Losing is On Everyone’s Mind

By: Julian | April 15th, 2011

AC Milan, Napoli, and Sampdoria: what do the three sides have in common? Two are scudetto contenders, and one is a relegation possibility, but all three have spoken recently about losses.

Both AC Milan and Napoli have reiterated that their star strikers, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani respectively, won’t be leaving this summer. Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis was rather bullish about any potential suitors for El Matador: “Will teams be inquiring about Cavani this summer? Well, we’ll be inquiring about other players too. Inquiries are allowed, but at times a ‘no’ will come as a response. Why should Cavani leave? It’s not a question of money. It seems vulgar to me to only think about football from a business perspective. We administer our club carefully with five sets of positive accounts in a row and we don’t have any need to sell a champion like Cavani.” Napoli fans can rest easy, then.

Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri was slightly less definitive in his statement about Ibra but still believes he won’t be going anywhere: ““I believe that Ibra will stay at Milan and that he has been exemplary this season aside from this month in which he has paid dearly for inappropriate behavior”.

It’s interesting to compare the different approaches taken in these two cases. De Laurentiis, speaking as the president, definitively states that Cavani won’t be leaving; Allegri however merely suggests that he “believes” Ibra will stay. The difference? Silvio Berlusconi.

Nevertheless, both Milan and Napoli believe that they won’t lose a player, and have little reason to fear the opposite. Sampdoria, on the other hand, aren’t worried about a possible loss when perhaps they should be. Coach Alberto Cavasin claims that Sampdoria have “nothing to lose” in their game against Milan on Saturday.

Which just begs the question: has he seen the league table?

Capture

Cavasin claims that 38 points should be enough to save a side this season, which just might be true. The bottom half of Serie A is immensely competitive this season, which may be another way of stating that all of the teams are rather awful. However Il Doria have only picked up one point out of the last fifteen and hang a mere point above the drop. Is he sure they have nothing to lose?

Some Related Serie A Posts:

Category: Serie A

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Romablows

Losing is definitely on US Rioma's mind!
agiamba

It's amazing to think that Sampdoria who finished CL last season, is the worst team in Serie A in 2011. Worse than Bari. They can thank God they started the season with Pazzini and Cassano, if they hadn't, they'd definitely be in Serie B.
Jose P

i think it's a good possibility that ibra will stay at milan. it's not like he has another choice. after all that he said about pep guardiola, i don't think we'll be seeing ibracadabra in a blaugrana shirt next season unless he were to publicly kiss pep's ass, which knowing ibra's ego, he will certainly not do.
FORZA DE ROSSI

Last year Samp were the CL representative and had 4th. This year they are relegation candidates. All because Garronne has a mental disability.
Italia2006

Samp were mentally weak (even before Garronne fit) , since they gave up CL group qualification in the last 10 minutes of the 2nd leg.
Missed 10-15 m euros CL Group stage monies (including Tv)
JulianJ

I hope roma are the ones to send them down on the last day, it would sweet revenge for last season