F*%$ Cellino-Bad News and Bye Bye Serie A.

By: Jeremy | February 29th, 2008

Where to effing start? For as bad as the season has been, this week has seen more bad news then any other week and we are now finished in Serie A. All fans including myself now must look forward to Serie B next year as reality should finally set in even for the most optimistic of us.

Despite still being the bottom club, at the beginning of the week we were as high as we could be considering what has gone on this year. We stole three points from Lazio and were headed into a midweek clash with the worst team in Serie A(Siena) with a win putting us right back in the mix to realistically avoid relegation. Timing could not have been better for that match with Siena. This was the one game that would come to define the season after all the lows and some recent highs. This was our shot and we failed and returned to the Cagliari of the first half of the season. Anemic offense, sorry ass Larrivey still dancing and hopping around forgetting he is a soccer player, and no offensive threats to really speak of. Siena sucks and couldnt do anything either but a lapse in the final moments allows Siena to walk away winners 1-0. They gain three points and push toward safety while we lose all momentum. Once you lose a game like that, things tend to fall apart and it is hard to expect the team and its fans to maintain any spirit or positivity. A win puts us within three points of safety. The loss takes us to seven points from safety. Nothing positive at all can be taken from that match day and the sad thing is it was not our worst day this week. I think the Italian football federation was waiting to drop the real bomb of the week until after we lost that game so we would never think of trying to bounce back. The coffin has been sealed shut on our season.

What is this I am talking about? Well lets just say after we lost to Siena, we had 18 points, and now we have 15 points. How did this happen? To keep it simple there is a rule that you cannot take legal action against anyone without permission of the Italian football federation. Cagliari screwed this up taking out defamation charges against former player Gianluca Grassadonia in February 2007. The penalty is a three point deduction. Evidently Grassadonia thought Cagliari has fans who are extra violent hooligans who pushed him out of the club. Cagliari gets upset and accuses him of defamation without permission. WTF?

Ok, I have some Sardinian blood in me and guess what, THERE ARE HOOLIGANS AND VIOLENT PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT CAGLIARI!!. That is like saying Napoli has a garbage problem or that the 85 Champions League Final was a peaceful environment for a game of soccer. Who the hell cares what Grassadonia said. What I dont get is why European sporting figures get pissed off when someone else insults them. They take charges out against the other and act like someone called their mother a whore when it involves something that is irrelevant, true, or both. Why would Cellino care if someone thinks there are people who support the club who arent exactly friendly and peaceful? I mean our fans boo our own players because of their heritage. This is coming from a guy who sits in the stands flipping the bird to fans of other teams. Forget the fact Cellino made an issue out of something that does not matter, true or not, but he did it incorrectly costing his team three points.

I will take one positive out of this. This seems like a pretty cut and dry case. If I was a Chievo or some other club relegated to Serie B after 06-07, I would be upset that Cagliari wasnt docked three points right after it happened. If Cellino made these charges in Feb 07, either he did it right or not. It should not take much time to determine it. If we would have been docked three points in February 07, we would have played Serie B this year. So we basically got a free year in Serie A. But then again maybe that was the plan of the authorities as they knew we would suck horribly this season therefore turning our team into two seasons of waste atleast.

Now we have 15 points and relegation if it was not certain after the loss to Siena, is certain now. Cellino has been fined and banned for a year and needs to win Jackass of the year award for what he has done to this club. He continues to out do himself. Lets hope he sells in the offseason and we get an owner that can take this drop back to Serie B as a chance to clean up the club and get it back to Serie A with another run in the top flight and some real chances at being more then a relegation struggler. I understand that it is tough enough for a small club to win in Serie A, but it can be done. However, when your President gets more headlines then the players and does things that make no sense and violate the rules costing its club vital points, you just want to find a way to get your heart to another club or call some buddies and get the funds together to purchase the team. I dont think I can change clubs as I will be a Rossoblu fan until I die.

Despite the anger and frustration there is still a match to be played at home with Genoa this weekend. Genoa has been a real surprise and I enjoy watching them play. I want Larrivey on the pitch again this weekend and I hope for his sake that booing is all the home fans do to him. Spirit will be very low and this could be ugly. I see possible rioting in the stands and definitely some loud protesting. Maybe we will end up playing the year out in an empty stadium. Could that be any more ironic. A sturdy back line and Storari will keep it respectable, but with the season now gone, I dont see anything positive this weekend.

Prediction Genoa 2-0.