMPLY NOT SUITED TO THE ITALIAN GAME.

Both moved from Aston Villa for a combined £850,000. While Rideout was just 20-years old when he joined Bari, Cowans was a more established player and had made a name for himself as part of ‘The Claret and Blue’ side that won the league in 1981 and the Euro-pean Cup during the following season. Two season prior to moving to Bari, Cowans had an opportunity to go to Napoli but the deal fell through. They weren’t the first moves from this club to Italy as a former Aston Villa play-er, Gerry Hitchens, had already gone from the Birmingham club to play here for eight sea-sons in the sixties.

A great atmosphere surrounded the newly promoted team. “When we landed at the air-port there were around 5,000 Bari support-ers there. It was absolutely potty. We couldn’t walk through the airport because there were people grabbing us and kissing us. It was a huge shock just how much it meant to them that we were coming to join the club,” Cow-ans told skysports.com.

Moving to Bari in 1985 and playing against some of the toughest footballers made life hard for a couple of young British players try-ing to find their way in the peninsula. It was a different culture, different way of life, differ-ent style of play. It was a much slower, more methodical brand of football.

“We’d spend 30, 40 minutes just warming up before we even kicked a ball,” Rideout told FourFourTwo in 2008.

“This was completely different to English pre-season,” Cowans said to skysports.com, “the first day’s training was different too. We did a Cooper Test which is a 12-minute run where you see how many laps you can run. Paul and I were busting a gut while everyone else jogged around looking relaxed. It was a total-ly different mentality there - they gradually built us up through pre-season, starting with light weights and moving through the gears.”

Disaster struck early for Bari and the duo and as Cowans broke his leg in a cup game during pre-season and didn’t play until October.

The team that the Matarrese family had as-sembled weren’t of Serie A calibre and Bari suffered relegation to Serie B at the end of

this season. Despite a poor season, Cowans and Rideout had their moments, such as Bari winning 2-0 in the derby against Lecce, a game that Rideout once described as more passionate than Scotland’s Old Firm, with Paul scoring the first, or another moment be-ing when the same forward netted twice in a 2-0 win over Roma.

Even though Bari were relegated after just one season, both Gordon Cowans and Paul Rideout remained and spent three seasons with the club from 1985 to 1988 be foremaking a move back to England. They left with good memories, especially Rideout who scored 23 goals during his three season stint.

Curiously, Cowans and Rideout’s departures was not the end of the link between Birming-ham and the southern Italian town as an-other Aston Villa player came toBari in 1991. During that summer, Cowans’ teammate Da-vid Platt became a Bari player at a cost of £5.5m. He only played one season and despite Bari being relegated once again, he earned a move to Juventus following his good year.

But that is another story…

enGlishmen in BaRi

MICHELE TOSSANI

WRITTEN BY

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For every John Charles, the Welsh centre for-ward who became a legend with Juventus after he netted 93 goals in155 matches for the Serie A giants, there is a Denis Law, a star for Scotland that never lived up to the hype af-ter he went from Manchester City to Torino in 1961. Luther Blissett as well adds to the list of failed forays onto the continent. The former Watford striker was partof one of the worst Milan sides of all time, as he was sold by Wat-ford’s owner Elton John and manager Gra-ham Taylor for £1m in 1983 and brought back just one season later, after 30 games and a meagre 5 goals.

Despite these examples, this is a story about two Englishmen who did not adhere to the reputation of the failed British footballer in Italy. Although they weren’t the best players to have played in Serie A, both enjoyed suc-cesses during their spell in Italy and can’t be catalogued alongside Law and Blissett.

Italian football in the ‘80s was the golden land and Serie A was the El Dorado for for-eign players looking for big money and glory. Belpaese were World Champions and Serie A was loaded with the best football-ers of the world. From Michel Platini to Zico, Diego Maradona to Junior, from Karl-Heinz Rumenigge to Zbigniew Boniek - all the best players were in Italy. Serie A was the place to be.

In the summer of 1985, future golden boy An-tonio Cassano was barely walking, while his hometown club, Bari, achieved promotion to Serie A for the first time since the 1969-70 season. While the FIGC decided to reopen the borders and allow one foreign player per squad in 1980, two foreigners were allowed on every team since the 1982/1983 season. Every Serie A side were looking for foreigners and Bari was no exception.

The Matarrese family, who owned the club, went to Britain and acquired midfielder Gor-don Cowans and forward PaulRideout to im-prove the team for the upcoming first division campaign. Several British players like Liam Brady, Graeme Souness and Trevor Francis were playing abroad with good success, so it was understandable why club’s ownership turned to England to pick their foreign rein-forcements.

Both moved from Aston Villa for a combined £850,000. While Rideout was just 20-years old when he joined Bari, Cowans was a more established player and had made a name for himself as part of ‘The Claret and Blue’ side that won the league in 1981 and the Euro-pean Cup during the following season. Two season prior to moving to Bari, Cowans had an opportunity to go to Napoli but the deal fell through. They weren’t the first moves from this club to Italy as a former Aston Villa play-er, Gerry Hitchens, had already gone from the Birmingham club to play here for eight sea-sons in the sixties.

A great atmosphere surrounded the newly promoted team. “When we landed at the air-port there were around 5,000 Bari support-ers there. It was absolutely potty. We couldn’t walk through the airport because there were people grabbing us and kissing us. It was a huge shock just how much it meant to them that we were coming to join the club,” Cow-ans told skysports.com.

Moving to Bari in 1985 and playing against some of the toughest footballers made life hard for a couple of young British players try-ing to find their way in the peninsula. It was a different culture, different way of life, differ-ent style of play. It was a much slower, more methodical brand of football.

“We’d spend 30, 40 minutes just warming up before we even kicked a ball,” Rideout told FourFourTwo in 2008.

“This was completely different to English pre-season,” Cowans said to skysports.com, “the first day’s training was different too. We did a Cooper Test which is a 12-minute run where you see how many laps you can run. Paul and I were busting a gut while everyone else jogged around looking relaxed. It was a total-ly different mentality there - they gradually built us up through pre-season, starting with light weights and moving through the gears.”

Disaster struck early for Bari and the duo and as Cowans broke his leg in a cup game during pre-season and didn’t play until October.

The team that the Matarrese family had as-sembled weren’t of Serie A calibre and Bari suffered relegation to Serie B at the end of

this season. Despite a poor season, Cowans and Rideout had their moments, such as Bari winning 2-0 in the derby against Lecce, a game that Rideout once described as more passionate than Scotland’s Old Firm, with Paul scoring the first, or another moment be-ing when the same forward netted twice in a 2-0 win over Roma.

Even though Bari were relegated after just one season, both Gordon Cowans and Paul Rideout remained and spent three seasons with the club from 1985 to 1988 be foremaking a move back to England. They left with good memories, especially Rideout who scored 23 goals during his three season stint.

Curiously, Cowans and Rideout’s departures was not the end of the link between Birming-ham and the southern Italian town as an-other Aston Villa player came toBari in 1991. During that summer, Cowans’ teammate Da-vid Platt became a Bari player at a cost of £5.5m. He only played one season and despite Bari being relegated once again, he earned a move to Juventus following his good year.

But that is another story…

‘‘WhEn WE LAnDED AT ThE AIRPoRT ThERE WERE ARoUnD 5,000 BARI SUPPoRTERS ThERE. IT WAS ABSoLUTELY PoTTY’’