After leading Inter to a commanding 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, Jose Mourinho looks set to leave the Italian club and head over to Real Madrid.

He is the self-proclaimed “Special One”, and his dream is to become the first man to lead three different clubs to the top glory in Europe. It is clear he is driven by an unrelenting ambition, and whether you like his antics or not, one can’t deny he’s one heck of a daring individual. Real Madrid may be one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, but managers barely hold out half a year in the hotseat before the club’s massive expectations grow too big for them. So can Mourinho conquer another feat and lead them to the Champions League title? You think if anyone can do it, it must be him.

The Special One is already a legend in football, though it’s interesting to compare him to other great managers. Sir Alex Ferguson, for example, has stayed at Manchester United for almost 30 years now. As mentioned in the Del Neri story, there are simply different types of players and managers out there. There are those like Mourinho who aim for personal glory, while it is certain that Sir Alex will never be forgotten by the United faithful, even long after he is gone. One will live in the record books, while the other in the hearts of generations.

In a move that doesn’t make perfect sense from any angle, Sampodria coach Luigi Del Neri has left the club only a day after guiding them to the monumental 4th place in Serie A, or entry into the Champions League qualifying round. A massive achievement both for the club and himself, but he couldn’t resist the offer from 7th placed-Juventus, and packed his bags for Turin the next morning.

It must be hugely frustrating for Sampodria fans, but what can you do. Juventus are the richer club, and despite their poor finish this season, they’ll be favorites to reclaim their top 4 position next year. It will be the biggest club Del Neri has been employed by, and I suppose some opportunities are just too good to pass up. Still, you’d think he would have stayed at least to see how far he can take Sampodria in Europe’s top competition, after working so hard to get there.

On the other hand, given Del Neri’s record, this sort of move isn’t too surprising. He has changed a staggering amount of clubs both as a player and as a manager, rarely staying more than a couple of seasons at one. Juventus are set to be his 18th club since he became a coach, which has got to be some sort of record.

Still, he’s a different kind of manager, one that looks to do the best with what he’s got, and doesn’t exactly install any long-term plans at a club. It’ll be interesting to see what will happen if he finds sufficient success at Juventus, though, as there really isn’t anywhere much higher he can go.

Roma’s star player Francesco Totti finds himself in a lot of hot water after a moment of true madness in his side’s 1-0 defeat to the Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia final.

With the game coming to an end, and with Roma set to take 2nd place to Inter once again after conceding the league title, Inter striker Balotelli ran past three Roma players, and ended up on the floor after a viscous kick by Totti. The challenge, which warranted a straight red card from the referee, does not look so bad on first viewing – that is, until you see the replay. (0:58 mark) You can’t help but be shocked by such a vicious assault by one of Italy’s most experienced players, regardless of the reason for it.

Balotelli, who can’t seem to keep out of the news, accused Totti afterwards of targeting him because of his color, but Totti said the kick was because Balotelli can’t keep his mouth shut and insulted his city. To be frank, going by reports of his recent behavior, I am inclined to side with Totti, but his actions aren’t the way to make your point at all.

I am not sure whether Totti’s case will be helped by his admission that the attack was on purpose, but it looks certain that he’ll face further sanctions from the Italian FA.

Wonder how they’ll get along if picked for Italy’s World Cup squad?

The “Special One” Jose Mourinho has launched yet another attack on the Italian media, in which he has said that: “I’m not happy in Italian football, because I don’t like it and they don’t like me.” He went on to clarify that he still enjoys his time managing Inter, but his relationship with the journalists and the Italian FA has went beyond sour.

In recent months, the former Chelsea manager has been hit by numerous fines and suspensions in Italy, mostly because he keeps on complaining about referee decisions, and the way his players are treated. He even got fined for making a handcuffed gesture, signifying how he felt he was being shackled from giving his opinion after the matches. Some referees have even threatened to boycott games unless Mourinho was given the proper punishment, which shows just how far the situation has escalated.

Mourinho was the first to admit that he doesn’t like where all this controversy has ended up, and now it would be very interesting to see if he stays on as Inter manager after the end of the season. Despite his clashes with the media, he is still managing the club very well. Inter are on top of Serie A, and recently knocked out Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League. Could we see a repeat of Mourinho’s last season at Porto, where he won them the European crown and then left immediately for another club? We’ll have to wait and see.

Football fans can get really angry when things aren’t going their way, and one particular set of supporters that has been livid with their team’s performance as of late has been Juventus. The club is doing very poorly in Serie A, and won’t be able to achieve anything significant this season, which is unacceptable for a club of its stature.

Some fans, however, deem their recent performances, including a 4-1 trashing away to Fulham that knocked them out of the Europa Cup as more than “unacceptable”. As the team were heading out their hotel towards the bus before their game against Atalanta, they were jeered by a number of supporters who had to be held back by police. One fan managed to sneak his way through, and slapped Jonathan Zebina in the back of the head.

The defender wasn’t really hurt, and got on the bus safely, but who knows what could have happened in that situation. Fans should be free to voice their opinion, and booing the team when it is not doing well may or may not work, but physically attacking the players is crossing the line by any standards. Nor can one imagine how it would help the player play better.

