The most difficult hours for Bari. Not only results that are missing, not only the distrust now rooted in society, but also a palpable tension, the cause of disordered or even violent reactions, such as those of a group of fans against sports director Ciro Polito. Tensions that are worrying, to the point that on the occasion of the last match of the Serie B regular season, scheduled for Friday evening against Brescia, a significant strengthening of security actions was foreseen, starting with an escort for the red and white president Luigi De Laurentiis . A form of prevention foreseen by the committee for order and safety of the province of Bari with the aim of avoiding unpleasant events, such as the one against the director.
It’s not the best way to prepare for the match, hoping there will be others too. It would mean having averted the nightmare of direct relegation and having guaranteed at least the double challenge of the play outs. On Friday evening the curtain will fall on a tournament that should have taken on a diametrically opposite relevance after last year’s near-masterpiece. Instead, the abyss looms.
«I am obviously against any form of violence – states the musician Emanuele Arciuli, a huge Bari fan, acting as a spokesperson for the thoughts of every true supporter – and I distance myself from any manifestation that expresses itself in the form of aggression and rudeness.” This is the premise, before going into the merits of the team’s technical situation. «I think that Bari’s problems – he continues – depend on a complex of reasons. First of all, there is no technical support, with only Polito as the expert, who is also dramatically overrated, and who this year got everything wrong; but it would be too convenient to make him the scapegoat, because the choices should be shared and endorsed by society which is therefore fully co-responsible. With Giuntoli gone, not only Napoli but also Bari suffered. Then the communication was completely wrong. I’m sorry because a possible relegation would be a devastating blow for sporting Bari.”
So what to hold on to? To the San Nicola factor, which still remains an added value, and to the potential of some players who have nothing to do with the lower end of the Serie B table. Captain Di Cesare and co are not inferior to Brescia, at least on paper. And then there is the Nasti factor, who at the key moment of the season is trying to take the responsibility for the goal onto his shoulders. With Cosenza, just a year ago, it was decisive. Presenting ourselves in these terms would be the best for the people of Bari.
The clouds, however, become denser when we look at the athletic condition of the team, which is regularly less brilliant than its opponents. Almost everyone loses their duels and in a few circumstances the much vaunted dribbling qualities actually generate the superiority that is needed. Without forgetting the psychological state of the group. Morality literally under his heels, personality certainly not to be sold. With everything that entails in terms of performance and results. The feeling is that no one in the team could think of a degeneration of this type. And now it’s hard to recover.
