Here we go again – the latest Cassanate in Genova

Here we go again. It’s time for the latest installment in the never-ending Cassano soap opera, and I doubt I am alone in being both bored and depressed by it.

Long story short – Samp President Riccardo Garrone asks Cassano to go to an awards ceremony to accept an award. Cassano refuses, and decides to insult Garrone quite badly. Cassano’s refusal to apologise in the way Garrone wanted led Samp to take steps to have Cassano’s contract terminated. Cassano begins to frantically backtrack, apologising left, right and centre, offering to take massive wage cuts, declaring his love for Samp and how he wants to stay with us forever. Garrone’s unmoved. Cassano’s clinging on by his fingertips.

Childish, isn’t it? But then again, that’s part of having Cassano on the books. We know what he’s like. We know that this sort of thing is always possible. Until now, his performances on the pitch made the volatility acceptable, and even though he’s on form – top scorer for both Samp and Italy so far this season – this seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

But what I absolutely cannot understand, what is utterly bizarre and lacking in reason, is that Samp want to terminate his contract rather that cashing in and selling him for €15m+ in January. He’s damaged goods, but that’s exactly what he was when Samp came in for him. The only difference between now and then is that his market value has increased massively. Liverpool are sniffing around, as are Palermo and a host of others.

While any real Samp fan will understand that no man is bigger than the club (no matter how much we love the abusive wee scamp), we’re also justified in wondering why the hell we should bother paying for tickets, merchandise, etc when the club has such scant disregard for the value of its main asset. And when that asset is offering to take a 50% pay cut to show his dedication to the club, that really should count for something.

To conclude: yes, he’s a twat, and a baby, and an idiot. But he’s got skills, and he does genuinely love Samp, even if the red mist still descends on occasion. He’s apologised. Let’s see reason and give him one last chance. And then sell him for big money if he screws up again.

As for events on the pitch, we’ve been solid and hard to beat over the last six weeks. We’ve also been finding it hard to win games though, which is why we’re only in sixth spot despite losing only one league game all season. The wins over Fiorentina and Cesena were interesting in that they featured late winners for Samp, rather than the concession of late goals, which had sullied the games against PSV in the Europa League (athough we were played off the park) and Napoli.

I’ve been especially impressed with the contribution of Vladimir Koman, a young Hungarian midfielder who spent last season on loan at Bari. He’s most at home on the left of midfield, has a lovely touch and scored in the defeat to Metalist in the Europa League last month – a defeat we have a chance to avenge on Thursday as the Ukrainians arrive in Genova. We’re currently two points adrift of Metalist in second and three behind PSV, so a win on Thursday is imperative.

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