Juventus did go on to beat Atalanta 2-1 later that day, but that has hardly cooled down the fans’ anger. The video (in Italian) shows the incident in full, where the police do a pretty good job at keeping the situation from escalating even further.

Sometimes taking a chance pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. For Serie A side Cagliari, in particular, it most definitely did not, and after this weekend’s 2-0 home loss to Lazio, president Massimo Cellino was forced to pay back the money of more than 12,000 home fans who witnessed another poor result by the club.

In response to Cagliari’s poor form as of late, which included three defeats in their last four games, Cellino was confident enough to promise before the game that should the team lose against relegation-threatened Lazio, he would refund the fans’ tickets. He could not have predicted, however, that Cagliari would find themselves 1-0 down at the fourth minute mark, and would go on to embarrass themselves again and lose the game 2-0.

The promise was made on the club’s official website, although the president told the fans they should be expecting a good performance and a result rather than a refund, and I’m sure most
Cagliari fans would have been happy with such a scenario. There are many cases in which getting money back for something is a cause of joy; this, however, is not one of them.

While the result has made Cagliari coach Massimiliano Allegri concede that his mid-table side are in “psychological decline”, the win is a massive boost for Lazio, which finally gives them a bit of breathing space at the bottom. They are now 4 points off the 18th place, and will hope they can soon put their nightmare season to rest and get out of the mire.

Italy national team manager Marcello Lippi has launched a surprising, though understandable attack at Serie A champions Inter Milan. The World-cup winner was quoted as saying that: “Inter are a great squad, but they cannot be taken as an example of Italian football because they are all foreign,” and “There wasn’t a single Italian in the side that beat Chelsea. Italian football is made from Italian players and Italian tacticians.”

He makes a very obvious point, though this is hardly anything new. Arsenal also have few English players besides Walcott in their team, and often go out in Europe without a single English representative themselves. That is why it is sometimes a bit funny when the media or people describe clashes in the Champions League as, say, “an English vs. Italian side”, when hardly anyone in their respective teams is from that country. A much more accurate description would be “a Premiership vs. Serie A” side, though I suppose this is just terminology in the end.

It would be good for football, I believe, if something was done about this, though. As many national leagues have already done, European competitions must also implement a law in which a certain number of your starting team or squad need to be representatives of the country the club competes in. It wouldn’t bring about any huge changes, but I do feel it would simply be more proper, and would force big clubs to think more about developing local players than just buying the next world star.

Gianluigi Buffon returned last night for Juventus in their Serie A 1-1 draw vs. Livorno, after missing the game vs. Lazio last week due to a red card. But what a red-card it was, surely one of the best – or worst you will see all season.

He was sent off in Juve’s last home game vs. Roma in the most dramatic of fashions. With the score tied at one apiece in the 81st minute, Roma defender John Arne Riise latches on to a long ball putting him one-on-one with the goalkeeper, only for the legendary Italian stops-man to go lunging in like a madman into him with studs raised outside the penalty area. It really was one amazingly bad challenge that could have bad consequences for the Norwegian, and deserved the direct sending off Buffon received.

Ironically enough, that did not help the home side at the least, as Riise not only continued the game unharmed but scored the late winning goal for Roma, which was pretty much the last nail in the coffin for Juventus coach Ciro Ferrera. It was also really the topping point of the poor season they’ve been having, after going out in the Champions League in the group stages and losing any contention over the Serie A crown this season.

They will need Buffon back and playing sanely again if they are to challenge for Europe and at least secure a Champions League spot for next season, though right now they face tough competition for those last couple of spots.

That is at least what she claims when interviewed by the Romanian media, but it might also just be a desperate attempt to clear her son’s name. Mutu was famously fired by Chelsea when he failed another drug test in 2004, which saw him suspended for 7 months from football. He came back, though, and established himself as a top striker again at Fiorentina, but if proven guilty, this latest set-back might be the end of his career. At 31 years of age, missing another 4 years of football would be too much.

As with all such cases, I believe intent and any actual affect on his performance should be considered before a punishment is handed out, but in the past football associations have shown little mercy when it comes to drugs. The fact that this is his second offense only makes matters worse. Fiorentina have stated that they are very surprised by this development and that they will stick by their player, but this is a massive blow to them, Romania, and of course Mutu himself.

The incident has generated a bit of controversy in Italy, with Materazzi being accused of mocking and being disrespectful to Burlusconi. The Inter Milan player, however, who is most famous for his head-butt to Zinadine Zidane in the last World Cup finals, has defended his celebrations and claimed they were only in jest. Whether Burlesconi himself and the AC Milan fans see it that way, is another matter.

The incident was described in the referee’s report, and at first it looked like Materazzi might face a sanction. The good news for him, is that it does not seem like the Italian FA will punish him too harshly, and will only let him off with a warning. Which is, by all accounts, the correct decision. I don’t know if it will be enough to discourage such practices in the future, but then again there aren’t that many players that possess this level of “creativity”.

Watching the video below, it does seem like a rather strange choice for celebrating a victory, but it looks more harmless than offensive: