Gennaro Gattuso has given some memorable post-game interviews down the years. Who could forget his “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit” rant at OFI Crete, or the face of the beleaguered interpreter tasked with translating it? Last year, not long before taking charge of the Italian national team, Gattuso got into a finger-jabbing, language-swapping, almost-nose-to-nose shouting match with Josko Jelicic on Croatian television.
And yet there was something more affecting about the soft way he spoke this Saturday, in Calabrian-accented Italian. Without anger, but with an air of melancholy. I’d say it’s better to stay home.
Better to go for a walk with the dogs.” He had just seen his Lazio side let a two-goal lead slip at home to Milan, but that was hardly a disaster. The Biancocelesti are still top of the table, at least until Roma and Inter play on Monday. For a team who lost several starters in the summer, who began Gattuso’s tenure with a cup defeat to a club from Serie B in August, and whose fans refuse to enter their own stadium, this season has so far exceeded expectations.
It might represent the beginnings of a redemption arc for Gattuso, who stood down from managing the Italy men’s national team in April after failing to qualify for the World Cup. He was not a popular choice to succeed Maurizio Sarri in Rome. Yet he is also not the reason why supporters are boycotting Lazio’s home games in huge numbers.
Season ticket sales have fallen from close to 30,000 last year to less than 4,500, according to the football finances website Calcio e Finanza. Last season’s home game against Milan drew 50,000 spectators, but the same fixture on Saturday had less than half that number, with a noisy majority cheering for the visitors. Lazio’s fans have not stopped caring.
Hundreds gathered outside the team’s training ground before the Milan game, forming a convoy of mopeds to escort the players’ bus to Ponte Milvio – a bridge that crosses the Tiber River close to the Stadio Olimpico. A statement released by organised supporters’ groups beforehand had announced their intention to go from there “to watch the game in a pub or at home”. It is an act of protest specifically against the club’s owner, Claudio Lotito.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
