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Calcio FC Weekly
More Play-Off Drama on the Way for Italy
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Welcome to Issue 8 of Calcio FC Weekly!
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Italy look set for another World Cup play-off but there may be reasons for optimism under Gennaro Gattuso. Plus, is playing in Australia the right move for Serie A and could Sampdoria have won the Champions League?
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Don't forget you can get in touch with us on our socials and at newsletter@destinationcalcio.com
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Here's a taste of what's on the menu in today:
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- Italy set for another nervy World Cup date
- Is taking league games abroad a good idea?
- Severed pig heads and bullets in the post
- Following Fabregas to the dentist
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Is Italy’s Future Brighter Under Gattuso?
And so onto another World Cup play-off for Italy.
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For the third consecutive campaign, the Azzurri’s path to football’s biggest tournament is heading through the back door.
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Moise Kean, Mateo Retegui and Francesco Pio Esposito (above left) scored in a 3-1 win in Estonia at the weekend but it was inconsequential in the race for top spot as Norway had thrashed Israel hours earlier.
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It leaves the Scandinavians top of Group I with 18 points after six matches, six ahead of Italy, who have a game in hand and face Israel on Tuesday night.
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Norway have a +26 goal difference to Italy’s +7 and they do not meet until the final fixture in Milan on November 16.
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Three days before that game the Norwegians are expected to take care of business at home against an Estonian side who have lost five of their six matches.
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The Azzurri are three points clear of Israel with a game in hand and a win in Udine on Tuesday would effectively confirm a top-two finish given they have a better goal difference than their rivals.
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Unpredictable as Italy have been, the chances of them tripping up against bottom-of-the-table Moldova in November are slim.
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So what of Gennaro Gattuso’s reign so far? The positives are obvious, Italy have one foot in the play-offs and have looked a far more coherent unit than during the dying embers of Luciano Spalletti’s reign.
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With 13 goals in three games Gattuso (pictured below) has set a record for most goals scored in the first three fixtures under a new boss.
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Kean will not add to his tally after picking up an ankle injury against Estonia, which should give 20-year-old Esposito another chance to impress after opening his account at the weekend.
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"It's amazing how rarely he makes a mistake when he connects the play, and he covers so much ground,” Gattuso said of Esposito.
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“He's a genuinely likable guy and I'm positive he'll keep his focus. He plays with the maturity of someone in their thirties. He's the real deal.
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"He needs to keep this up and keep improving. He has the discipline, the respect, and the right attitude. Now the rest is down to us and down to him."
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After hitting 19 goals for Spezia last season, Esposito has scored once in four Serie A appearances for Inter Milan this term and has made his Champions League debut.
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At long last Italy have a genuine plethora of attacking options to choose from in the shape of Esposito, Retegui and Kean.
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"People are talking about me a lot right now,” Esposito said. “Some are praising me, others are criticising me. I'm just trying to maintain my balance and not pay attention to it."
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Perth Trip Dividing Opinion
Como midfielder Jesus Rodriguez and AC Milan captain Mike Maignan are the latest players to wade into the debate on Serie A's decision to hold their Serie A fixture in Australia in February.
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Last week, UEFA “reluctantly approved” La Liga and Serie A’s request to stage league games abroad this season, with Barcelona taking on Villarreal in Miami in December and Milan facing Como in Perth early next year.
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"Long-distance trips are brutal. People say, 'Oh sure, but you travel alone, in comfort,' but honestly, it still knocks you out," Rodriguez told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
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"Spending all those hours sitting or lying down on a plane is exhausting. However, we are professionals and we do what is asked of us, so we will go to Australia and give it our all. If the decision-makers agreed to it there must be a positive reason."
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Last week Adrien Rabiot spoke out about the Perth trip.
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“It’s completely crazy,” Milan's French midfielder told Le Figaro. “There are financial agreements to ensure the league has a certain level of visibility, but all of this is beyond our control.
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“It’s crazy to travel so many kilometres to play a match between two Italian teams in Australia.
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“We have to adapt. As always. There’s a lot of talk about schedules and player health but all of this seems really absurd.”
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On Sunday, Maignan sang from the same hymn sheet as his club and international team-mate.
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"I totally agree with Adrien. I don't understand why we're playing abroad," he said. "Many things are forgotten these days, we think too much about the financial aspect.
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“It's Serie A. I don't understand why we're playing abroad. We should have been playing at home, so we 'lose' a home game.”
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Serie A president Ezio Simonelli held a different opinion.
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"This allows us to please the many Italian football fans who can now attend the match live in Perth, and also helps both teams and the league to significantly boost their global visibility and fan base," he said in a statement.
