Rewriting History....Austria Euro 2004 Challenge

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Back in Messina, and lo and behold Picone was back in training the next morning. According to my memory he had been drowned, buried alive, hit with a falling ten ton anvil, dragged along behind a team coach on a motorway for two hours, and poisoned, so far. And still he came back into training with the look of a fighter in his eyes, although recently he had more the look of a rabid maniac in his eyes as things were clearly starting to take their toll mentally. He had started sniffing constantly and gave the odd butthead-like snigger. He must really want that money. Odd.

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Back to the grindstone then, and three days after managing in front of 50000 supporters at the space age AmsterdamArenA I was in Livorno's pokey 13000 capacity Armando Picchi stadium in Tuscany in front of 6000 laregely indifferent fans. I dont know how many miles I had covered in the last week but at least we'd flown to this game, coming in at Pisa. Livorno had no one Id heard of and were another team in the relegation dogfight. Another must not lose game for us.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Sat 9th April 2005 20.30

Armando Picchi, Livorno

Livorno (19) 0 v 1 Messina (22)

Att 6142

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A tense relegation six pointer in Tuscany was settled in the 65th minute when Messina's attacking midfielder Gentile volleyed home from 16 yards from an elegant Calabrese chip. In an equal game Livorno had chances to share the spoils but met Storari in the Messina nets in man of the match form. This makes it six points from two games for Messina who have finally found a bit of form since reverting a 4132 formation, but surely too late to save their Serie B status. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

We were making progress now, the 14 point canyon to safety was down to 11 with 7 games to play. Next up, 11th placed Albinoleffe. Rezaei injured himself in training however and our stretched defence would be stretched further for three weeks

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>

Sat 17.5.2005 20.30

Giovanni Celeste, Messina

Messina (22) v Albinoleffe (11)

Att

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Mario Morfeo waltzed through the Messina defence after 40 minutes to score the only goal of this dour encounter and end Messinas mini revival. The ambitious Sicilians are 12 points from safety now with 6 games left, and even the staunchest of Messinian tifosi will find it hard to make a case for their survival. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

For this reason I was getting seriously concerned for my own survival. It was for this reason that when Markus Schopp, my Austrian right winger, phoned me that night and asked me if I wanted him to put in a good word with his employers, Brescia, who were currently headhunting the man that could save them from relegation from Serie A, that I realised I had an important decision to make. Pride made me want to stay where I was and at least attempt to finish the job I had taken on in Sicily. Fear of what would happen to me if I failed (I would at best be sacked, of that there was no doubt), and the chance to make a name for myself in Serie A in a scenario that looked on paper easier than my current predicament, was very tempting. Brescia were third from bottom in a division in which three teams are relegated, two points behind Udinese in the safe 17th position and 6 points behind 16th placed Napoli with 6 games to play.

What should I do I asked myself? I decided to sleep on it and decide tomorrow.