WOLFSBURG COLLAPSE COULD GET WORSE!

Remember Saturday 23^rd May 2009? VfL Wolfsburg fans remember this day very fondly. 30,000 of them were packed inside the Volkswagen Arena to see their team thrash Werder Bremen 5-1 to win the club’s first ever Bundesliga title. Josué was showered in green confetti as he lifted the shield high above his head, accompanied by the roars of his team’s success-starved supporters.

Manager Felix Magath was largely responsible for this shock triumph; using players like Dzeko, Grafite, Dejagah and Misimovic to play an attacking style of football that took Germany’s top division by storm. This was undoubtedly the greatest day in VfL Wolfsburg’s history.

However the energetic celebrations and free-flowing football are nothing more than memories by now, and the events of last Saturday highlight how far the Saxon club have fallen. This weekend saw Die Wölfe slip into the relegation zone after FC Nürnberg starlet Mehmet Ekici orchestrated a 2-1 win for his side against Wolfsburg. The crowd at the Volkswagen Arena were left contemplating the possibility of relegation from the Bundesliga less than two years after winning the league title. One win in their last seven league games suggests that this unthinkable possibility could very well become a reality.

A quick glance at the train-crash that has been Wolfsburg’s post-championship history will show that far from being a confusing surprise, this plummet from greatness was inevitable.

Following the 2008-09 success Felix Magath decided to leave Wolfsburg, heading to Schalke 04. The club appointed assistant Armin Veh as Magath’s replacement. The new manager had enormous boots to fill, and despite managing to hold onto highly-rated Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko, he had trouble filling those old boots.

The first half of the 2009-10 season saw Wolfsburg make a disappointing start. I was in the stands for their 25th October match at the Olympic Stadium against Hertha BCS. Hertha had only managed one win by this stage of the season and were rock bottom of the Bundesliga. However Wolfsburg never threatened Drobny’s goal and in truth looked second best against the Berliners, only managing a 0-0 draw. This was a fair reflection of their performances in the first half of the season; slow, insipid and lacking the excitement of the previous term. The writing was on the wall and three months later Veh was shown the door with his team in mid-table and eliminated from the Champions’ League.

Lorenz-Günther Köstner steered Wolfsburg to an underwhelming 8th in the Bundesliga, five points off the European spots.

However fans had cause for optimism in the summer when Steve McLaren, who’d just led FC Twente to the Eredivisie title, was made Wolfsburg manager. For the second season in a row Wolfsburg managed to keep hold of striker Dzeko and also added to their squad with Brazilian midfielder Diego. The fans were hoping McLaren would transform Wolfsburg as he had Twente. Unfortunately his effect on the former German champions was more similar to his effect on the English national side.

McLaren lost his first three games, including a humiliating 4-3 defeat against Mainz, despite leading 3-0 after half an hour. Wolfsburg never found a winning rhythm under McLaren, drawing far too many games.

On the 23rd December the Englishman was given a vote of confidence by the board but it was at this point that things took a dramatic turn for the worst.

After swimming against the current for three transfer windows Edin Dzeko was finally sold. VfL Wolfsburg’s record league goal-scorer was sold in January to English club Manchester City. This was a hammer-blow for the club who now lacked a consistent scorer.

The Wolfsburg board had seen enough when a bizarre penalty incident cost the team a point against Hannover in February. Midfielder Diego had been floored by a late Hannover challenge and the referee pointed to the spot. Regular penalty taker Helmes tried to get the ball for the spot-kick, but found stern opposition in the form of Diego who was intent on taking the penalty himself. McLaren instructed Diego from the touchline that he was to allow Helmes to take the kick yet in a staggering challenge to McLaren’s authority the Brazilian refused to listen and prepared to shoot. Inevitably the penalty cannoned off the crossbar and with that miss McLaren’s Bundesliga career was finished; he was sacked on the 7th February.

Since then Wolfsburg have struggled to find a replacement, with coaches such as Basel’s Thorsten Fink choosing to stay at his post rather than take charge of the sinking ship. In the meantime Pierre Littbarski has had trouble raising confidence, with the team only registering one victory since McLaren’s departure.

Wolfsburg’s collapse beggars belief. The club sits second from bottom in the Bundesliga seemingly incapable of performing coherently. Without their talismanic Bosnian diamond and still without a permanent first team coach, their prospects look dim. Managerial instability has taken its toll on the squad and it now looks increasingly unlikely that VfL Wolfsburg will manage to rescue themselves. Two years ago this kind of situation seemed unimaginable, but for fans the impossible could soon become a reality.

ITALIAN FOOTBALL IN A......WORRYING SITUATION?

Not the catchiest title but I hesitate to use the word crisis when discussing Italian football. The country’s national sport has seen many dark days over the years thanks to scandals, poor form and hooliganism. The Torontero match-fixing scandal in 1980 (which famously involved Italy’s star striker, Paolo Rossi) was labelled a crisis after the case dirtied the reputation of what was then considered Europe’s finest league. In 2006 Juventus, one of Italy’s greatest clubs was relegated to Serie C (the punishment later amended to allow the Turin club to play in Serie B) for bribing referees.

Both incidents were labelled crises at the time, yet were quickly forgotten as Italy answered its critics by winning surprise World Cups in 1982 and 2006.

Fast-forward to 2011 and there’s no sign of a major scandal. However Italian football is arguably in its most difficult situation since World War Two.

Since the introduction of democracy to Italy Serie A has constantly been one of the top two leagues in Europe. Torino were arguably Europe’s finest team until the tragic 1949 plane crash which killed the entire squad. Their Turin neighbours Juventus took Torino’s place as Italy’s best team during the 50s. The 60s saw Inter’s revolutionary defensive tactics earn them consecutive European Cups, with their city-rivals AC Milan picking up two European titles in the same decade. Throughout the 70s Italian clubs threatened in Europe, and during the 80s both Juve and Milan triumphed in Europe with some of the best players of the era, such as Platini and van Basten. Italian clubs continued to succeed during the 90s with Sampdoria reaching a European Cup final and Milan and Juve adding to their trophy cabinets with Champions’ League titles. Even during the first decade of the new millennium both Milanese sides have won Europe’s top club competition.

More than any other European league Serie A has consistently produced great teams, until now.

This week saw table-topping Milan exit the Champions’ League at the expense of England’s fourth best team, Spurs. Before that Roma were hammered 6-2 on aggregate by the Ukrainian champions, Shakhtar Donesk. Next week the last remaining Italian representative in the Champions’ League, Inter, could be eliminated by Bayern Munich who hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg. Should Inter complete the trio of eliminated Italian clubs it would be the second time in three years that no Italian club has made the quarter-finals of the Champions’ League.

This would be an astonishing failure for one of Europe’s biggest leagues, less than a year after Italy’s national team exited the World Cup at the group stage of the tournament following a shock defeat at the hands of underdogs Slovakia.

So what’s happened to Italian football? In truth its stubborness has cost Serie A. Whilst the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga and the German Bundesliga have all adapted to the 21^st century Serie A has chosen to do nothing, and as the saying goes “If you’re standing still in football, you’re going backwards.”

Serie A clubs are being run by the same old suits that were running them twenty years ago, whilst English clubs are seeking foreign investors. This has lead to a lack of ingenuity in Serie A that has left this once glorious league vapid and dull. AC Milan’s team against Spurs featured four players over the age of 32. Seven players over the age of 30 played for Roma against Shakhtar on Tuesday. Clubs have struggled to cultivate a new generation of players, due in part to a lack of funds compared to English and Spanish clubs. Arguably the two biggest Serie A signings of last summer were loan deals for Ibrahimovic and Robinho. European Champions Inter were eager to bring in Mascherano from Liverpool, but couldn’t compete with Barcelona and therefore missed out on the Argentine’s signature. Ten years ago almost every top player in Europe was playing in Italy, with the likes of Ronaldo, Zidane, Del Piero, Shevchenko, Cafu and Maldini all delighting audiences in Milan and Turin with their sublime skills.

As well as the lack of foreign talent playing in Serie A, the country has stopped producing exciting young players. Mario Bolotelli bucked that trend as he impressed for Inter, but he was forced to move to England as he wasn’t being appreciated at Inter. Giuseppe Rossi is now Italy’s brightest young star, yet he had to move to Manchester as a teenager to get his chance to shine.

Attendances reflect the lack of recent development in Italy. The average Serie A attendance is just 23,207. This season AC Milan, arguably Italy’s biggest club, have been averaging a miserly average of just 46,065. Napoli, who drew crowds of over 50,000 in Serie C1, are averaging just 43,777 this season. The Old Lady, Juventus, has an average attendance of just 21,505, that’s less than English League 1 team Southampton.

Though there’s no sign of major scandals in the near future Italian football is in a dark place. The country’s footballing culture desperately needs revitalising and reinvestment. Corruption, stagnation and an inane refusal to evolve has left Serie A and the national side in a worrying situation. However with no money, no promising youngsters and no willingness to reform, things can only get worse for Italian football.