Advisory (as they once wrote on CD covers): I will be very explicit in this column. Why? Because I really didn't like the way Francesco Guidolin was treated by Swansea City's ownership and management.
Let's recap a bit his Welsh adventure: he arrived last season in January in an almost desperate situation, with a team facing relegation; in March there were already rumors about a possible replacement. He has answered all this incredible and irritating skepticism in the only way he could: with results. And with good performances - which doesn't hurt.
Swansea ended the last season in 11th place alongside Everton.
And this season started with a win, which offered optimism to all inside club...
No, not to all: in fact someone was dealing with Ryan Giggs to offer him Guidolin's bench. My feelings? Really, really frank feelings? Some people inside the club, when Swansea have lost the last match against Liverpool (only due to a very unlucky goal in the last minutes!), have toasted. They celebrated. They could not wait to get rid of Guidolin, whose only fault, in a modern football so cynical and a slave of business, is to be an honest man, a professional man. Too respectable, perhaps?
MANCINI AND WEST HAM?
I don't believe in the rumors about Roberto Mancini and West Ham, even if Slaven Bilic has been forced to answer such a question during his last press conference.
If Mancini decided to come back to England, it would be only for a top club. Or for the national team...
SABATINI ON MARKET
In Italy they have written and spoken a lot about the ending of the relationship between Roma and their sports director Walter Sabatini.
Sabatini, who was last summer rumored to be close to Chelsea, was too far from the American ownership way of conceiving football and, above all, he paid for the fact that he has never built a team capable of winning something.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the fact that he was ready to buy Lucas Boye in January but Pallotta stopped the deal. In that moment he decided to resign. What will he do now? Maybe he will take some rest, than we will see.
HIGUAIN AND ARSENAL
Last words about Gonzalo Higuain: I was the first one to write about this incredible negotiation here on Tribal Football - and the interview given by Aurelio De Laurentiis, Napoli's president, in these last few days revealed that I wasn't wrong!
