When Antonio Conte, a kid growing up in Lecce, his pre-match meal of sagne ncannulate, slices of pasta twisted into a rich tomato sauce with a layer of schianta cheese snow, was certainly heavier than anything he proposed to his Tottenham players, that institutionally I came here to watch lasagna suspiciously.
The times have replaced Conte’s uncompromising and enlightened technique of nutrition, but he has never forgotten his roots. Lecce taught him much of what he knows and one of the highlights of his time in North London was the afternoon he broadcast one of the maxims. from his friend and compatriot Salentino, Pantaleo Corvino: “You can marry the woman. But you can’t point to the striker.
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Corvino made no mistakes last season. The sporting director of Lecce signed Massimo Coda, a goal assured in the departmental football of the moment in Italy, and saw him finish as top scorer again. A “saliscendi” – yo-yo club – par excellence, Lecce returned to Serie A two years after its fall.
But the promotional party at the Stadio Via del Mare (or ‘Sea Street Stadium’) was marred when the call from the club’s majority shareholder, René De Picciotto, sounded over the loudspeaker, expecting applause, just because of the curve of hitting his thumb. and the index finger in his mouth and whistling as he went out into the field.
The ultras don’t like homeowners saying things like Lecce’s red and yellow blouse, justification enough to go big in the movement market. 19 And he felt that the culprit would be to keep prices low and pay off some debts. “They don’t leave much room for an ambitious strategy,” he said.
Caution is never popular in football and, due to the lack of gratitude he earned, De Picciotto stepped back and cashed in. Saverio Sticchi Damiani, president of Lecce, won two pig’s heads cut off with a threatening letter and Corvino memorably lost heart amid complaints from fans of the club’s moving policy.
Beating relegated Genoa in the relegation, Corvino let him sign for Coda, his striker of 20 goals. Arturo Calabresi was sold to Pisa, who almost followed Lecce in Serie A to lose to Monza in the play-offs. The enthusiasts knew next to nothing about the players coming. They were strangers: little Zambians playing in Israel, Gambians playing in Switzerland, a child actor-turned-goalkeeper named Wladimir, and a muscular farm worker from the lower divisions who looks like a figurine.
“We have to bet on the potential,” he said Corvino. Es easy to faint and point to big names. But we can’t play PlayStation. He called on the fans, the genuine fans, to accept as true with him. “When I came back to the club, we played in Pordenone and the pitch was quiet. There has been noise again. There are 30,000 in the stands. I don’t forget the criticism for promoting Jacopo Petriccione. We have sold players who are now in Serie C. We’re in Serie A. “
Annoying to Corvinus, in particular, was the skepticism surrounding the sale of Coda and its replacement through Assan Ceesay. It’s not about the attackers. Fans deserve to know until now. “When I signed Cristiano Lucarelli (from Valencia in 1999), I had played a bit for two years,” Corvino reminded them. “He was a big boy,” a diplomatic way of saying Lucarelli wasn’t fit. He ate meatballs and pastries. But he scored 31 goals (in two seasons) and we sold him to Torino for 18 billion lire (about £8. 2 million).
“Same with Javier Chevanton,” a loose Columbus movement that now has a mural in his honor in Lecce. “At the end of this window of movement I had to move to Sabaudia (the city beach outside Rome) I didn’t have to put up with the complaint (in Lecce). I sold Valeri Bojinov for 13. 5 million euros (12 million pounds, 14. 4 million dollars) and brought Mirko Vucinic to our academy, another 20 million euros, another 19 passes (in one Serie A season).
You are of little faith. ” Do you think we are in the chair in the living room all day?”
In his previous assignment at Fiorentina – Corvino divided his career between Lecce, the “Florence of the South” and Florence itself – he discovered Dusan Vlahovic, as well as all the other Serbs whose “Viola” made his fortune over the years; Steven Jovetic, Adem Ljajic, Matija Nastasic, the list goes on.
