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stevenjamesgreen · 11 years ago

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La Rossa e il Risorgimento di Roberto Baggio

As the car pulled out of Milanello on that mild morning, the man in the back sank down into the groove of the seat and pondered for a moment whether he’d made the right decision. What he was about to do was a big gamble, but the move was all but agreed by now, and as the early afternoon sun tried to poke through the trees that aligned either side of the path he swallowed hard and said a little prayer under his breath.

During the mid ‘90s, Serie A was able to house the type of players that the Premier League and Bundesliga could only dream of attracting at the time; Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Gabriel Battistuta were all illuminating football fans the world over, but one of the most iconic stars of this generation was home grown.

Roberto Baggio had been doing the rounds of some of the division’s most prestigious institutions like Fiorentina, Milan and Juventus since breaking onto the scene with Vicenza in 1982. However, one of the most fascinating periods of his career came when he made the shock decision to join mid-table sluggers Bologna in 1997.

Serie A was a tough place to compete and will always have a special place in the hearts of British men around a certain age, but without dipping into the rhetoric of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris too much, hindsight has now afforded us the realisation that the final decade of the 20th century was a golden age for football in many ways in Italy.

During this time Bologna were unfancied to do much in Serie A. They’d punched above their weight the season before and were largely tipped to amble along in the lower reaches of the division, or even slip back down to Serie B where many believed they belonged. Their fans were slightly more hopeful of being able to maintain a similar level of consistency, but those same fears were in the back of their collective conscience all the same.

It was also the year, though, that Baggio saw his time with Milan come to a premature end as he found himself out of favour under coach Arrigo Sacchi, the very man he’d dragged along with him to the final of the 1994 World Cup in the USA. The aftermath of a series of disagreements had bled through from Fabio Capello’s reign, and the two had been known to argue during their time Stateside. As their Scudetto challenge unravelled, Sacchi limited Baggio’s playing time drastically.

Over the summer, knowing that he had concerns over his place in Cesare Maldini’s squad for the World Cup in France the following year, he decided something needed to be done.

Sensing his disgruntlement, Bologna coach Renzo Ulivieri went to his chairman armed with just hope, and asked him on his thoughts about making a move for Baggio. To his surprise, he had the club’s backing. Ulivieri contacted Milan, who in turn gave him permission to speak to the player, and just 24 hours later Baggio was standing next to a bewildered Ulivieri holding a Rossoblu shirt in front of the equally baffled media.

However, the move was met with wide derision. Many believed that at 30-years-old, this would represent the beginning of the end for his career and some even taunted him as a future Serie B player. He responded by cutting off his iconic ponytail as a symbol of his rebirth. He had high hopes that the gamble would pay off.

But the media’s taunts appeared to be vindicated when Bologna got off to a sluggish start. An opening day 4-2 defeat to Atalanta, in which Baggio scored from the spot, was followed by another 4-2 slump to Inter. Baggio got both Bologna goals that day, but they failed to score for the next four games, notching up three goalless draws and a 2-0 defeat to Parma.

A 5-1 rout of Napoli proved to be a false dawn, as they collected only two points from their next four games. Rumours of disquiet in the camp were doing the rounds too. Despite chalking up a hat trick in the Napoli thumping and two more in the subsequent games, the relationship between Baggio and Ulivieri was strained. The coach had left him out of the side for the visit of former club Juventus at the last minute following a disagreement over tactics. However, when quizzed on why his star wasn’t in the side Ulivieri played down talk of a rift, describing Baggio as “a nice guy” and “a talented player”.

Results started to pick up, and Bologna were now finding the net on a regular basis. Baggio continued to form a good understanding with Kennet Andersen, and helped the big Swede to a hat trick of his own in the win over Sampdoria, which was then followed up by victories over Vicenza and Udinese.

Baggio had an eye on his former club, eager to show what they’d been missing out on. Sacchi had now been replaced by Fabio Capello, but that didn’t diminish the significance of the occasion. Baggio opened the scoring early on, latching onto a high through ball to pirouette and poke the ball past the on rushing Sebastiano Rossi. In an explosion of relief, Baggio ran to the side of the pitch and prayed whilst his teammates ran over to congratulate him, and he capped off another fine display by dispatching a late penalty after being brought down by Paolo Maldini.

