Welcome to another week of Football Circus where we will attempt to provide you with some of the oddest football stories from around the world over the past week. In order to do so, we will this week wheel out Football Circus regulars Mario Balotelli and Emmanuel Frimpong, report on some ludicrous managerial firings and a French DJ who certainly won't be held in the same regard as Daft Punk if PSG fans have anything to do with it.
Bad Week for Mario
It has not been a good week for Mario Balotelli. Napoli this week defeated AC Milan 2-1 at the San Siro for the first time since 1986. For his part, Balotelli missed a penalty for the first time in his professional career. Having scored 26 penalties in his career thus far, the sight of Super Mario stepping up for his 27th attempt would surely have put off any keeper. Not Napoli's on loan Pepe Reina however. The 60th minute penalty was not a particularly poor effort from Balo, rather the one handed save from Reina was quite superb.
Balotelli wasn't finished there. He was granted a second chance and in the last minute of the game, Milan were awarded a second penalty. Balotelli stepped up again, undeterred from his previous attempt and this time slotted home to bring the scoreline to 2-1. Alas, it was too little too late for Balo and his colleagues as the full time whistle went.
Napoli were jubilant, Balotelli was irate. Unhappy with the result and perhaps irritated by his penalty record having become tarnished, he became aggressive towards officials and was duly sent off.
The striker will hope to put this week's woes behind him as Milan are in Champion's League action next week. A record of 27 penalties from 28 attempts is certainly not to be scoffed at.
PSG Fans Not Jumping for Joy after DJ Faux Pas
Ever heard of DJ Breakbot? We certainly haven't. And it's unlikely we will be hearing about him again any time soon given his error prior to the PSG-Monaco match at the Parc Des Princes last weekend.
The DJ had been invited by PSG to provide some pre-match entertainment as fans awaited the kickoff of the game between flush Ligue 1 sides Paris Saint Germain and AS Monaco.
All was going well for Mr. Breakbot until he decided to get the crowd going by blasting out Van Halen classic 'Jump'. Unfortunately for the French DJ, 'Jump' is a song strongly associated with PSG's bitter rivals Marseille who adopted the song as a warmup anthem after its release in 1989.
The song was met with a chorus of boos by the Paris crowd and the DJ has been scorned for his song choice this week. He pleaded ignorance however, claiming he was unaware of the link between the song and Marseille and has apologised to the Paris outfit and their fans alike.
The song seemingly did little to inspire either side as a 1-1 draw was played out.
Frimpong Busy on Instagram Again
Emmanuel Frimpong has been featuring quite heavily on Football Circus in recent weeks, predominantly for his 'feud' with former Arsenal teammate Samir Nasri. The Gunners midfielder posted a photoshopped FIFA 14 cover a few weeks back, which showed Samir Nasri and Alex Song and was entitled 'FIFA 14 - Bench Edition'.
Obviously not kept too busy with game time either, Frimpong has again been photoshopping this week, this time poking fun at himself. Frimpong posted another FIFA 14 cover with his own photo and the caption 'Bench Master'.
He included the tag, "One thing people need to know is that I LOVE BANTER copy out November the 16th".
Banter-iffic Emmanuel. If the midfielder keeps producing masterpieces of this ilk, he won't need to worry about his on-pitch minutes.
Brazilian Side Nautico Appoint Seventh Manager of the Season
Brazilian Serie A team Nautico have sacked manager Levi Gomes after he spent just sixteen days in charge of a team which have struggled for points this season. The newly appointed Marcelo Martelotte will find it difficult to steer the team back on course as he is the seventh manager to take charge since the league began in May. Time most certainly is not on his side.
With an average of more than one manager a month this campaign, continuity does not seem to be an issue that is taken into account by the Nautico board. New man Martelotte might be the perfect match for them though, as Nautico are the third side he has managed this campaign. Well, either that or it will all go horrendously wrong very quickly and all parties involved will regret the decision.
Such cut throat hiring and firing is reminiscent of the policy adopted by Palmermo chairman Maurizio Zamparini. Oh it's time for the Italian Football Story of the Week you say...
Italian Football Story of the Week
- Gennaro's a Goner as Palermo Sack Former Milan Star
Football Circus was happy to report a number of months back that Palermo had made the decision to appoint former Italy and AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso as their new manager. Hopes were high for Gattuso as he took the reigns of a side who had just been relegated to Serie B, with automatic promotion the goal.
Sadly for 'Rino', it's unlikely that he would be featuring in this week's Football Circus were things going as swimmingly as he would have hoped. We're a little sadistic like that. However we would have thought that Palermo chairman Maurizio Zamparini would have displayed a degree more compassion, even respect, for a man who forged a tremendous partnership in centre midfield with Andrea Pirlo to lead Italy to the World Cup in 2006.
Alas, this is the cut throat industry of Italian football and what's more, this is Maurizio Zamparini we're dealing with. Zamparini has a reputation of being rather ruthless. In fact if you care to read over our Italian Football Story of the Week from the very first Football Circus (http://football-circus.blogspot.ie/2013/03/welcome-to-football-circus-blog-which.html), you may get a taste for just how ruthless he can be.
So it is perhaps of no surprise that Palermo have parted ways with Rino this week after a paltry six competitive games in charge. Two losses in a row in Serie B were enough to convince Zamparini that Gattuso was not the man for the job. That said, Gattuso may be slightly irked by the fact that as recently as September 10th, his former chairman stated:
"I never thought about getting rid of him. Even in losses I have given him my confidence. There were journalists who assumed I would sack him, but I have never thought about that".
The vote of confidence from the chairman. The verified death knell for any manager struggling for results. This week, Zamparini released the following statement:
"It is with true and profound sadness that I announce the dismissal of Gennaro Gattuso as coach of the first team. The results have forced us to take this decision. Perhaps he and I have taken a step too far in what was his first experience as coach, in a club and a city as challenging as Palermo is. I have decided to appoint experienced Giuseppe Iachini as his replacement, handing him the task to lead the team back to Serie A".
Football Recommendation
- UEFA.com Champions League Fantasy Football
Non Football Recommendation
- "Felina". The last ever episode of Breaking Bad. Sniff, sniff...
Song of the Week
- Bye Bye Badman (The Stone Roses)
Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter @footballcircus or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Football-Circus/418804204906352
You can also contact us at footballcircus@gmail.com
No comments :
Post a Comment