Shocks bring similarities

October 6, 2008

Saturday, 27th September 2008- a day when the sporting world was shocked. Arsenal,
probably the most elegant football team on the planet, were defeated 2-1 by newly
promoted Hull City. To make this result even more incredible, the side enjoying
their first campaign in the English top flight did it in Arsenal’s own back yard,
the Emirates Stadium. This sort of result very rarely comes around in football, or
so you would think. But being a follower of Italian football, I have seen this all
before.

Back in the season of 2001/2002, a little side under the name of Chievo Verona were
embracing their shot at playing alongside the big teams in Serie A. With all the
money being splashed around in the summer of 2001 in Italy, the Veronese minnows
weren’t given much of a chance. In fact, so little faith did Italian football
followers have in Chievo, they were given the nickname ‘The Flying Donkeys’. But how
wrong they were.

Chievo started the season with a famous 2-0 win against giants Fiorentina, and then
never looked back. While the defeat of Fiorentina may not have come as a complete
surprise to many (Fiorentina had just become financially crippled and were
completely deprived of any class players), some of the other results were
surprising. The boys from the Bentegodi ran both AC Milan and Juventus close away
from home, while supposed giants Lazio and Parma fell at the Chievo fortress. For a
few weeks, the side who weren’t given a prayer led Serie A, and were considered
outside Scudetto contenders. The pinnacle of the miracle was their 2-1 defeat of
Inter Milan in the San Siro.

Chievo ended the season with a highly commended fifth place finish, enabling Luigi
Del Neri’s side to play UEFA Cup football the next season. Hull City could well
follow in their footsteps. The similarities between the clubs are startling.
Cristiano Lupatelli was rebuilding his career at Chievo, having been sold by Roma, a
top 6 side; Boaz Myhill is doing the same, after being discarded by Aston Villa. The
heartbeat of Chievo’s mdifield came from much travelled Eugenio Corini, a playmaker
who had an unsuccessful spell at giants Juventus; Geovanni only made about 30
appearances in three seasons with Barcelona. Chievo’s top scorer in their debut
Serie A season was Massimo Marazzina, who netted only 13 goals. That is the sort of
figure that Marlon King et al should be aiming for. Meanwhile, Phil Brown has shown
that his sides are not afraid to go to big teams and attack, just like Del Neri did.

Hull City have always been living under the shadow of Leeds United. Chievo’s
fiercest rivals are Hellas Verona, who won the Scudetto back in 1985. Hellas were
relegated in 2001/02, and now languish in the third tier of Italian football; the
writing’s on the wall for Hull.

Oliver Jones

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