From The Press Box: Conor Clancy

In the latest in our series discussing key topics with members of the media, editor of Forza Italian Football Conor Clancy joins us to discuss the impending resumption of Serie A.

We spoke to Clancy about the recent conclusion to the Coppa Italia, his expectations for the final phase of the league campaign - and his own experiences living and working in Italy...

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Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Conor. Italian football returned last week with the Coppa Italia – what did you make of the end of that competition?

“Well, I’m not sure any of us knew what to expect going into it, really, because all the teams have had so long off.

"I was quite disappointed with Juventus – but then I kind of remembered that every time I watch them I am often disappointed these days! I really enjoyed Napoli-Inter and I thought Eriksen’s early goal really opened up that game and made it entertaining.

“And, of course, the final was really good. Particularly with how it ended. It was really interesting – especially with all the storylines, with Napoli getting revenge on Maurizio Sarri and stuff like that. And also Gianluigi Buffon putting in a performance for the ages was quite nice – we’ve not seen him do that for a few years now!

“I did not notice too much rustiness from any of those sides although, in terms of Juventus and AC Milan, I’m not sure if that’s because both those sides can sometimes be a bit dull anyway. But I think when we see some of the other teams return, we’ll probably see fitness and motivation and sharpness be a bit more of a problem over the first few games or so.”

What are you expecting from the return of Serie A then?

“I think it is going to be hard to look beyond Juventus for the title now, more so then when football stopped because – although I know you’ll hate me for saying this – I thought Lazio were playing good football and looking strong. I probably had them down as favourites, really; what they had been doing was quite special, and obviously they’ve beaten Juve a few times recently too.

“But now, because of the break and all the games to come and how many rotations are going to have to be made, it favours Juve. They have a big squad with about 15 midfielders and, as we know, Sarri just loves his midfielders. So he is going to be able to rotate pretty much every single game and still have a pretty good side out there, whereas you look at Lazio and, beyond Luis Alberto and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, they perhaps don’t quite have the same level of depth. They could struggle. You can even see Inter making a run to get back into it, as they have that little bit of depth too.

“I think Atalanta should be able to hang on to fourth place, although for them too squad rotation is going to be something they will have to be careful with, and then with the mid-table boys it is going to be interesting to see the competition for the Europa League places. Even as far as Bologna, there is something to play for there.

"Motivation is going to be an issue for some teams further down from that, but most of them are either involved in the fight for Europe or still have work to do if they want to be sure of avoiding relegation. You look at a team like Fiorentina, that still has work to do – but that depends on some of the teams at the very bottom from getting on a run.

“I hate to say it, but it’s so hard to say with any confidence what might happen. We all need to see a few rounds of games before we can begin to make any judgements.”

What about your story then. You live in Parma now – how did you end up in Italy, writing about Italian football?

“Basically it started at school, in 2012, I wrote a blog about football because of something that happened at the European Championship that summer that really annoyed me. I’d always liked reading about football and listening to podcasts about football and stuff like that. I had started a degree in human resource management – but after about three months, I absolutely hated it. Like I just knew so quickly that it wasn’t what I wanted to do.

“But I decided to sort of stick it out – for four years - and after I graduated I did a Master’s in journalism. And throughout all that I started writing for Forza Italian Football, and then I saved up for about nine months and moved out here – because we wanted to get more people out here who were going to games on a regular basis.

“I think if you are familiar with the English-speaking coverage of Italian football then you know that actually a lot of people are in England, or in the United States, or in Australia – there aren’t many actually here in Italy.

“We wanted to make that a big thing – that we are at the games every week.”

Why Italy and Italian football for you, though?

“I fell in love with Italy the first time I visited. I went to Rome that same summer of 2012, and I was saying to my parents, ‘Why did you wait to bring me here?!’ I came back three or four times every year after that to watch football matches. I decided pretty quickly that this is the place I needed to live.”

And you chose to live in Parma. What was the thinking behind that?

“Initially I was in Milan for three months – I have a friend who lives there. So they put me up for a while as I was looking for places to stay. The way things shaped up, at the time Emilia-Romagna had four Serie A teams there, so that was a starting point. Obviously Parma had that little bit of romance attached to it – because the team had that ridiculous comeback of three promotions in three years to get back to Serie A, the first time anyone has done something like that.

“So I liked the idea of being around that, and obviously it’s also a little bit cheaper to live here than a lot of other places. I still have a good quality of life here, and it is so easy to get to different places – Florence, Verona, Brescia, Milan – by train. It kind of picked itself. Right now there are so many teams nearby that it is very convenient geographically too.”

How many games do you go to, during a normal period at least?

“I usually go to three games a weekend. It’s rarely less than that. Generally speaking, one of Sassuolo and Parma will be at home each weekend – so it is taken as read that I will go to those, and then I’ll see what other games are appealing.

“In the beginning it wasn’t always easy to get accreditation and to get access, but now most teams are okay. At times we’ve had to fight really hard to get in to games but now a lot of the clubs know us and are very accommodating. At Parma they know me by my face alone at this point.

“At Atalanta we used to have problems too – we had some issues when they played the first few games of the season down in Reggio Emilia – but then before the break in the action they were even accrediting us for away Champions League matches. So we’ve made progress.”

What are some of your favourite grounds then, from your trips around Italy?

“Well, the Tardini is obviously very comfortable for me – it’s a bit of a home from home at this point. I think I did 15 Parma home games last season, and I was on track to do even more this season – I can walk there in 10 minutes from my house, so it’s very familiar.

