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Team Focus: Delio Rossi's Sampdoria

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Team Focus: Delio Rossi's Sampdoria Delio Rossi keeps insisting: I'm not Padre Pio. No kidding. Holier than thou he most certainly is not. Transgressions, yes, he's had a few, from fighting Adem Ljajic in the dug-out at Fiorentina, an incident that led to his dismissal, to sticking his middle finger up at Roma centre-back Nicolas Burd...

Player Focus: The Impact of Innocent Emeghara

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Player Focus: The Impact of Innocent Emeghara Football managers could be forgiven for thinking they work in the film industry these days. Like members of the Academy and BAFTA they're sent thousands of screeners to review. It's just that the stacks of DVDs they receive either come from the club's performance analysis department or agents lookin...

Team Focus: Milan's Allegri a Contender for Coach of the Year?

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Team Focus: Milan's Allegri a Contender for Coach of the Year? Oops, he did it again. Discretion, it seems, is not a word in Silvio Berlusconi's vocabulary. Regardless of who's around he'll say what's on his mind. Whether anyone in the vicinity has a tape recorder or a video camera is an afterthought. And so it was that when asked about Milan while on the polit...

Player Focus: Hamsik the Key to Napoli's Scudetto Challenge

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Player Focus: Hamsik the Key to Napoli's Scudetto Challenge A place in Napoli's history books awaits Marek Hamsik. At 25, he is already in the club's top 10 goalscorers of all-time, a remarkable feat for a midfield player. Up until now, I've got 68, he said, and the objective is to get to 77, where there's [Giuseppe] Savoldi. To overtake Maradona [on 115], I...

Team Focus: Zeman's Roma

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Team Focus: Zeman's Roma Contrary to popular opinion, the concept of defending is not anathema to Zdenek Zeman. He isn't against it per se. It's nothing personal, the great man insists. It's just why make a priority of it, when it's not what most people watch a game for? In that sense, Zeman's outlook on football is quite d...

Team Focus: Juventus

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Team Focus: Juventus As the ball came towards him, Mirko Vucinic supposedly heard a shout from the touchline. It was Antonio Conte. Leave it! the Juventus coach claims to have roared. Obedient to a fault, Vucinic stepped over Paolo De Ceglie's pass and let it run for his teammate Sebastian Giovinco. Only it never reache...

Team Focus: Lazio

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Team Focus: Lazio Lazio picked a rather curious venue to celebrate the club's 113th birthday on Wednesday. The American Circus was in town, so they chose to blow out the candles under a big top and among some scary-looking clowns. As a location, it was a touch ironic really because unlike their surroundings, there's ...

Player Focus: Dimitar Berbatov

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Player Focus: Dimitar Berbatov A hoofed clearance rises high into the night sky. The crowd at Craven Cottage looks up and follows it's path into the darkness. Dimitar Berbatov watches too. The Fulham striker watches as he runs, never taking his eye off it as the ball falls back into the light and down towards the centre-circle wh...

Player Focus: Eden Hazard

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Player Focus: Eden Hazard Eden Hazard is standing at the penalty spot, his hands on his hips. It's 0-0 in the 35th minute. The Chelsea No.17 had just tried to give the Nordsjælland goalkeeper Jesper Hansen the 'Baggio' eyes, looking intently at one corner before aiming a shot at the other.He had also maybe heard from P...

How Will Rafa Benitez Fit in at Chelsea?

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How Will Rafa Benitez Fit in at Chelsea? Albelda to Aimar to Baraja back to Aimar. It was a classic show and tell. A football illusion. Sleight of foot, not hand, at Mestalla on September 17, 2002. Liverpool had been lulled into thinking Valencia were planning an attack either down the middle or the left-hand side of the penalty area. Dav...