Parma Football Club

[red]

Outright.

[taz]

Parma have signed Lazio striker Sergio Floccari on loan with a view to a permanent move.

The 29-year-old, who has played for nine clubs during his career, joined Lazio initially on loan from Genoa in 2010 before completing a permanent move to Biancocelesti later that year.

However, the Rome club have now agreed to let the striker move on again, this time to Parma for an initial loan fee of €1.5million.

A fee of €5.5million has been agreed should the Stadio Ennio Tardini outfit wish to make the deal permanent.

[RomaShield27]

Abramovich is a fan of Giovinco, claims agent
October 26, 2011 – www.espn.co.uk

Sebastian Giovinco's agent has claimed Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is an admirer of the Parma midfielder. Giovinco, 24, has been in excellent form for Parma this season, scoring five Serie A goals in six starts to help keep the club above the relegation places.

It has been suggested Chelsea are keen on the Italy international, who is co-owned by Parma and Italian table-toppers Juventus, and his representative has firmed up the speculation.

Andrea D'Amico told Sportal.it: "It is no secret Roman Abramovich likes Sebastian Giovinco. The Chelsea boss was impressed by Sebastian in 2008-09 when he faced the Blues in the Champions League with Juventus.

"Also, if Villas-Boas really loves the technical qualities of the player, it means he is a football connoisseur. But at this moment, the market is closed and agents cannot be contacted."

[forzaitalia]

Abramovich is a fan of Giovinco, claims agent
October 26, 2011 – http://www.espn.co.uk

"It is no secret Roman Abramovich likes Sebastian Giovinco. The Chelsea boss was impressed by Sebastian in 2008-09 when he faced the Blues in the Champions League with Juventus.

I remember that - he was indeed awesome when he came on then.

[RomaShield27]

Hopefully nothing comes of it, though. Would be sad to see one of the most exciting young Italian players leave Serie A, especially for there.

[forzaitalia]

Hopefully nothing comes of it, though. Would be sad to see one of the most exciting young Italian players leave Serie A, especially for there.

It would, and also he'd probably only be on the bench at Chelsea a lot of the time. Then he'd be be back to the same problem he had at Juventus - lack of game time.

[RomaShield27]

Can ‘The Don’ bring back Parma’s glory days?

Backpagefootball.com / MARCH 21ST, 2012 / BY JACK SARGEANT

In the mid-nineties Serie A had reached its zenith, as those who used to enjoy Channel 4′s Football Italia with a follicled James Richardson will testify. Provincial outfit Parma and AC Milan’s Roberto Donadoni had too reached new heights, with both involved in the hunt for the Scudetto. Some fifteen years later in a coincidental twist of fate, the two have come together at the Ennio Tardini, albeit in rather different circumstances.

The likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon and, of course, Gianfranco Zola, have become synonymous with a time of great success at Parma. It was the glory days in which they wore their famously exotic yellow and blue hoops, and were frequently challenging for both domestic and continental titles.

Unfortunately they never won the Scudetto, coming closest in 1997 when they finished second. But, Coppa Italia successes combined with numerous titles abroad, including the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup lessened the disappointment in the most triumphant period in the Emilia–Romagna club’s history.

But, Parma came down from this fairytale high with an enormous bump. The collapse of the club’s parent company Parmalat in 2003 left the Gialloblù in dire straights. The dairy corporation had a hole of €14 billion in its accounts in what remains Europe’s biggest bankruptcy. The club were forced into reforming under the name Parma Football Club in 2004 (from Parma Associazione Calcio), and remained in financial trouble until 2007 when businessman Tommaso Ghirardi bought the club.

Surviving relegation narrowly in his first season at the helm, they were powerless to resist the drop a season later. But, they bounced straight back, and with an estimated investment of €30m from Ghirardi since taking charge, there’s now stability and a cause for optimism for the Emiliani.

