La grassa et la rossa per la Villa.
We’re back after the break and not only that, we’re off on our adventures again. This time it’s Bologna, who we’re getting used to playing but this is our first trip over there. And what a trip it promises to be, to a city that is to Italian living what supporting Wolves is to being born unlucky. It’s got the oldest university in the world, a load of very nice old buildings and the best food in Italy, which is saying something. They don’t eat spaghetti, though
It’s also got a football club who’ve done well enough in the past couple of seasons to be able to play the Villa. They’ve still got most of the players we know so well, including the one whose uncle had a career dipping to the very lowest a footballer can fall before recovering to finish off at Clyde. They used to have Samuel Iling-Junior, currently trying to drop as low as Uncle Barry. Their chairman has got the most Mafiosi-sounding name in Canada. No way is he not up to anything dodgy.
Their ground is the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, the place San Marino scored after seven seconds against England. It’s big, open and if it rains you’ll get wet. Next door is the Portico di San Luca, a UNESCO-listed monument but however nice it looks it’ll never be a Jacobean mansion. One to us. The university (see above) has had four Popes, Dante and Copernicus studying there; Duddeston Manor had Musical Youth. Another one to us.
With our injury list operating on a two in, one out system for the moment the team’s looking a bit better. I don’t doubt that Unai wants his cup back so it’ll be full-strength to see off the opposition in the first leg and make Villa Park next week a formality. Forza Villa and all that.
