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| Thursday 24 April, 2008 |
| Blog: Stay away from the trap door… |
| While all the focus is on the top end of the table, there is a real scrap for survival brewing at the bottom. Steve Wilson takes a closer look |
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It has been coming for several years, but this time it looks like we really could lose Parma. One point above the trap door with four games left, the little Emilia Romagna outfit has been desperately clinging to Serie A survival for the past few seasons - memories of their European glories now just a faint memory. It would be a real shame to see the Gialloblu go down, but sentiment is no substitute for quality at this level.
The saving grace for the Tardini outfit is that this season is offering us one of the tightest relegation battles in years. Nobody has gone, nobody is woefully adrift, no team has barely struggled to reach double figures. Add that to the title race and the tussle for European spots and we have a League to be proud of, with real competition from top to bottom. No wonder the clubs are scrapping so hard to stay in it.
Sadly I think we could see two of Italy's historic sides slip away. Hector Cuper's Parma troops have tough visits from Genoa and Inter to come while they go on the road to Fiorentina. Only the trip to Reggina looks like a viable win. Meanwhile, the loss of experienced defender Fernando Couto, as punishment for his light slap to gentle Juventus wallflower Giorgio Chiellini, is a blow they could do without at this stage.
Joining them may well be Torino. For all the talent at their disposal the Granata just refuse to deliver and with Fiorentina, Napoli and Roma on their to-do list it looks very bleak if the clubs below them find some late form. Serie A needs the traditional names on its roster, and while fans of Empoli, Livorno, Reggina, Catania and Cagliari will disagree, I really hope it is a trio from that group that takes the fall to Serie B.
But, of course, the three clubs currently residing in the danger zone have all the work to do. Empoli have the luxury of closing with games against direct rivals Reggina and Livorno, and their Tuscan neighbours also approach the final day with a game against struggling Toro - but by then it may be too late. The Calabrians perhaps have the best escape plan - all four of their games come against bottom seven sides.
At the top of the quagmire, Catania and Cagliari realistically just need one more win to stay up. Despite his questionable CV, Walter Zenga has been just the tonic for the Sicilians, but the Sardinians' revival looks likely to hit a brick wall with matches against Inter, Fiorentina and Udinese on the horizon. Just when they thought they were out, they may just get pulled back in to the most exciting scrap in the Division.
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"Serie A needs the traditional names on its roster, and while fans of Empoli, Livorno, Reggina, Catania and Cagliari will disagree, I really hope it is a trio from that group that takes the fall to Serie B."
Maybe Steve Wilson should turn to a dictionary that explains to him what tradition is. It's all fine standing up for Toro, but suggesting that Serie A needs Parma as a traditional name while at the same time blasting Cagliari as a team that lacks such a thing. Well, that makes you a clown. It's bad enough to hear stuff like that from little kids who think history dates back to the day they started following football altogether. But to get it from Channel4, it's just an insult.
Parma is a club that had never played in the Serie A before 1990. All their glories are manifestations of modern football, of Parmalat. What Cagliari had back in the days of Gigi Riva, around the turn of the decade from 60s to 70s, is a major dynasty in Italian football, and unlike Parma, Cagliari has actually won the scudetto.
Hossein Nayebagha
It is all subjective. Of course Cagliari's achievement in winning the Scudetto in 1970, and finishing runners-up the year before, was notable - and probably I was a little hasty in lumping them in together with the other relegation strugglers. But on the other hand they have been a yo-yo club for the last twenty years. How long can they keep living off a Scudetto won almost forty years ago? We lambast England for constantly reminding us of 1966 when they have failed to ever match that pedigree - so why should Cagliari be any different.
For almost two decades now Parma have been a fixture in Serie A. In that time they have won three European trophies, had nine top five finishes in the League and won the Coppa Italia twice. Cagliari won a single Scudetto in the 1970s -hardly a dynasty - while Parma gave us far more, and consistently, in the 1990s. I admit that they should both be listed as all-time great 'traditional' top Division sides, but personally I wouldn't put them on the same level in terms of their achievements.
Steve Wilson
It depends on one's view of football in general. But regarding the numbers, Parma has never won the scudetto, and have not played in Serie A as many seasons as Cagliari, not even close. Sure, you can't take away their three European titles from the '90s (Coppa Italia doesn't mean much to me), but with all the great players they could afford, it makes sense that it paid off with some trophies.
Cagliari's Scudetto came 38 years ago, yes, but again, from my point of view all pre-Bosman titles are more impressive, because those were times when skill was just as important as economy. Nowadays if you don't have the latter, it doesn't matter how skilled you are, you won't win anything. Anyway, to say that was a "major dynasty" may have been a stretch. My point was that era has a place in Italian history, because of the success, because of Gigi Riva, and because of the role it played in the national side that reached the World Cup final in 1990. And at least we did win the scudetto, not many teams have done that since 1970. I could ramble further about the tradition of great Latin American strikers, about the relative success of the early 90s, the Uefa Cup semifinal etc., but I'll stop here.
Parma has now played in Serie A for 18 consecutive years, so whatever one thinks, they now hold a place in the Division, but I wouldn't put them in the "greats" category, like the big three, Roma, Fiorentina, Napoli, Lazio etc. If Parma does get relegated this season, they may never become a top club again. They no longer have the Parmalat cash to back them up. So even with their '90s success story, I doubt anyone will hold them as high as many do today, 10 years from now.
Hossein Nayebagha
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