With the season coming to a close, Bologna won four of their last five games. The only defeat coming away to Juventus, a game that Baggio later admitted he’d been dreading after missing out on the reverse fixture earlier in the season. But he got himself on the scoresheet once again, and this time ran along the touchline at the Stadio Delle Alpi with his hand cupped to his ear, as the now silent home crowd kept their insults to themselves.

Baggio finished the season 1997/98 season with 22 goals and six assists. Bologna had once again performed above their station, finishing in eighth place and qualifying for the following season’s Intertoto cup.

But before that there was the small matter of the World Cup. Baggio had scored a brace in six games that season, and Maldini had no choice but to include him.

However, he would be going up against Alessandro Del Piero, who’d bagged 32 goals in 47 games across all competitions himself, but his inclusion had been a popular decision.

Italy would begin their campaign against Chile, who were seen as the dark horses of a talented group that also contained Cameroon and Austria.

Things started well, just ten minutes in Paolo Maldini intercepted the ball by his own area, looked up, and sent a wonderfully placed pass to the feet of Baggio, who somehow slithered between two Chilean defenders to send a perfectly weighted ball into the path of Christian Vieri. 1-0.

But Chile soon fought back, two goals either side of the break from Salas had the Italians on the back foot. But with just five minutes remaining, Baggio received the ball out on the right, as he darted into the area he flicked the ball up on the hand of Ronald Fuentes and won a penalty. A nation held its breath.

As soon as the whistle blew, Baggio bent down, and with his hands on his knees began to compose a mantra. “Just hit it hard, hit it hard,” he later told reporters, and after a brief deliberation with his colleagues, he had the ball in his hands as he walked over to the spot. Looking just as cool and calm as he had done four years before, he took another long run and fired past Nelson Tapia, exorcising the demons of that day in Pasadena, and in doing so became the first Italian player to score in three consecutive World Cups.

“It affected me for years. It was the worst moment of my career. I still dream about it. If I could erase a moment, it would be that one,” he’d later say recalling that moment in the USA.

As the group wore on he continued to battle with Del Piero for a starting spot. He came off after an hour against Cameroon, and then found himself on the bench against Austria. The Juve man ran the show that day, but in a role reversal from the Cameroon game found himself sacrificed in place of the old master.

Baggio scored against Austria thanks to some neat link up play with Filippo Inzaghi, who rolled the ball across the box to find his man waiting, unmarked, and with the net gaping at his mercy.

Having dispatched Norway, he returned from the bench when his side met France in the quarter-finals. Cesare Maldini went with Del Piero again, and faced heavy criticism from back home as the 24-year-old was still recovering from injury. Pulling him off late on Baggio had the best chance to seal victory with a golden goal when his close range volley sailed past the face of the goal.

The game would be decided on penalties. Baggio, first up, dispatched his easily. He’d already put one away this tournament and he wasn’t going to mess it up this time, slotting the ball past Fabien Bahtez and strolling back to the centre circle with his finger pressed to his lips.

However, Italian hearts were to be broken this time by Luigi Di Biaggio, who sent Italy’s final kick crashing against the bar. The World Cup dream was over once again.

Upon his return, the jibes of 1994 years prior had long been forgotten, Baggio had proven his detractors wrong and was once again a figurehead in Italian football. He sealed his good year by signing for Inter Milan for a fee of just £2.2 million. It had taken him four years, but he was now an icon once again, the wrong side of 30, perhaps, but in performing so well for a ‘lesser club’ he proved he was still worthy of mixing it up with the big boys.

#Football #Writing #Journalism #IBWM #Features #Bologna #Roberto Baggio #Serie A

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stevenjamesgreen · 11 years ago

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Graeme Souness And The Fortunate Seven

Benfica, the most decorated club in Portugal with a total of 67 titles, are a household name. The badge of the Aguias is known and respected as one of the proudest in football, however, that was all in danger during the mid to late 1990s. A period in the club’s history best remembered for a group of British footballers, a manager massively out of his depth and an extremely crooked owner.

