The day that Swindon Town announced last summer that their new manager was going to be Paolo Di Canio - we should have all known it was going to be a roller-coaster ride. There would be moments of great enthusiasm, passion, joy and laughter. But we knew we would also see other moments of argument, confrontation and negative passion towards the feeling of despair, rage and just generally throwing all of the toys out of the pram.
Swindon have gone on a great run in the League 2 and are unbeaten in 14 games in all competitions, a run that stretches back to late September; they currently sit in the play-off positions. They have also reached the 3rd Round of the FA Cup after wins against both Huddersfield Town and Colchester United (both from League 1) and now face Premier League Wigan Athletic at home at the beginning of January.
Despite all of this, it was last weekends performance away to Bristol Rovers that has made Di Canio furious. A late equaliser meant that Rovers earned a share of the points and in the press conference after the match the Italian let rip at his team even threatening to quit unless changes were made to the squad. The full interview can be heard over on the interviews blog (posted the same day as this post).
From some of my own experiences of amateur football, I know how frustrating it can be when players let you down. My first priority was that actually turned up for a match in the first place and if so were in a fit state to play and had not forgotten their boots at home! Di Canio's problems are certainly different from these but in a comparison between an amateur team and a professional club I think I understand the Italian's frustrations especially of course as in his playing career he played at a much higher level whereby things that he points out would have been done automatically.
I just hope he does not quit as the game in general needs characters in it and he is certainly one of them as I have posted before. His dream is to manage West Ham United and I hope that he can achieve this as we will see much more of him as The Hammers are always going to be in the headlines for different reasons.
Swindon have gone on a great run in the League 2 and are unbeaten in 14 games in all competitions, a run that stretches back to late September; they currently sit in the play-off positions. They have also reached the 3rd Round of the FA Cup after wins against both Huddersfield Town and Colchester United (both from League 1) and now face Premier League Wigan Athletic at home at the beginning of January.
Despite all of this, it was last weekends performance away to Bristol Rovers that has made Di Canio furious. A late equaliser meant that Rovers earned a share of the points and in the press conference after the match the Italian let rip at his team even threatening to quit unless changes were made to the squad. The full interview can be heard over on the interviews blog (posted the same day as this post).
From some of my own experiences of amateur football, I know how frustrating it can be when players let you down. My first priority was that actually turned up for a match in the first place and if so were in a fit state to play and had not forgotten their boots at home! Di Canio's problems are certainly different from these but in a comparison between an amateur team and a professional club I think I understand the Italian's frustrations especially of course as in his playing career he played at a much higher level whereby things that he points out would have been done automatically.
I just hope he does not quit as the game in general needs characters in it and he is certainly one of them as I have posted before. His dream is to manage West Ham United and I hope that he can achieve this as we will see much more of him as The Hammers are always going to be in the headlines for different reasons.
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