With his twelve championships at the helm of a Serie B team, the promotion with Novara taken to Serie C and led to the double leap was a masterpiece, but also equally important results such as the fourth place with Pordenone or the salvations with Ternana, Mantova and Trieste, Attilio Tesser is the comet that guides us through the twists and turns of the last day. Ninety-plus minutes of dreams and fears. With still leading and trailing verdicts to be issued.
From great teams come great clubs: Parma in Serie A, Como almost
Will it be a formality for Como to secure the ticket for second place?
“No I do not think so. Gone are, or at least I like to think so, the times when unmotivated teams avoided each other. I really believe that Cosenza will go and play it. He has a free head and a player like Tutino, who is certainly not satisfied with what he has done so far. Then it is obvious that Como, in addition to motivation, has a high level of quality on its side and the team has been waiting for Serie A for more than 20 years so it will push its team hard. But don’t say that they’ve been waiting for promotion for a long time (he smiles, ed.) because I won a Serie B championship in Novara after 55 years of waiting… Jokes aside, Como must not make the mistake of taking to the pitch with the certainty of three points. Otherwise Venezia can take advantage of it, even if Vanoli’s team has the most difficult match against a Spezia who is not yet safe. This will probably be the toughest and most uncertain match of the last day.”
Do you see a project that started two or three years ago in Como and Venice as well as in Parma’s victory?
“Surely. Strong properties behind them, in Como they even tell me that there are no problems with salaries and the owners are investing a lot. They also had the strength to defend a change of coach that seemed strange because Longo was doing very well, but they evidently thought that there were a series of pieces to insert and so they did. Parma were already favorites last year, the American owners arrived and were immediately relegated, but they didn’t lose heart and were able to raise their heads again with a well-defined program.”
Playoffs and playouts: show coming soon
Do you foresee any surprises in the playoffs?
«Anyone who doesn’t go up immediately between Como and Venice will be the favorite together with the Cremonese. In terms of staff and strength they have something more than the others, but be careful: after 38 days the best ones immediately rise, the championship doesn’t lie, the playoffs on the other hand are something different and there can be room in these inside or outside matches for everyone and not it’s a way of saying”.
Catanzaro, who plays well, is newly promoted, has no pressure, could they be the loose cannon in the post season?
«They were protagonists of a formidable season, I have confidence. Palermo may seem disappointed for not finishing in the first two, but they will be able to reset. And you will see that Sampdoria and Brescia will also play their chances until the end. That’s the beauty of this formula.”
Ultimately, however, is it the usual final day brawl?
«Yes, Serie B never reaches the last 90 minutes with all the relegations already decided. Here it is difficult, almost impossible to find a favourite, even if Spezia with those two extra points can make the difference over Ternana, Bari and Ascoli. The case of Bari is emblematic of what Serie B is: a year ago it came 40″ from Serie A and now it risks Serie C. But last year we already witnessed the surprising relegations of Benevento and Spal.”
Tactics and technique: the Bernabé phenomenon and a lot of young Italy
For the game proposal, did Serie B say anything new?
«There is a lot of effort to start from the bottom, but it’s not that it didn’t happen before, rather it was less advertised. We certainly play in a more offensive way, almost everyone does high pressing now and this means that teams that get behind the line of the ball and wait are very rare.”
And what about individuals?
«It would be easy for me to say Bernabè from Parma, but if we remember correctly, already in Serie A he scored a fantastic goal by dribbling past opponents like goalposts. To go to medium-ranking teams I say Bianco della Reggiana, a midfielder who I have followed since the Fiorentina Primavera. Ambrosino, Catanzaro striker, is confirming what was said about him. To mention another 2003, I think of Ghilardi, defender of Sampdoria. But I don’t forget two players who are no longer very young, but who were able to rise from Serie C to become decisive in Serie B: Vandeputte, king of assists with 14, and Tutino, who scoring 19 goals in 34 games is an exceptional result.”
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