Scott Minto, Brian Deane, Michael Thomas, Dean Saunders, Mark Pembridge, Steve Harkness and Gary Charles all found themselves donning the famous red jersey and suddenly thrust into Europe’s most elite club competition in the process. Seven names whose careers can be best described as earthy, most of them had their moments to be remembered for one reason or another, but were surely too far past their peak when the Portuguese giants came calling. So how did this rag-tag motley crew end up there?

In October 1997, Dr Joao Vale e Azevedo, a former law consultant to Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemao, and member of the International Bar Association, narrowly won the election to become Benfica’s new president, clinching just 51% of the votes. One of Dr Joao’s key promises during his electoral campaign was that, if victorious, he’d hire a manager he was certain would bring the good times back to Lisbon. That man was Graeme Souness.

Souness had considerable experience of football outside of the UK. Having spent time in Canada, Australia and Italy as a player, he had also sampled the Old Firm with Rangers, the Kitalar Arasi with Galatasaray, where he famously planted a Gala flag in the centre circle after a fiery Turkish Cup final victory in 1996, before taking the helm at Torino for four turbulent months.

It’s easy to scoff, but Benfica were already struggling long before he arrived. On paper, Souness represented a sound investment. But the former Liverpool man struggled to win over the club’s hardcore supporters. He set out to remedy the situation by taking a rather radical approach.

It’s commonly regarded that managers tend to like signing players that they know and Souness was no different, only what followed was more unusual than fans ever could have had in mind.

Early season results had been poor despite an opening day 4-0 thumping of Campomaiorense. Benfica had slumped to a five game winless streak, crashing out of the UEFA Cup in the first round to French side Bastia in the process. By the time Souness arrived in November he was already facing an uphill struggle to turn things around.

The first Brit to join the club, Scott Minto, was already there, having been signed by Mario Wilson the previous season, and Brian Deane soon joined him in 1998. The burly striker, who had the honour of scoring the first ever English Premier League goal, was brought in to add something different to Benfica’s attack, a more direct option that their lightweight strike force lacked.

For Benfica he was a viable option, for Deane it was the opportunity of a lifetime: “My agent had asked me if I wanted to go abroad before but I’d turned it down. This move came at the right time,” he confirmed.

This was far from a payday for Deane too, he sought to fully embrace the experience and make the most of his time in Portugal; “Scott helped me to settle in – I appreciated that, and it’s a fantastic place to be. It’s hard to believe we lived there and played in that weather, I couldn’t fault anything.”

Souness found the pressure difficult to bear. The expectation of the Benfiquistas was high to say the least: “Each game was all or nothing,” he’d later go on to say, and the media intrusion was intense, as an army of TV crews and sports writers descended on the training ground daily. For Souness it seemed that no one noticed, or cared perhaps, that his hands were being tied by the club’s financial difficulties.

Debts spiralled, and Benfica suddenly found their accounts frozen when Manchester United took them to an arbitrational court with FIFA after the funds for Czech international Karel Poborsky failed to materialise.

Despite this, Souness managed to guide the club to a respectable second place finish, securing a Champions League spot along the way, but things were about to fall apart for him on an apocalyptic level.

More British players arrived. Dean Saunders signed on from Sheffield United to form a classic ‘little n’ large’ partnership with Brian Deane. Porto, in response, signed Mario Jardel who would go on to score 166 goals in 169 games. Saunders’ Welsh international teammate Mark Pembridge was brought in to add some grit to the midfield and former Arsenal man Michael Thomas was acquired for his ‘big balls’.

Things began brightly, Deane and Pembridge both got their names on the scoresheet against Beitar Jerusalem during a 6-0 thrashing in the first round of the Champion’s League, but that was as good as it would get for Benfica in Europe as they limped out at the group stage having suffered a humiliating 2-0 defeat to HJK Helsinki.

Benfica were becoming increasingly reliant on playing direct football, which didn’t suit their philosophy, their fans or the majority of their players. A young Nuno Gomes complained that he never received adequate service and as a result his contribution suffered. Souness also couldn’t see the considerable talent in a 21-year-old Brazilian playmaker by the name of Deco, shipping him out on loan first to Alverca, where he scored 12 times in 32 games, and then to Salgueiros, before deciding that he’d never make the cut and allowed him to join Porto on a free transfer.