This season didn’t begin very well, with Franco Colomba – who safely guided the outfit to a safe mid-table position last season – being sacked after a winless streak of six matches culminated in a 5-0 defeat to Inter. The incoming coach was Roberto Donadoni, formerly coach of Italy, Napoli and Cagliari amongst others. Fans and pundits alike were sceptical, given the lack of success in his managerial career to date.

But, a switch to a three-man defence initially yielded some excellent results, with Parma’s star player Sebastian Giovinco giving ‘The Don’ his seal of approval. “Donadoni wants more attacking football, as before we perhaps sat back and waited for our opponents a bit too much,” the midfielder said.

They’ve lost just thrice since Donadoni took charge, and although they sit in 17th position, their performances have been worthy of a side much higher up the table. They put in superb displays against Napoli and Milan amongst others in recent weeks, and yet came out of both of those games on the losing side.

“I’m not worried, in fact I am confident,” director Pietro Leonardi insists. With Lecce having fallen from touching distance of safety and Novara and Cesena all but in Serie B, there’s no cause for alarm. Not least with the squad that Parma have at their disposal, which is certainly good enough to avoid the drop.

Antonio Mirante has made as many saves in Serie A this season as former Parma stopper Gianluigi Buffon, and has cemented himself as one of Serie A’s most reliable keepers. The Inter loanee Jonathan has slipped in to Donadoni’s system as a wing-back with relative ease, whilst former Italian international Cristian Zaccardo strengthens the defensive line.

Despite this, it’s when Parma are attacking that they are at their best. Former French U21 and Inter winger Jonathan Biabiany is on loan from Serie B outfit Sampdoria, and has proved to be one of the revelations of the season. His pace is his main asset as a true winger, with only Sebastian Giovinco having created more goals this campaign.

That brings us nicely on to easily the most exciting character in the Parma squad; the ‘atomic ant’ Giovinco. The quick-footed 25-year-old will almost certainly be on the plane to the Euros in the summer, and may yet end up playing his football at Juventus next season. He was born in Turin, and made 32 appearances for the Bianconero until departing for the Tardini on loan in 2010.

The Crociati exercised the rights in the deal to buy half of the playmaker at the end of said season, and neither the team, nor Giovinco have looked back. He’s notched an impressive 17 goals in the two seasons he’s spent at Parma, with his stock rising considerably over this period.

There’s been much speculation about why Giovinco has seemed happier at Parma than Juve, with some suggesting he’d rather be a big fish in a small pond – or perhaps more fittingly, a big ant in a small colony. But, he’s simply suggested he wasn’t invited to be part of the Juventus project, and is now happy playing regular football.

Despite this, he’s teasing the media by refusing to deny a move ahead of next season. “I do not know yet where I will play in the future. Juventus? Anything can happen in football. I open all the doors,” he commented. Juve coach Antonio Conte is understood to be a keen admirer of the diminutive attacker, and has said: “Giovinco is a Parma player. I admire him, but as an opponent. I only speak about my players.”

The Parma supporters will no doubt be desperate for Giovinco to stay, in the hope that one day he too will join the illustrious list of club legends of the last provincial side to seriously challenge for a Scudetto. While a repeat looks a long way off, if they can build on the form they’ve showed under the tutelage of ‘The Don’ with some shrewd summer signings, they’ll slowly but surely eke their way up the table. Who knows, maybe the glory days of the nineties may one day repeat themselves for two of Italy’s most famous footballing institutions.

[DavidP]

sick gol by giovinco today

[forzaitalia]

They're in awesome form, Parma. Gio is amazing.

[RomaShield27]

Wow just seen that goal, quality. He's on some form at the moment alright.

'Club focus' article here:

http://forzaitalianfootball.com/2012/05 ... um=twitter

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Parma move offers Cassano another chance to reinvent himself

By Eurosport | Pitchside Europe – 1 hour 7 minutes ago / http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/pit ... 51029.html


A 13-year-old kid stands on a football pitch posing for a photograph. He looks a little awkward. Other boys around him are dressed in the full kit of Parma too. ‘Hurry up,’ his body language appears to say. Photos for the family album are so uncool. And yet, a trace of pride is discernible on his face.

