Guidolin Not Exactly Missed in Palermo

By: Martha | April 26th, 2007

Corini, back when he used to play. Apart from my one and only Luis Figo, there are only a handful of others on my list of favorite footballers: Dejan Stankovic. Rino Gattuso. Eugenio Corini. One of the reasons I like this little crew is because (again, apart from Figo, who does like to whine) they tend to operate with class, keeping their mouths shut and just getting stuck in, traits increasingly hard to find in football these days. So, you can surely understand my broken-hearted shock when I read (and saw — for those of you who understand Italian, the video is here) that Corini has been talking out of school about former gaffer Francesco Guidolin — and this with the body hardly cold!

In a press conference yesterday, Corini put on his most captainly face and told the press “that at the end of the day it was the right decision, because it became clear that the rapport between Palermo and the Coach was set to end in the summer anyway.” I feel like the word “rapport” there is a weird translation, but still — “Well, we may as well just get it over with” doesn’t seem like the best reason to can a guy, does it? The team completely falling apart is a good one. As is the fact that they’d picked up relegation-level points over the last several months — that would work, too. But since he was going anyway? Not as good.

In addition to throwing poor Guidolin (no matter how crappy he’s been during the second half, it’s hard not to pity anyone who has to work for Crazy Zampa*) under the bus, Corini also spent a little time discussing the fact that his ass has been on the bench for the last two games, despite having fully recovered from his leg injury. It turns out the captain has spent the last few weeks wondering the same thing as the rest of us, namely: Why the hell isn’t Corini playing?! “Against both Inter and Parma,” he said, “I was ready to play, then the Coach made other choices. Obviously I wasn’t happy to be left out, but I respect Guidolin’s decisions.” I hope at least that last bit is true — it would kill me (and many others) if a guy who seems the picture of class had been causing problems for Guidolin.

Palermo try to pull it together this weekend when they travel to Livorno, hopefully with that beloved rapport back in place.

*Which is why it makes it hard for me to believe I’m reading this cracked-out Google translation right: Sven Goran Eriksson’s agent actually called Zamparini and asked about the job?! Could that possibly be true? Has he lost his mind?