Perhaps the Lecce Cee enthusiasts before saying anything about Ceesay was Corvino’s assessment. “It’s like we’ve signed a stray dog,” he scoffed. “Willy Gunto’s teammate in Zurich, Ceesay was on the loose after scoring 20 goals and winning the Swiss championship. It was his long-range effort that put Lecce on the road to victory over Atalanta in Bergamo on Sunday lunchtime.
When it comes to deciding on a revelation in Serie A this season, frankly, we have plenty of options. Udinese stole the exhibition at the start of the campaign. Bologna is slowly under Thiago Motta and Empoli’s impressive form looks more sustainable than a year. back with a handful of talented Italians such as Nicolo Cambiaghi, Tommaso Baldanzi, Fabiano Parisi and Guglielmo Vicario.
Monza, meanwhile, becomes the speed to record the most productive place for a team promoted since the fairy tale of Chievo at the turn of the century (finishing fifth in 2002). Rookie coach Raffaele Palladino has done a normal job at Monza since replacing Giovanni Stroppa in September, beating Juventus at home and away. But Monza also recorded the highest net spending in Italy thanks to Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani, who spent generously on their retirement project.
Lecce, for its part, has done things for little money.
In addition to football, Corvino gradually developed a great fondness for fashionable art. He has amassed a small personal collection over the years and told Gazzetta dello Sport: “I found that I feel the same emotion in an art painting as I Make a Goal. And like in football, I like to look at new artists.
This summer’s strategy was reminiscent of the “arte povera” (poor art) movement that emerged in Italy in the ’60s when artists like Alberto Burri used humble and ignored elemental fabrics to create masterpieces. Corvinus did the same.
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Lameck Banda, Maccabi’s little dribbler Petah Tikva, the top signing wanted at 2 million euros.
The most productive was Federico Baschirotto for € 280,000 of Ascoli. He-Man’s double has one of Serie A’s most productive defenders and continues to appear with set-piece goals. Only Victor Osimhen, who tops the league’s scoring list, has scored more headers in Serie A this season and it would come as no surprise if Baschirotto, 26, soon receives his first call-up to the Italian squad.
Lecce discovered the back of the two times in ⚽️ a row
Federico Baschirotto put Lecce ahead and Federico Di Francesco doubled his lead moments after Atalanta’s kick-off after conceding the first ⏰ pic. twitter. com/IKkG17f8iM
– Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) November 2022
Her husband, the central Samuel Umtiti, was the only “name” that Corvinus delivered. Winner of the World Cup with France, Umtiti’s career seemed to be over in Barcelona. The last few years have been discouraging, with a serious injury that took away the joy of his daily work. Greeted like a hero in Lecce, tears stream down his face as Umtiti is moved by the warmth of welcoming him at the airport. He has started 11 of his last 15 games and has brought much-needed experience.
“It’s the youngest team in Italy,” Lecce coach Marco Baroni said. (Inter Milan at home), we lost to death. Banda had just landed (from Israel). We had reinvented Baschirotto (a winger) as a central defender that morning.
It’s a validation season for Baroni. The 59-year-old is in danger of being pigeonholed as a promotion specialist for clubs in central and southern Italy. He led Benevento for the first time in their history to lose their first 8 Serie A matches. and be fired. Frosinone then presented him with the possibility of saving the club, but he may not avoid relegation to Serie B and one wonders if he would return to elite level.
Baroni didn’t just do that. Lecce looks comfortably confident in the 13th, 10 points out of the last three. The Salentini fought to some extent in Napoli in August and have also drawn Roma and champions AC Milan in recent weeks.
“I’m in good hands with Corvino,” Baroni said. The former Napoli player is focused on what he does best. “A coach’s job is to train. ” Don’t give signals to players. “I don’t spend my energy on other things. We don’t have time. You stay running and then you retire to accelerate. In ecce we have nothing to do. We just want what we have.
However, the scale of the improvement has been unexpected and with the exhibition it is clearer than ever that Corvinus has made scouting an art.
(Top photo: Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto Getty Images)