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"The supporters of Milan and Como, who couldn't have watched the game at the Meazza anyway, will, I believe, understand the sacrifice asked of them here, which ultimately translates into important gains for their respective clubs."
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"If approved by the FIFA, Como 1907 will travel to Perth, Australia this February to face AC Milan, taking part in a shared mission to make Serie A the conversation of world football once again, and to secure a stronger future for every club that represents Serie A," it read.
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Show Some Respect and Wash Your Mouth
As the owner of Sampdoria from 2014 to 2023, Massimo Ferrero was involved in it all.
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His run was a whirlwind of insults, public outbursts, and culminated in an arrest for fraudulent bankruptcy and corporate crimes before he sold the club to Matteo Manfredi and Andrea Radrizzani.
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The pair paid Ferrero (pictured below) the symbolic price of €1 to rescue the Blucerchiati, who faced bankruptcy in May 2023, but within 10 months Radrizzani had divested his shares and left Manfredi, the sole director of London-based Gestio Capital, in charge.
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"I was robbed. Manfredi was great at telling stories in the beginning but he failed to understand that the results need to match the hype."
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Manfredi's tenure has so far been as controversial off the pitch, as explored by Josimar in this brilliant piece, as it has been disastrous on it.
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So does Ferrero agree with Manfredi's take that the current problems stem from his time in charge?
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"How dare Manfredi speak like that? He shouldn't be spreading lies. I left him a marvellous, well-organised club. I would never allow myself to speak the way he does. He found an investor who gave him €100m.
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"With that kind of money, I would have won the Champions League! I left him a top-tier youth team, the women's team, newly renovated training facilities, and Casa Samp.
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"And he's the one who got to cut the ribbon on it all. When you speak about Ferrero, you need to wash your mouth out."
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In his wide-ranging interview, Ferrero also revealed he was pressured into selling the club and was sent bullets and a pig's head as a warning.
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"The only thing I fear is love," he quipped. "As for hatred, I have no time for it; that's an emotion reserved for the insecure."
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From the Shine of Italia 90 to the Timeless Classics... Our Top Five Italy Kits
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The Azzurri have swaggered and strolled onto the football pitch wearing blue banger after blue banger down the decades, as Emmet Gates explains.
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Captain America Christian Pulisic Feeling More Than a Little Bit Italian
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Christian Pulisic has hit the ground running under Max Allegri at AC Milan. Dan Cancian on Serie A's player of the season so far.
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Joel Pohjanpalo on Crazy Palermo Drivers, Nicknames and Winding Up His Pal
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Joel Pohjanpalo is already a cult hero in Palermo and his bond with fans may grow even stronger if he fires the Rosanero to Serie A. In this exclusive interview, he tells David Ferrini why swapping Venice for Sicily was the right decision, despite the traffic.
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Beyond the Gondolas: The Old Stadium in Venice That Still Has a Secret Charm
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Gondolas. Romance. History. Three words that perfectly describe Venice. But what if we also mentioned calcio? Lauren Canning on the Lagoon's love affair with the beautiful game.
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Don’t forget, Destination Calcio will be bringing you live Serie B action during every round of the 2025-26 season on DCTV
- Click HERE to find out the matches we will be showing across the next few weeks.
- Click HERE for the full 2025-26 calendar.
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Things you may have missed this week
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic has told La Gazzetta dello Sport he returned to AC Milan to help RedBird restore the glory days to the San Siro and to give something back for all the love he received as a player over two spells there. Are we seeing a new, softer side to the Swede? Not so fast. "Ibra is still God, but I have no personal ambitions," he said. "Everything I do is for AC Milan."
- Rasmus Hojlund continued his superb form with three goals in the international break. The Napoli striker scored two in Denmark's 6-0 demolition of Belarus then netted the opener in a 3-1 win over Greece. Hojlund has eight goals and one assist for club and country in nine appearances this season. "A wise man once said, 'Goals are like ketchup. Once they come, they keep on coming'," he wrote on Instagram, along with a picture of him scoring against Greece. One can only assume the wise man was not involved with Manchester United.
- Former Torino and Austria striker Toni Polster is not impressed with San Marino. “This is a team of pizza bakers, not a national team," he said. "They have no place in international football.” Polster claimed nine goals in 27 Serie A games and was Austria's all-time top scorer until Marko Arnautovic beat his record last week. Arnautovic needed three to equal Polster's benchmark but went one better, scoring four. The opponent? San Marino, of course.
- Italy's adventure at the Under-20 World Cup in Chile came to a crushing end when they lost 3-0 to the USA with Parma midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi getting a brace.
- Jon Dahl Tomasson is fondly remembered at AC Milan after helping them win the Scudetto and the Champions League in three seasons, but he is not held in such high esteem in Sweden. Tomasson, a former Denmark international and the current Sweden boss, was booed by fans in Stockholm as they lost 2-0 at home to Switzerland, a result which left them bottom of their qualifying group with one point after three matches. The booing was accompanied by anti-Tomasson banners, one of which read "Resign JDT". And that was the most polite of the lot.
- Staying in Scandinavia, Bologna defender Emil Holm told Swedish media that the club sent him to dentist in Italy to remove a wisdom tooth - to cure his recurring hamstring problems. Weird? Perhaps, until you realise Cesc Fabregas underwent the same procedure to cure the same issue while at Arsenal back in 2010.
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Watch the Calcio FC podcast on YouTube and listen on Spotify
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Kit of the week
As Tony Soprano would have it, 'Remember when' is the worst form of conversation.
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But with all due respect to New Jersey’s finest waste management extraordinaire, there are times when we simply should embrace nostalgia.
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The Torino away kit from 1992-93 is a case in point.
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A small company based just outside Parma, ABM were into only their ninth year when they became Torino kit supplier in 1990. Their first away strip was fairly plain but they ditched their conservative ways the following season, wheeling out a white number with maroon cuffs and collar and a diamond-shaped pattern across both shoulders. It was a step towards arguably the greatest away kit Torino have produced.
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From the granata chevrons on white background and the collar with white trims, to the ABM logo and the italicised sponsor, the 92-93 kit is instantly recognisable.
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And that’s before we even mention the badge, a freshened up version of the one used until 1983 featuring an oval split down the middle, with the city’s coat of arms on one side and the letters T and C (Torino Calcio) overlaid on the other.
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This is an all-timer of a shirt, released just before two of Torino’s greatest seasons.
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A reminder that if you spot a classic shirt while you're at the game or out and about, get in touch on our socials or via email and let us know why we should feature it!
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What we are reading this week
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In an age when Serie A was awash with sublime South American playmakers, few were more elegant than Enzo Francescoli. In this wonderful piece for Football Heritage, Tommy Potter reminisces on the great Uruguayan. As he beautifully puts it, Brazil had Zico, Argentina had Maradona, and Uruguay? They had Enzo Francescoli.
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Where to watch calcio this weekend
Serie A (times BST/EST)
- Torino vs Napoli, 17:00/12:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Roma vs Inter Milan, 19:45/14:45, TNT Sports 1 (UK), DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Como vs Juventus, 11:30/06:30, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Cagliari vs Bologna, 14:00/09:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Genoa vs Parma, 14:00/09:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Atalanta vs Lazio, 17:00/12:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- AC Milan vs Fiorentina, 19:45/14:45 TNT Sports 1 (UK), DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Cremonese vs Udinese, 19:45/14:45, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
Serie B
- Frosinone vs Monza, 14:00/09:00, Destination Calcio
- Palermo vs Modena,14:00/09:00, Destination Calcio
- Empoli vs Venezia, 16:15/11:15, Destination Calcio
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Random former Serie A/Serie B footballer of the week
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Having mentioned Enzo Francescoli, it would be remiss of us not to use this column to talk about his compatriot Carlos Aguilera. After arriving in Italy ahead of the 1990 World Cup, Aguilera (pictured below) scored 46 goals in 115 appearances in all competitions for Genoa, including a brace to knock Liverpool out of the UEFA Cup at Anfield. A cult hero at the Luigi Ferraris, where he dovetailed beautifully with Tomas Skuhravý, the diminutive Uruguayan never got to lift a trophy in red and blue, but won the Coppa Italia after joining Torino just months after his European exploits. The Granata, incidentally, had lost the UEFA Cup final against Ajax, who had thwarted Genoa’s dream in the semi-final. With Andrea Silenzi effectively playing the Skuhravý role, Aguilera scored 15 goals in his first season in Turin, including the equaliser in the second leg of the Coppa Italia semi against Juventus. Off the pitch he was embroiled in a scandal which ultimately led to a two-year prison sentence for profiting from prostitution. The sentence, however, was never carried out and was later wiped clean by a 2007 amnesty.
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That is all for this week folks. We hope you enjoyed this latest issue of Calcio FC Weekly, make sure you hit the subscribe button to have it landing in your inbox every Tuesday and don't forget to get in touch at newsletter@destinationcalcio.com or on our socials!
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