This past matchday was momentous in the UEFA Champions League. Records were broken across many of the matches and an incredible forty goals were scored. Yet amidst the 7-0 demolishing of BATE Borisov by Shakhtar Donetsk and the destruction of Slovenian champions FC Maribor at the hands of José Mourinho’s Chelsea, one match stood out as the most imposing of the day:
AS Roma 1 – 7 FC Bayern Munich
Let that scoreline sink in. Upon his return to the Stadio Olimpico, Pep Guardiola and his merry men from Bavaria controlled the match from the kickoff, equalling Roma’s worst ever Champions League result – another 7-1 defeat against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United team that ended their season as English champions.
Remember, this is a Roma team that is currently in top domestic form, finishing second last year under Rudi Garcia, and only trailing Serie A champions Juventus by three points. But maybe we shouldn’t be so shocked. Roma’s successes last year came with no European strings attached, and their side is largely untested in European competition, not having been in the competition since the 2010-11 season. To that point, Garcia’s successes both with former club Lille and Roma came in years with only domestic competition on the cards. At Lille – even in the 2011-12 season as reigning French Ligue 1 champions – Garcia’s side finished bottom of their group in both of their seasons in the Champions League. It seems that as soon as Garcia’s teams reach peak domestic form, they are raided for their star players and can no longer compete at a similar level – a fact that became evident upon former defensive rock Medhi Benatia’s return to the Olimpico. It should be said that Garcia said in an interview that his side were “stronger than Juventus” and were going to “win the Scudetto” this year.
But even with this defeat, fans of Serie A were sure that they would have some relief the next day in the form of three-peat Italian champions Juventus’ game in Greece against Olympiakos. Unfortunately, la Vecchia Signora were undone by the Greek champions – just as Atlético Madrid were – with a wonderstrike coming from ex-Fulham flop Pajtim Kasami. While as an interista I can’t help but smile at the dismay of juventini, as a calcio fan, watching Kasami cut apart the supposedly indomitable Juventus backline and whiz past Gigi Buffon into the bottom corner hurt all the same. That strike has put Juventus third in their group, at risk of relegation to the Europa League for a second year in a row. Even head coach Massimiliano Allegri admitted how poor his side were during the match, saying, “We didn’t play well in the opening period. We were stretched and unable to get at them high up the pitch. Technically we were poor.”
Pajtim Kasami’s strike against Juventus put Olympiakos 1-0 up at home in the UEFA Champions League
Remember that this is a year in which Rafa Benitez’s Napoli side were thrust out of the Champions League during the Play-off Round via home and away thumpings by Athletic Bilbao, and are being defeated in the Europa League by such European powerhouses as Swiss side BSC Young Boys. Remember also that this is a season in which three-time European champions Internazionale Milano – this writer’s beloved club – are eighth in the league after eight matches, are fighting to win their Europa League group via nil-nil draws against sides such as French side AS Saint-Étienne, and could only defeat lowly Serie A club Cesena in the league by one goal via a spot kick even though they were a man up for almost half the match.
Nerazzurri wunderkind Mateo Kovačić (center) – pictured here playing against Napoli at the San Siro – is one of Serie A’s brightest young stars. But how long can youngsters like him stay in a stagnating league?
Something is clearly wrong with Italian football. This statement shouldn’t shock people. Writers, players, managers, owners, and fans have long spoken of the maligned Italian league’s problems, which include a lack of money coming into the league, the poor conditions of the stadia around the country, and fan racism against players.
However, while these – among others – are in part responsible for the death of the Italian league structure, calcio – the actual sport itself – is dying for other reasons.
The first has to do with how players are treated in Serie A. Young players in Serie A are, more often than not, simply not given the game time that they deserve. Oftentimes, youngsters are sent on loan to lower leagues in the Italian football pyramid in order to get first team minutes. Of course, this shouldn’t surprise most readers, since this is a fairly commonplace practice among modern football leagues. However, Italy differs simply in the sheer number of young players that are sent from Serie A’s top clubs down to the lower leagues. Inter has 21 players under 24 years old out on loan; Juventus has 34; Milan has 23. It’s unfortunate to say, but likely is fact, that the majority of these players will end up spending their entire careers in the lower leagues or lesser clubs in the Serie A. Serie A clubs are obsessed with bringing in ready-made foreign talent for instant results, and because of that, homegrown Italian players and foreign players that have grown up in the Italian youth system have little chance of ever making it to the big time. One needs only to look at Inter’s recent ditching of youth prospect Marco Benassi in favor of the established Gary Medel and Yann M’Vila as an example of this.
Paul Pogba (right) has lit up Serie A champions Juventus as well as the France National Team since his move from Manchester United in 2012, and was voted Europe’s Golden Boy for the best young player in 2013.
While many players go out on loan, some are trapped in a system of co-ownerships, a system that the FIGC – the Italian Football Federation – recently decided would come to an end in order to bring the country in line with the rest of UEFA. Players that are owned between clubs have almost no control over their destiny, and can sometimes be caught in the crossfire between their two shared employers, as Italy forward Ciro Immobile – now of Borussia Dortmund – was during his transfer saga from Juventus and Torino this past summer.
Legendary Roma captain Francesco Totti (38, left) with new signing Juan Manuel Iturbe (21, right) after the latter scored against Juventus earlier this season. Iturbe cost Roma €22 million, and is lucky that his skill affords him a place over more experienced footballers.
There is also the dichotomy between these young players and their older counterparts. Serie A is often known as a league in which one becomes a legend, staying at a single club for 10 or 15 seasons (or more). With players able to extend their careers until late into their thirties, many young players have almost no chance of being able to break into the first team. Young players are left scraping for chances to impress their managers, while older club legends are etched permanently into the teamsheet by both the manager and the fans.
Finally, there seems to be a fear among Italian players to leave their home country. As such, they fight each other for spots within the larger clubs in Serie A alongside talented foreigners, forcing slightly less talented players, or players who might be able to reach that legend level above, to find a place at a Serie B or Serie C side. Looking to Italians outside of Italy, only twelve Italian footballers play in the English Premier League, German Bundesliga, and Spanish La Liga. None play in the French Ligue 1. By contrast, 36 Argentines play in the Serie A alone. Without going abroad, Italian players often stagnate in their skills, whereas they could go abroad to develop themselves as footballers.
Former Juventus (now Italy) coach Andrea Conte (left) and former Napoli (now Inter) coach Walter Mazzarri (right) are famed for the disciplined and obedient sides that they created at their clubs.
The second failure of the league has to do with managers and expectations. The ‘mister’ – as he’s called in Italy – is the captain of the ship. He commands ultimate respect from every single one of his players, and his word is law. One needs only to look at legendary Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti, currently of Real Madrid, to see this. Likewise, Portuguese manager José Mourinho ruled with an iron fist during his time at Inter Milan, forcing players to conform to his ideals. Both Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli and Andrea Conte’s Juventus sides were tactically rigid and disciplined to follow their manager’s instructions at all times (it didn’t hurt that those ideals were winning silverware, of course).
AC Milan manager and former striker Pippo Inzaghi (right) dismissed bad apple Mario Balotelli and replaced him with Jeremy Ménez and Fernando Torres, players trying to get their careers back on track after troubled stints at their former clubs.
When managers in Italy see a problem child within their ranks – a rogue element who could disrupt their team’s adherence to the Mister’s tactics – they are quick to discard them. One need only to look at Pippo Inzaghi’s discarding of ex-Milan talisman Mario Balotelli this past summer or at Walter Mazzarri’s rough dismissal of former-Italy ace Antonio Cassano back in the summer of 2013. While the talents of these players are unquestioned, their ‘bad-boy’ personas earned them one-way tickets to other clubs whose managers would have to deal with their antics.
Unfortunately, when managers fail to instill this sort of rigid discipline in their players, the axe falls quickly. Woe be to the manager whose players reject his ideas. Italian football clubs are notoriously quick to pull the trigger on their managers. Former AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf was dismissed as manager after only a half season in charge thanks to an 8th place finish that was arguably not his fault (Milan were 13th in the league when he took over in January). Without the proper players, his philosophies were not able to take hold. Under former owner Massimo Moratti, Inter Milan went through 18 different managers, with only two being successful in their quests for any type of silverware (Roberto Mancini and José Mourinho). Even at a lower level, clubs go through the same thing – the famous example being Sicilian club Palermo, who have gone through 24 different managers since 2002, including a three-time stint for Francesco Guidolin and two-time stints for Stefano Colantuono, Gian Piero Gasparini, and Delio Rossi. For an effective comparison, in that same time period, Chelsea FC only went through 10 managers, with a double dose of the Special One. Without a guarantee of long-term support, managers have to hope that their players catch on to their tactics quickly, since managers are on the chopping block from day one of their time in charge. This lack of long-term support from clubs for their managers and players is the third reason that Italian football is dying.
Former Inter and current Udinese coach Andrea Stramaccioni effectively saved Inter’s 2011-12 season, before leading the club to a dismal 9th place finish the following year. Many managers in Italy would have killed for the ‘security’ of the 15 months Strama was given before being dismissed.
The FIGC and clubs in Italy need to work quickly to rectify some of these systemic problems that plague their country. While clubs work to build their own new stadia and to fight racism within the ranks of their Ultras, they need to know that they are themselves part of the problem. Without a clear long-term vision for developing Italian talent over the next decade and a decision to try and shake up club structures (see Germany over the last decade), Italian football will continue its slow and painful death, following the path trodden by the Portuguese, Scottish, and Dutch football leagues. Serie A fans, players, and managers need to push for change, but they need to know that this change will not come without a long-term plan, and perhaps a period of lying low on the European circuit. If fans and clubs lower their expectations for silverware in order to focus on club and league restructuring for awhile, perhaps a new Italian renaissance could be on its way.
Power Forward 