You could understand why the person holding the camera wanted to capture this moment. The kid in the picture is Antonio Cassano and he has just finished a trial at Parma. That white shirt with the yellow and blue sleeves is his to keep if he so pleases. The academy’s director Fabrizio Larini has offered him a place within it.

All Parma need is for Cassano’s mother to give her consent and sign off on it. Alas, she refuses. Parma is seven hours away from Bari by car, too far from their home. The thought of being separated from her son is one Mrs Cassano can’t bear. And so little Antonio enters the youth ranks at Bari instead.

Eighteen years later the boy returns to Parma a man. Make that manchild. Three thousand supporters gathered at the Ennio Tardini to welcome Cassano and see him presented with the club’s shirt. He is to wear the No.99: the number of problems Jay-Z rapped about on The Black Album. Parma will be hoping that Cassano ain’t one. Wishful thinking, perhaps.

The scenes at the Tardini were reminiscent of when the club’s former owners, the Tanzi family, unveiled Hristo Stoichkov on more or less the same day in 1995. Signed from Barcelona, he had won the Ballon d’Or only the previous year.

That he flopped really didn’t matter. Getting Stoichkov reflected Parma’s newfound status. In the five years after earning promotion to Serie A for the first time in their history, they had won the Coppa Italia, the Cup Winners’ Cup, European Super Cup and UEFA Cup. From a provincial side, they’d become a powerhouse capable of attracting the best players in the world.

An end to that came in the winter of 2003 when Parmalat, the food conglomerate founded by the Tanzi family, collapsed with a 14bn euro hole in its accounts. It was the biggest corporate fraud in Europe’s history and Parma were almost dragged down with it. For some time they were in real financial trouble.

Stability returned when Tommaso Ghirardi bought the club six years ago. True, Parma dropped into Serie B for a year but they bounced straight back and are a comfortable midtable club run on a modest basis with aspirations of getting back into Europe. To do so, Ghirardi has made no secret over the last couple of years of his wish to sign a big name.

First, he got in touch with his friend Pippo Inzaghi to see if he fancied playing for Parma again. Then when it emerged that Juventus wouldn’t be renewing Alessandro The Waterboy’s contract he reached out to him too. Both said: ‘No.’ Ghirardi wasn’t deterred and as Parma prepared to celebrate their centenary this season he became more determined than ever to give the club and its fans “a gift” to mark the occasion.

That gift is Cassano. “We’ve tried to do something extraordinary,” Ghirardi said, “something special.... It’s of great pride to us. A star has chosen to come to Parma. It means that we have worked well these last few years, that we are credible.”

After the transfers of Carlos Tevez to Juventus and Mario Gomez to Fiorentina, this one has been the next highest profile in Italy and perhaps the most discussed. Cassano still holds great fascination. He turned 31 last week, celebrating his birthday while at Parma’s pre-season training camp in Ostuni, the beautiful seaside town in Puglia, the region where he grew up. Such is his appeal that 30 Bari fans travelled the short distance there, congregating outside his hotel to wish him well.

Parma are Cassano’s seventh club. Inter used him as a makeweight in their purchase of half of striker Ishak Belfodil’s rights for 7.5m euro. Once made official, they issued a statement, conspicuous by its warmth, claiming that it had been an honour to have a player like him at the club. It was an amicable divorce then? Not exactly, no.

While Cassano made a point of thanking Inter president Massimo Moratti for everything during his official unveiling as a Parma player, he insisted he wouldn’t be affording their new coach Walter Mazzarri the same courtesy. When asked why, Cassano claimed Mazzarri had forced him out: “Before he was appointed at Inter he told me I was a fixed regular. After he was appointed he told me I could leave.”

Later that day, Mazzarri denied Cassano’s versions of events. “I can’t see how I could have decided who starts and who doesn’t before taking a training session,” a statement read. “I’d like to clarify that the last time I spoke to Cassano was when Napoli played Inter in the first half of last season. On that occasion I only said: ‘Hello’ to him on the pitch.”

It was all very strange. Mazzarri, along with Gigi Delneri, was credited with resurrecting Cassano’s career when they worked with the player following his move from Real Madrid to Sampdoria. Yet it’s also true that their relationship wasn’t an easy one while in Genova.
Remember the Cassanate there? Like when he broke down in tears after receiving a yellow card against Fiorentina because it meant he’d be suspended for the trip to former club Roma in the winter of 2007. Or his strop against Torino in the spring of 2008 when he was sent off towards the end and refused to leave the pitch and then on eventually doing so shouted at the referee from the tunnel that he’d be waiting outside the ground for him.

Mazzarri could perhaps be forgiven for not wanting to deal with that again. Cassano had fallen out with his predecessor Andrea Stramaccioni, a coach who had worked hard to strike up a great relationship with him only for it to blow up in his face at a delicate moment of last season. That’s when Cassano was finished at San Siro.

For many the move to Parma is Cassano’s last chance. It isn’t. He’s already had plenty of those. Journalists were reminded by Cassano that they’d given him up for dead after Real Madrid. “They said then and they still say now that I am old, fat and many other things, but this time I’ll win,” he said. But will he? This does feel symbolic. It’s similar to when he joined Samp for reasons I’ll get to, but it’s different too. He was still young then. Now he’s in his 30s and has had a major health scare. There’s a sense that while Parma might not be his last team, he’ll never play for an elite club again. And as such an overwhelming sense of what might have been prevails.

Even so, maybe it’s for the best. After all, Cassano’s finest years have come away from the bright lights of the big cities. Rather than Rome, Madrid and Milan, he has always given the impression that he is more at home in Bari and particularly Genova. There, the little man can be the big man and life is quieter, more tranquil. Parma is the same.

Reunited with Roberto Donadoni at the Tardini, the pair have got on well in the past. You might say Cassano owes him one. Never trusted by Marcello Lippi, it was Donadoni who brought him back in from the cold while in charge of Italy. Sacked after Euro 2008 and replaced by Lippi, Cassano was once again exiled from the set up and wouldn’t be brought back again until Cesare Prandelli got the job after the 2010 World Cup and made him central to his plans. Since Euro 2012, however, Cassano has been out of the frame and needs to prove himself yet again.

“It all depends on him,” Donadoni said. “He knows very well how many chances he has wasted. He has what it takes to win his place in the Italy team back and go to the World Cup. Prandelli counts on many different strikers, who are all deserving of their call ups, but Cassano isn’t inferior to the competition.”

Whether he keeps himself in check and makes it to Brazil or not next summer remains to be seen. Cassano revealed how Parma’s director of sport Pietro Leonardi has promised to give him “a slap or two” if he throws one of his tantrums. He won’t guarantee anything. “I have never made any promises in my life,” he insisted. “I prefer facts.”

Here’s one then. When Cassano was unveiled at Milan, he said: “If I’m not able to succeed here, I should be locked up in a madhouse.” To be fair to him, he did come in and help them win the Scudetto before suffering a career and life-threatening stroke the following season. But was he a success at Milan? His time there ended acrimoniously too, as he launched an attack on their chief executive Adriano Galliani claiming certain promises hadn’t been kept.

With him, wrote Il Corriere della Sera’s Alberto Costa, it’s always someone else’s fault. That’s not entirely true. Cassano, as Donadoni points out, is aware that he’s made mistakes. “I have realised 30 per cent of my potential... 40 per cent at maximum,” he said. “And it’s my fault. At 31, I’d be satisfied with doubling that, getting to 70 or 80 per cent.”

Reflecting on Cassano’s career, La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Andrea Schianchi likened it to Antoni Gaudi’s la Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s splendid cathedral. “Splendid but incomplete: Genius in its conception, revolutionary as a project, but always a work in progress and under construction nonetheless.” Destined to be left unfinished. Unrealised.

“At times I ask myself: where would I have played if I’d had a head on my shoulders?” Cassano asked. He answered his own question himself with another one. “On the moon by myself?” On his day, he certainly can be out of this world. Parma will be satisfied, though, if he just gets them into Europe.

James Horncastle will be blogging for us on all matters Serie A throughout the season. He contributes to the Guardian, FourFourTwo, The Blizzard and Champions magazine amongst others.

Follow James Horncastle on Twitter

[RomaShield27]

Crespo back to Parma

What, how so? As a coach?

Welcome to the forums, BTW. are you a spambot?

[RomaShield27]

Blessed were the cheesemakers: the glory days of Parma

AFootballReport / By Giancarlo Rinaldi

A couple of decades ago, in a golden age of Italian football, there was a bunch of credible contenders for the Serie A title dubbed Le Sette Sorelle, which translates to ‘The Seven Sisters’. Six of them were traditional powerhouses - Milan, Juventus, Inter, Fiorentina, Lazio and Roma - but one was a team from a place previously best known for its cured hams and cheeses. Step forward Parma Associazione Calcio.

To say the Emilia-Romagna club had little pedigree would be something of an understatement. Serie B was the best they managed in the first 70-odd years of existence with spells in Serie C and even Serie D littered along the way. For a city of close to 200,000 souls, it was a meagre sporting dish to dine from. They would, however, go from famine to feast in the 1990s.

It was a transformation that could trace its roots back to the mid-1970s when President Ernesto Ceresini took the helm. A self-confessed novice in the world of running a football club, he began to build the team’s credentials by what appears to have been - looking back - a process of trial and error. It would take two key appointments to ultimately put the Parmigiani on the road to glory.

In 1985, an ambitious and intense young manager making a name for himself with Fiorentina’s youth team and little Rimini took over the reins with the club still languishing in Serie C1, the old third tier of Italian football. He won immediate promotion to Serie B, and then came within a whisker of taking them to the top flight. However, a couple of memorable Coppa Italia displays against Milan grabbed the Rossoneri’s attention. They plucked Arrigo Sacchi away from the Stadio Ennio Tardini before he could deliver any further impressive results.

Around the same time, however, another vital deal in the Parma story was being signed. Dairy giants Parmalat took over as sponsors and began to pump in funds for a transformation of Biblical proportions. This was now the land of milk and money.

Yet the dreamed-of promotion to Serie A stubbornly refused to arrive. Another coaching revolutionary, Zdenek Zeman, failed to provide the desired effect in a brief reign and the late Giampiero Vitali could not deliver the goods. But a saviour was around the corner, and he spoke with the gravelly tones of the Veneto region.

Nevio Scala, a former player at Milan, Inter, Roma and Fiorentina, had just cut his managerial teeth at Reggina when he was poached for the Parma job. With an already-competitive squad at his disposal, something clicked between club and coach. They would become as inexorably linked as the famous hometown ham and slices of fresh summertime melon - and prove just as mouthwatering a double-act for the Boys supporters group on the Curva Nord.

They set sail towards Serie A together with many of the players who would go on to write great chapters of the club’s history. Spring-heeled goalkeeper Luca Bucci, defensive duo Luigi Apolloni and Lorenzo Minotti, midfield strategist Daniele Zoratto, the man the fans dubbed ‘Il Sindaco’ - the Mayor - Marco Osio and goal grabber Sandro Melli were all part of the squad. But their promotion efforts would be rocked by a pivotal moment in Parma’s history.

On a cold February morning in 1990, news filtered through that President Ceresini’s heart had given way. He was just 60 years old and left a power vacuum which needed to be filled. It surprised nobody in particular when Parmalat completed its “dream deal” to take control of a club which shared part of its name. In hindsight, it was a sliding doors moment for football in the city. Who knows what triumphs and, perhaps more importantly, disasters might not have happened if Ceresini had lived a few years longer?

On the pitch, events of that 1989/90 season were just as dramatic. Having romped through the first half of the season, Parma seemed to suffer a slump around the time of their President’s death. It allowed other clubs to make up ground and leave them with what was effectively a promotion play-off derby with local rivals Reggiana on the penultimate week of the season. The Tardini was packed for the occasion. Goals from Osio and Melli ultimately allowed the players to parade in their underpants to the strains of the Triumphal March from local boy Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. From a footballing point of view, the place had never had it so good. T

he fate of most neopromosse - newly-promoted sides - in Italy is usually a troubled one. The step up from Serie B to Serie A is a big one and most teams set their sights no higher than gutsy survival. It was pretty much clear from the outset that, having waited about three-quarters of a century to get there, Parma meant business.

Their first season in the top flight brought a remarkable sixth place finish as Scala’s swashbuckling style stunned many of his more illustrious rivals. Foreign stars were added to his squad in the shape of Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel, experienced Belgian defender Georges Grun and Swedish hitman Tommy Brolin - a more slimline version than Leeds United fans might remember. With the bulk of the promotion-winning side retained, it proved an impressive mix.

But the great leap forward truly came in that tricky second season. Two key players arrived who would become associated more than most with the swagger of Scala’s 5-3-2. Long-haired right-back Antonio Benarrivo and converted winger Alberto Di Chiara at left-back completed his tactical jigsaw. With their marauding runs, they gave the attacking impetus on the flanks which their coach demanded. For much of a match, the Parmigiani looked more like the 3-5-2 being played by a number of sides in Serie A this season.

It brought a first major trophy - the Coppa Italia in 1992 - but more were to follow in an incredible spell. The following year they managed something few would have imagined possible just a few seasons earlier when they were scuttling around in the third division. They were raising a European trophy at a temple of world football - Wembley Stadium.

I was lucky enough to be there on the night they clinched that crown, easily seeing off Belgian outfit Antwerp for the Cup Winners’ Cup. It was a friendly affair, both sets of fans mingling easily, and provoked little interest from locals. From memory, it earned just a few minutes highlights on Sportsnight in the UK. And yet it was an entertaining game, and a big achievement from a side which was clearly going places.

Parma became everyone’s favourite second team. Their football was pleasing on the eye, their players were viewed with jealousy by several clubs and they looked like a role model for building a successful side out of pretty much nothing. They were also refreshingly free of the bitter rivalries that infect much of Italian football. It was a lovely bubble to live in, but it would burst in dramatic style.

But not before more titles were secured. The European Supercup followed their Cup Winners’ Cup success, defeating Milan in the two-legged final. They reached the Cup Winners’ Cup final again - this time losing to Arsenal. Then a UEFA Cup came a couple of years later - once again at the expense of Italian opposition, this time Juventus. Within the space of five years, the boys from the provinces had taken a seat at the top table of Italian football and now had to be considered serious contenders for the Scudetto.

It is not entirely surprising when you look at the level of players the club was able to attract. The more modest signings of the early days made way for bigger names as Parmalat started to demonstrate its apparent financial clout. Colombian speedster Faustino Asprilla, Argentinian utility-man Nestor Sensini and the crazily-coiffured Portuguese defender Fernando Couto were among their acquisitions in the mid-1990s along with Italy internationals like Roberto Mussi, Dino Baggio and Gianfranco Zola. If they were still considered a little side, they were clearly thinking big.

The closest they would come to the league title which was now considered a possibility was in the 1996/97 season, by which time Carlo Ancelotti had replaced Scala at the helm. A teenage sensation called Gigi Buffon had broken through as their goalkeeper and signings like Lilian Thuram, Fabio Cannavaro, Juan Veron, Hernan Crespo and Enrico Chiesa hinted at how seriously they were thinking about a historic Scudetto. They staged an amazing late-season rally to get close to Marcello Lippi’s Juventus but their dream was denied by a couple of points. Not that they had finished with gathering trophies.

After Ancelotti made way for Alberto Malesani, an Italian Cup and UEFA Cup double arrived in 1999, the Italian Supercup came the following year and, finally, another Coppa Italia in 2002 (under Pietro Carmignani). But the financial storm clouds had been gathering for a while over Emilia-Romagna. There were persistent rumours that Parmalat was in trouble and its financial backing was not worth as much as it had appeared. Like many Italian sides before and after them - the day of economic reckoning was just around the corner.

In December 2003, a multi-billion euro hole emerged in the company’s accounts. Two teams of investigators were ready to look at the books. It became, even by Italian standards, one of the biggest financial scandals of all time. And the football club which had carried the Parmalat name across Europe could not remain immune. Soon after its major backer’s bankruptcy it, too, was in administration. Parma AC were no more - replaced by the newly-formed Parma Football Club.

The collapse on the pitch, however, was not as dramatic as that of the likes of Fiorentina or Napoli. Somehow they managed to hold things together despite having to sell off most of their big names. But they no longer carried the power they once possessed. In 2004/05 they narrowly avoided relegation but a seventh placed finish the following season could not dispel the whiff of decline. By 2008 - after 18 incredible years - they were back in Serie B.

They bounced back immediately and have stayed in the top flight ever since but without ever scaling the heights of that amazing spell in the 1990s. Like so many modern footballing fables, it had been constructed on the most fragile of financial foundations. But it was sure fun to watch while it lasted.

This article is by Giancarlo Rinaldi, an Italian calcio expect and Fiorentina fan who you can follow on twitter @ginkers. He also often writes for Football-Italia and his own tumblr.

http://afootballreport.com/post/4170180 ... s-of-parma

[RomaShield27]

Roberto Donadoni returning Parma to relevancy

By Eurosport | Pitchside Europe – 21 hours ago
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/pit ... 23074.html

The referee’s full-time whistle wasn’t the only one Parma’s players heard as they trudged off the pitch at the Ennio Tardini on Sunday. More came from the home crowd. A stalemate with Catania had met with their disapproval. The visitors, bottom of the table in Serie A, had twice hit the woodwork and seen a goal ruled out for offside. To the single point they’d mustered on the road this season, Catania added another and quite justifiably felt they deserved to return to Sicily with more.

No wonder the Parma supporters were unhappy with their own team then. The players should have been fresh. They hadn’t played in a fortnight. Last week’s game against Roma had been abandoned after heavy rain in the capital waterlogged the pitch at the Stadio Olimpico. A break should have been an advantage. Instead of raring to go, however, Parma looked rusty.

Coach Roberto Donadoni had acknowledged it before the weekend. His players had relaxed. They’d trained with the attitude they’d shown in pre-season on the beaches of Ostuni in Puglia. The pitch at the Tardini was also in a terrible state. “Many times this season our groundsmen have put us in conditions to do well,” Donadoni remarked. “Perhaps this time they deserve an earful.”

But hang on a minute. The weekend’s 0-0, though a dire spectacle to sit through, was also Parma’s 11th consecutive game unbeaten in Serie A. It matched the club record set from September 24 to December 17 1995 by a team that had finished runners’ up in Serie A the previous season and UEFA Cup winners, a team for which Gigi Buffon had made his debut, a team that included Fabio Cannavaro, Thomas Brolin and could call upon Gianfranco Zola, Hristo Stoichkov, Pippo Inzaghi and Tino Asprilla in attack.

That’s quite an achievement. Serie A might be weaker now than it was then, but so are Parma in terms of their resources. Rather than irresponsibly spending money they don’t have as was once the case they’re now emerging from austerity under owner Tommaso Ghirardi with a model projected towards self-sustainability. Their centenary year has been one to remember. Ghirardi’s present to the fans was Antonio Cassano. He also organised a series of events, including a memorable legends game at the Tardini and an awards ceremony at the Teatro Regio to celebrate the club’s all-time greats.

