AT LAST! After five frustrating years Massimo Maccarone seems to have finally hit the target, the Macophobes will cry! As if those legendary last gasp UEFA Cup goals that fired us to Eindhoven weren't enough, he has now guaranteed his place in terrace folklore with what appears a clinically delivered knife in Steve McClaren's back.
His new deal at Siena safely signed, the bitter bundle of contradictions - he was universally lauded for firing Boro to Eindhoven but widely branded as "not good enough", cheered to the echo by some because he "tried" yet condemned by others for "having no heart", played over 100 games for the club but is still seen as not having had a chance - appears to have fired a parting string of stinging criticisms Boro's way.
The explosive quotes attributed to Maccarone - and there appear to be several versions depending on how generously they have been translated - were released by his Teesside based friend Sergio Peretti. He may well feel he is fighting his pal's corner but back in Italy his real agent is back-pedalling furiously.
Massimo's agent, Paolo Fabbri, says he 'has been unable to contact the player directly' (which is admittedly strange after a week of very close work on the move), but has serious misgivings about the accuracy of criticism.
"I am really doubtful whether Massimo would be so rude. Yes, he was very upset not to play more often, and yes, he might have specific points to make about McClaren and Southgate on a technical level - but I do not believe his frustrations go beyond that.
“It is said he didn’t like Middlesbrough as a club, yet I know for an absolute fact that was not true because he was always very complimentary about the stadium and the training ground, the fans and the entire organisation. When he knows what is being said in his name, I am sure Massimo will be pretty upset because it is just not his style to be so rude."
The Gazette was offered the statement first on the afternoon before the storm broke. Our response was 'we would like to talk to Massimo ourselves'.
But some other people didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth on a day when Steve McClaren was naming an England squad and so the quotes popped up attributed to Massimo on Football Italia, Sky Sports and the BBC overnight and then spilled into the tabloids the following morning and have left the image of a bitter man.
Whatever their source, they have already been taken up as the truth by those who have had their prejudices confirmed. It is hard to put the genie in the bottle. And to be fair there are plenty of people who will be glad it is out there no matter who removed the cork. If you are inclined to use any scrap offered as a weapon to beat McClaren then this is a Godsend. There are plenty of people who will not care about the source of these quotes.
A lot of the alleged parting shots will be seen as the self-centred whining of a player who just didn't cut the mustard, but one volley - the scathing personal attack on the manager who signed him - will strike a chord with legions of fans who still lovingly nurse a grudge against McClaren. For them these quotes, whatever their pedigree, will be taken as gospel.
The wounded Gladiator portrayed in this rant could have been a pitchfork wielding Macophobe at the front of the mob, zealously pouring out invective on a message board or the Three Legends as he spat out his hateful verdict in Gazzetta dello Sport: "The ever smiling Steve ‘magnificent’ McClaren is certainly the most two faced and false person I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet in football."
You can feel the bile bubble up as the statement uses McClaren's 'magnificent' trademark superlative like a weapon. It is a word hawked up with exactly the same sneering, venomous tone as thousands of Teessiders have used over recent years; an explosive word hiding a multitude of spins; a part of the post-match PR gloss that defied reality and contained within it a kernel of contempt for the paying public who needed educating away from their foolish notions that they should expect entertainment; a word that was reclaimed, sharpened and hurled back as a perjorative missile in the political battle that raged in his last few years.
'Magnificent' is a suspiciously chosen word that will immediately have a large section of the Boro crowd nodding in agreement. As will the stinging accusation that the former boss was a fake and a hypocrite. The Massimo of these quotes is showing a ruthless streak that was missing on the pitch here, pushing a lot of the right buttons and he knows can get significant numbers on his side. It sounds more like a battle scarred Boro fan than any player, let alone a foreign player with faltering English.
But in an echo of his Boro career, after a bright start that earned plaudits and got sections of the fans on side the rant seems to have lost track, retreated into sullen subjectivity and started to miss the target.
“He disgusted me by leaving me on the bench for the Cup Final in 2004, after having told everyone I was his number one and that he was counting on me," Maccarone is said to have said. That won't play well with the public. Such a self-centred attitude misses the point. McClaren's mission was to win that day at Cardiff, to secure that elusive trophy and that meant picking his best team, not one based on pricetags or statements at a signing press conference years before. And almost everyone in the crowd at the Millenium Stadium would have picked in-form Joseph Job ahead of Maccarone based on displays that season.
And alright, Massimo may have been gutted at not playing in the final, who wouldn't be. Colin Cooper missed out too and he more than anyone could put together a case to be part of a triumph that would have meant far, far more to him that it ever could to the Italian. Ever professional Coops took the disappointment with dignity, as should Maccarone. And to attack McClaren over his decisions on a day when the result proved him right and when even the hardcore antis were singing his name seems politically inept by Maccarone's camp.
Then there is the swipe at Boro's training methods. "They are 25 years behind the rest of the world." But that just doesn''t stack up either. The consensus from all the players who have worked with McClaren, at Man U, Boro and England, even after they have left, is that whatever his other faults, coaching and technical preparation are his strong points. To attack Boro's back-room set-up flies in the face of the reality: a training facility that is the envy of the football world, an academy with a glowing reputation and a string of kids coming through the system into the first team, and a first ever trophy and forays into Europe. That can't be the result of a team that is so backward in its methods.
And there is an even bigger misjudgement in the attack on Gareth Southgate, a manager who is riding high in the popularity stakes on Teesside having eased the straps on the stifling tactical straitjacket McClaren had thrown around Boro, got rid of some of the deadwood and put together on of the best runs in the club's top flight history.
“When he was a player, he did nothing but tell me to resist McClaren’s mistreatment so when Southgate took over, he convinced me to stay at Middlesbrough," said the contentious missive . “He promised me I’d get to play six or eight consecutive games. He never kept his pledges. That might be the English way, but in my book every promise means something.”
Promises, like contracts, are broken every day in football. It is part of a pragmatism that is dictated by results and by the dynamics of the team. For any manager to promise any player a guaranteed game is foolhardy. What if said player is rubbish in the first two or three and is costing points? Does the manager persist because he he has given assurance to one player? Or does his duty to the rest of the team, the chairman and the supporters take precedence? If Southgate did break a promise - and we should be wary of taking the word of an agrieved ex-employee - then he did it for the right reasons. We should see such it mental toughness and willingness to dent egos as part of the formative process in the making of a manager.
There is another flash of that subjectivity as the statement bemoans his position over the past two seasons. “After having left you there to rot and told you to find another club, they have the gall to ask you to give your best for them, just because they’re short on players." Hold on mate. It's not just because they are short of players. You should give your best because you are a professional and you get paid £25,000 a week for the privilege fans will think. And you can hardly complain about not getting a chance then moan when it comes along.
For all the problems Massimo may have had at Boro - and you do have to sympathise with a young lad who works abroad and is not happy in the job - there is a certain lack of dignity about this. If he has had any part in it he should be ashamed at leaving such a mess in his wake.
Boro have paid him well, he has played in Europe, scored some iconic goals and got a UEFA Cup finalists' medal. He should go with good grace and, whoever the author of the statement, should channel his anger into resurrecting his flagging career.
**AV adds: This piece got caught up in the teeth of the Gazette machinery over the weekend and was frozen in cyberspace. It is still out there somewhere, being blown about like an empty crisp packet along the grass verge by the information super-highway. Our geeks have retrieved the main body of the blog but comments and links have all disappeared. Sorry.
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