The manager’s behavior became increasingly un-endearing as the season progressed. Souness struggled with the language and his backroom staff possessed little knowledge of the league they were working in. In an interview coach Phil Boersma was unable to name a single player from another team that had impressed him besides the headline grabbing Jardel, and it wasn’t long before it became common knowledge that the manager had been racking up the frequent flyer miles on regular trips back to the UK.

Events on the field were just as bad. Michael Thomas, the man who dramatically sealed Arsenal’s first title in 18 years in 1989 was clearly past his best. His sluggish, ineffective movement prompted fans to boo his every touch and he managed just five appearances in a Benfica shirt. This didn’t stop him getting into to trouble though. After a training ground brawl with Ukrainian international midfielder Sergei Kandaurov, the club decided to just stop paying him, and even on one occasion locked him out of the ground. Thomas was eventually forced to take the matter to FIFA where he was awarded £750,000 for his troubles.

From the bizarre to the ridiculous, another new signing, Steve Harkness, a man who had somehow managed to make over 100 appearances for Liverpool (albeit over a ten year period) decided to join in with continental nomenclature by having the back of his shirt adorned with “Steve”. Sadly, “Steve” only fared marginally better than Thomas as his European adventure ended after just nine games.

Finally, Gary Charles, who had been a league cup winner at Aston Villa just three years prior, saw his time in Lisbon curtailed by injury, but it’s now accepted that he was in the early stages of the alcoholism that drew his career to a premature end.

Results slipped and not even the figure of Eusebio could help. The most iconic player of the club’s history would sometimes take sessions with the strikers. However, Deane suggests that he was “more of a mentor to the squad”.

Animosity, pressure and financial irregularities were building to a peak and in April 1999, Souness was told that his job would be given to Jupp Heynkes at the end of the season. He agreed to see his time through to the end and as the old gang broke up and returned to Britain, the stricken boss saw his reign come to a close during a 3-0 defeat to Boavista, which all but ended Benfica’s slim hopes of taking the title back from Porto. 80,000 fans waved handkerchiefs at the former Liverpool midfielder that night, partly in mock farewell and partly in genuine delight that he now only required a one-way ticket back home.

Souness believed that he did a good job in Portugal, and that anyone would have struggled with the financial constraints placed on him; perhaps he’s right. During 71 games in charge he managed to win 57% of matches played, but it would be fair to argue that his recruitment policy helped him dig his own grave. Not learning the language, not paying attention to the teams around him and suggesting that Latin players didn’t have the mentality that he had to ‘put a shift in’, did him no favours. Funnily enough, though, he claimed to know enough ‘tough Latino’s’ once complications arose concerning his compensation.

A year later Souness returned to management with Blackburn Rovers where he won the League Cup during a four-year spell, but the man who perhaps came away from the experience best is Brian Deane who looks back on his time in the Portuguese capital with fond memories.

Signed for £1 million he lasted only a year before being sold to Middlesbrough for three times that amount. “I’ve got no regrets about it and I didn’t want to leave, but the situation off the pitch forced the sale,” he told me recently.

Deane is also deeply reflective on the importance of young British players moving overseas, “The football is very different, slower, you were allowed a lot more of the ball and they only closed you down in their half instead of all over. It was great coming up with new solutions, but we (England) will play the same way until more players start leaving.”

Deane makes a valid point, but British players have achieved mixed results when moving abroad. For every Jimmy Greaves or Ian Rush, who both famously failed to settle in Italy, there is a Hoddle and Waddle who managed to light up the French Riviera during the late ‘80s. At the moment, the only young British player abroad of note is Michael Mancienne, who is struggling to get off of Hamburg’s bench. With eight goals in seventeen appearances, Brian Deane did well at Benfica and loved his time in Portugal, “I was out of my comfort zone and sometimes you don’t appreciate that when it’s happening”.

So could this be seen as a failed experiment? Maybe. A decade before, Real Sociedad broke the ‘Basque only’ rule by bringing in John Aldridge, Dalian Atkinson and Kevin Richardson to minor success. Aldridge in particular being a hit as the other two, like most of the Benfica boys, lasted just one season.