They could have been a distraction. Instead they generated great enthusiasm, they made the players understand what a great club they’re at, they made them want to honor its history and must have served as an inspiration. How else do you explain Parma captain and centre-back Alessandro Lucarelli scoring a back heeled volley against Torino? He was channelling Zola, Hernan Crespo, and Adriano.

There have been some wonderful moments at Parma this season: from goalkeeper Antonio Mirante spitting out his chewie during a match against Napoli, performing a few kick ups including one back into his mouth to Cassano’s cross-goal volley against Bologna in the Emilia Romagna derby. Then there’s Amauri. Without a goal for nine months, one day his seven-year-old son, Hugo, coming back from a match in which he’d scored twice for his boys’ club Monticelli, told papa that he would find the net too in Parma’s next game. The kid was right. Against Torino, Amauri’s drought ended. He scored four in his next four games.

If Parma are experiencing these emotions, they have Donadoni to thank. Observing him, you are reminded why the FIGC made the bold choice to appoint him as coach of Italy after Marcello Lippi stepped down and took a sabbatical following the 2006 World Cup. Donadoni had resigned from his post at Livorno in the spring of that year. He left them in fifth place. There was a lot of promise in his fledgling managerial career.

Still, he was young and you feel the Italy job was too much too soon. Lippi was a hard act to follow to say the least. Players and fans had begged him to stay on and whenever the team underperformed there were calls for him to stub out his cigar, step off his boat in Viareggio and either give an opinion or take the reins. He cast a long shadow over him, a shadow of the Sir tender Alex Ferguson-David Moyes-kind. The scrutiny was intense.

But Donadoni acquitted himself well. As world champions Italy were expected to go further than they did at Euro 2008, but the team was approaching the end of a cycle and they were only knocked out on penalties by a Spain side, which was about to open a cycle of its own. Not just any cycle either, it remains the most dominant international football has ever seen.

After the tournament Donadoni walked away, nobly refusing to take the golden handshake he was entitled too. He soon found a job in Serie A again with Napoli where he replaced the sacked Edy Reja. It didn’t work out, nor did the next opportunity he received at Cagliari, a thankless task. Some were beginning to ask if he’d ever get another one in Serie A.

Donadoni learnt from both those experiences. He has matured as a coach. No more so has that been evident than at Parma. They were 15th when he came in for Franco Colomba in the spring of 2012. Under Donadoni Parma surprised everyone by winning their final seven games, concluding the campaign in 8th.

The Tardini became a fortress. Undefeated at home between March 17, 2012 and January 27, 2013, they repeated their 8th place finish last season and are now in 7th with an outside chance of edging Inter and Hellas to the final Europa League spot. To give a further indication of how well Parma have been doing of late, only champions and league leaders Juventus have collected as many points as they have since the beginning of the New Year.

Donadoni’s work has not gone unnoticed. Some have asked why AC Milan, the club where he claimed the Scudetto six times and lifted the Champions League trophy on three occasions as a player, didn’t give him greater consideration after the dismissal of Massimiliano Allegri. Coaching a big club is “the aspiration”, Donadoni has told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “It seems like a natural ambition to have.” But it’s an “objective, not an obsession” and one for the future. For now, you get the feeling Donadoni recognises that he is onto a good thing at Parma.

He has the full backing of Ghirardi and Pietro Leonardi, the director of sport. They could have sold Gabriel Paletta, Marco Parolo and Jonathan Biabiany in January, the spine of his team. But they didn’t. They could have lost patience with Cassano. But they didn’t. They keep investing. Over the last two years, €8m has gone into Parma’s Collecchio training ground. A club house like Barcelona’s La Masia with 40 beds for the kids who attend their academy is due to be opened. One of them, the 17-year-old Jose Mauri, became the youngest player to make his debut in Serie A this season.

So you have to credit Parma. They are doing a really good job of ensuring Donadoni will think twice before accepting the next offer that comes along. Parma are in a good place right now. And instead of whistling them, as a minority did, the fans should be applauding them and Donadoni.

James Horncastle (@JamesHorncastle)