“In terms of the actual stadium, though, the San Siro is impossible to overlook. Every time I go there, and I’ve been a few times now, I come up out of the metro and I can’t really believe I’m about to be working there that night. It’s the stuff of dreams – if I told myself as an eight-year-old I’d be doing that at 26 I just wouldn’t believe it. It’s a brilliant, historic stadium – especially on Champions League nights.

“Beyond that, I’m not sure. I don’t really like Juventus’s stadium – I don’t think there’s much real identity to it, inside the ground or outside it too. I’m trying to think of others; I like SPAL’s ground, just because it shouldn’t be the stadium of a team in one of Europe’s top five leagues. If you went to England it would be a League One ground, but it’s just great with the layout and the fans.

"Bologna’s Dall’Ara has the hills behind it, that’s just beautiful – as is Fiorentina’s in a different way. Obviously the Marassi in Genoa is a great, English-style ground too.”

How is your Italian? Did you know the language before you came out here?

“I came here knowing absolutely nothing except for some of the random words associated with football. Even now, it’s probably not at the level I want it to be. But I don’t have any plans to leave Italy at this point, so I want to be able to speak it as if it is my native language.

“I can get by, I can speak to people when I’m out of my house or whatever. But I’m learning by speaking to people, not through lessons or classes. English really isn’t that well spoken in most parts of Italy, so it forces you to improve your Italian a lot.”

“What was the lockdown like for you? Were you in Italy throughout? Did you get a sense of the fear and uncertainty around the country?

“Yes, I was here throughout it all. It was a really strange experience, right? Because I remember when I started going back out again – it felt like I had moved to Italy for the first time again, because for the previous three months I could have been anywhere in the world. It was just the walls of my apartment.

“The first few weeks were terrible, because no-one knew with certainty how long things would go on for. And I was in my flat, where the sun would only come through the window occasionally – and if it goes behind a cloud the whole place would descend into darkness. But then work picked up, because there were so many discussions going on about the restart, and we also began to work on different projects within the site too.

“We had writers pick their favourite match they had seen – an idea The Guardian then took, so it must have been good! – and also we started a series looking at the next generation of players coming through at Serie A clubs. I’m quite proud of both of those – it was an unprecedented situation, no-one knew what to do.”

What was the general mood like? Did you get a sense of that?

“I’m definitely happy it is over. I’m happy to feel like I live in Italy again. I did not really get a great sense of the fear around Italy because, in the middle of the quarantine, you literally wouldn’t see anyone. The supermarket is 100 metres from me, so I never had to go far. It was not seeing anyone that was strange.

“But I know a few people now, I’ve developed relationships over the years – and a lot of those with people from Bergamo too. And just from speaking to them, and seeing their social media, you could see the impact it was having there. Just seeing the numbers going up every day. I saw one person say that the city had lost a generation in the last three months, which makes your skin shiver a bit to think about.

“Whereas in Parma, the fear was never quite like that. It was like I was the only person on earth. In squares where usually there are stalls and hundreds of people there were maybe five, all spaced apart."

What did you make about the prospect of football returning? Because in some quarters it has been controversial…

“I was quite concerned, because from a purely selfish perspective it’s my job! I wanted football to come back, because without it my existence is a bit pointless! But when you saw the fan groups coming together to protest it, or the French league deciding to cancel the season, you did begin to wonder if that might happen with Italy too.

“Thankfully, I think common sense prevailed and it has returned – although we’ll have to see for how long, considering all the protocols involved.”

What have you made of Roma this season? What have your been your overall impressions?

“Honestly, I think they have been better than I’ve expected. The fact they are still in contention for the Champions League places is not something I would have expected at the start of the season. I think Paulo Fonseca has done quite a good job.

“I would like to see more of Justin Kluivert, because I think he’s an exciting young player – even if he doesn’t always deliver. But in general they have been okay. Considering they have all these new players, and considering how often the approach tends to change each season, they have been quite good.

“Roma, I have to say, have given me some of my best memories in Italian football. One of them was four years ago, when Francesco Totti was perhaps going to retire – I came over to Bergamo for Atalanta-Roma. Obviously there’s a bit of a rivalry there anyway, so I was excited for it, even if the weather was miserable that day!

“Roma went 2-0 up, and I was regretting going, but then Atalanta turned it around and made it 3-2. So Spalletti threw on Totti – so I was like, perfect, I get to see a fantastic comeback and watch Totti too. And then he scored the equaliser. So when I was flying home I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact I’d seen Totti score what, at the time, could have been his last ever goal in Italian football.

“It’s something that sticks to me now – it’s nice to have seen Francesco Totti play, and especially to have seen him score.”

What should Roma’s realistic target be for the end of this season, do you think?

“There is no reason why Roma cannot keep pushing Atalanta – given what we’ve been talking about before, about how Atalanta might tire with all those games. The gap isn’t necessarily that big. So I do think they still have every chance of pushing them close – and they do still have the Europa League too.

“I think it will be interesting to see how that will pan out, especially with the new format and lots of one-off games. In those circumstances you never know how far they could go. I think for now they need to forget about creating a team identity and whatever else, and just try and win as many games as they can during the next six weeks. But they will be in Europe next season, one way or another.

“And I think playing behind closed doors could help too, especially as a lot of the players are quite young – and maybe a bit unsure of themselves. The crowd at the Olimpico can be quite demanding, so it might help them, you never know. And obviously these games are all going to be played during the summer heat – which might be something that affects them all a bit less, as they are used to living in a place that is pretty hot most of the time.”

Conor Clancy is the editor of Forza Italian Football.

You can follow him on Twitter here.