So it can work, and it’s only now that the actual state that Benfica were in at the time has become clear. In 2001 Azevedo was placed under house arrest whilst he was investigated for fudging the books. He had run up an extortionate amount of debt during his three years as president, and was frequently unable to pay the players’ wages or the club’s taxes.

A total of fouteen counts of embezzlement were charged against him, which included an allegation that he’d kept $1 million from the sale of Russian international goalkeeper Sergei Ovtshinikov from Benfica to Alverca in 1999 to help pay for a yacht. Azevedo was prosecuted and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison as the full extent of his financial trickery was exposed, citing that he’d embezzled a further $1 million from the club and laundered the cash through various offshore banks.

In 2006, upon his release, Azevedo moved to London where he is now the CEO of a financial company.

So, the situation wasn’t entirely the fault of the manager, or the players, it was more of a case of bad timing. Benfica still find themselves in Porto’s shadow despite bouncing back from those self inflicted dark ages, and Anglo-Portuguese relations on the pitch are still fragile, but it’s hard to say if the affair was enough to put British players off from moving to the continent en masse.

If there’s one positive to take away from the ordeal; it’s that it’s a brilliant example of comical mishandling by an owner who had it blow up in his face, and as a result suffered more than the fans did, for a change.

#Football #Writing #Journalism #benfica #Features #IBWM #Late Tackle

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stevenjamesgreen · 11 years ago

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Andros Townsend Interview

How did you get into football?

I started from a quite a young age really, started playing for a Sunday league team called Ridgeway Rovers and I had a few scouts come and check me out. I signed with Spurs at 8 years old and I’ve been lucky enough to have stayed with them ever since.

You’ve been out on loan a few times, what would you say have been the biggest benefits so far?

Experience, definitely. It’s so important for young players to get game time anywhere they can and develop themselves for a career in men’s football. Obviously you meet some great people along the way too and see places that you might not always get a chance to see.

Have you enjoyed going out on loan?

Yeah, I just enjoy playing in the first team so whenever an opportunity pops up I’ll take it and like I said I’ve met some interesting people whilst at these places.

How are you finding Birmingham so far?

Well I’ve only been here a week but it’s a great club, a Premier League club, and I’ll be doing everything I can to help them get back to where they belong. There are some very good players here and I’m just happy to be a part of the team. The city is great too, there are some great restaurants and shops and the city centre is really nice.

There’s quite the catalogue of your goals on Youtube, you don’t score tap in’s do you? Any favourites?

(Laughing) No I don’t. My favourite goal was for Leyton Orient in 2009 against another one of my former clubs, Yeovil Town. I picked the ball up in our own half, took it past three players and managed to carve out an opening before letting it fly past the ‘keeper into the bottom corner.

Would you say that’s a strong point of your game?

Not necessarily, I see myself more as an old fashioned type of winger. I like to get the ball at my feet and take players on so I’d say dribbling is probably the strongest part of my game.

Who were your heroes growing up?

I loved the Brazilian Ronaldo when I was growing up, he could do both dribble and score. I was also a big fan of Ryan Giggs and I was always trying to model my game on his, still am, actually. The way he’s adapted and kept going is great and I think he’s someone any young player could learn a lot from.

Who do you look up to now?

Guys like Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon are two players I try to emulate. They’re both very good with the ball at their feet and they’re the two I watch the closest in training and I feel very privileged to learn from them and play football with them.

Do you think Harry will take the England job?

I don’t think I can comment on that to be honest (laughs)

There’s a great video of you singing ‘Stand by me’ in the Spurs dressing room, ever fancied a career in music?

No I don’t think so, that was just a bit of banter that we decided to do one day. Luckily it went down quite well but I think I’ll just stick to football!

What does the future hold for Andros Townsend?

Well I’d like to be playing regularly in the Spurs team, if that means going out on two or three more loans then so be it. The main thing is to just be playing regularly.

#andros townsend #Journalism #Shoot #Writing

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stevenjamesgreen · 11 years ago

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Hipgnosis at Albert Bridge Studios

In mid November on a cold night I am welcomed into the Albert Bridge studio gallery in Battersea. I have been invited to come and check out the new exhibition ‘Hipgnosis, for the love of vinyl.’ which is a showcase and auction of thirty signed silkscreened prints of some of rocks most iconic images.

It’s the opening night and everybody is in a festive mood, conversation flows in every corner of the room, as does the wine, and it seems everybody is still in awe of the artwork on the walls some thirty years after it first appeared. Hipgnosis were a three-man design team formed in 1968 whilst studying at the Royal College of Art. They have designed the artwork for the likes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Genesis, amongst others.

The first thing that hits you when you walk in to the gallery is the fond memories brought back by the pictures on the wall. I’m immediately drawn to Peter Gabriel’s self titled album, the sight of him peering out of the car window reminds me of my adolescence when I’d raid my parents record collection. Further down on the wall is the captivating cover for Genesis’ The lamb lies down on Broadway, which was inspired by pulp comics from the 1950’s Next to Genesis is the suggestive yet inoffensive cover for Correlations by Ashra and the charming mezzanine level is loaded with the most iconic covers of all.

When you close your eyes and think about the history of rock music certain images flash across your mind. Born in the USA, check, London calling, yes, Sgt Peppers, that’s there too and amongst those, is Dark side of the moon. It hangs above us like a beacon, and it couldn’t be more fitting that I spoke to one of the artists, Aubrey Powell, underneath its shadow. Powell is a warm man, who looks into your eyes and answers every question with a hand on your shoulder. He is modest but knows what his work has achieved.

“We never believed for a second that the work would have the impact it has, it was just something we did,” he says. We talk about the processes he used compared to how it’s done today, we both agree that it was more organic back in the ‘70s and he talks me through the process he went through to make The lamb lies down on Broadway in which he had to cut Peter Gabriel’s silhouette and sand it down by hand, something which took a very long time but as he assures me was a complete labour of love.

I ask him if he thinks he would have used aides like Photoshop if they’d been available or if he felt like it took away from the organic nature of art, to which he replied with a wry smile; ‘people are certainly very lucky to have it but no, I like the way I did things just fine’. Then just as quickly as he’d arrived he’s gone again. I step outside for some air only to find myself at a table with members of Grace Jones’ management team and none other than hat designer Philip Treacy, it seems that the exhibition has attracted the luminaries too.

Two days later and I’m back again to talk to the gallery’s owner, Ginny Manning. In the light of day I see that the gallery is nothing more than a quaint cottage, a quiet hidden gem. The rows of houses that align with it are a little rural oasis placed in inner city London. Manning welcomes me in again and I find out that the gallery is also her home, she tells me that she’s only been there since April of this year and the decision was not greatly supported, ‘people said to me are you crazy? Nobody is opening businesses now and nobody is spending money on art either,’ she says, but after a stop start first few months, things are picking up.

At the moment viewings of the gallery are by appointment only but that is something that she wishes to change soon.

Manning was born on the Isle of white and soon moved to Australia with her family, where she grew up. It was there where she found her passion in photography, which took her to Japan to teach and then to France before finally making it to mainland Britain. The Hipgnosis exhibit is only the second that the gallery has held, the first being the Phillip Townsend collection ‘Sorry you missed the ‘60s’, a series of photographs of swinging London in the 1960’s.

It’s tough for Manning to keep the gallery afloat, she has a three woman team that help with the business side, ‘it ultimately comes down to me though,’ she tells me. She also runs a photography workshop, also by appointment, where she takes her students through everything from shutter speed to composition, lighting and effects to post production or even just showing you how to make more of your camera.

Although the gallery is off the beaten track, Manning wishes to offer something different in her approach to the business, ‘I’d like to keep private viewings exclusive and spend time with my clients and sit down with them for lunch, things like that,’ she enthuses. She seems to have the ideas to make the gallery a success and the pieces that are available for purchase are certainly not wallet busting either. The next step is to advertise, advertise and advertise; the more people who know about this suburban heaven, the bigger it will grow.

Hipgnosis: for the love of vinyl runs from 19th November – Early February 2010.

To book a viewing visit www.albertstudiogallery.com

#The Uni Years #Journalism #Art #Hipgnosis #Writing

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