ALL is not lost. The big battalions need not always prevail. The amazing example of tiny Chievo, soaring to the top of Italy's Serie A in their very first season, testifies to that. By the time you read this, they may well have been knocked off the top. Indeed, their modest manager, Luigi Del Neri, insists that his chief aim is simply to avoid relegation. But in an inspired early run, Chievo proved capable of beating the best, and lost 3-2 away to Juventus in Turin after leading 2-0, thanks to a thoroughly dubious penalty. Yet Chievo, with its 2,900 habitants, is essentially a former village dwarfed by the spread of its neighbour Verona - where it shares the Bentegodi stadium with the Verona club itself.
We are so horribly used to writing off smaller clubs with little money, accepting that teams which haven't the sheer financial power of a Manchester United, an Arsenal, a Barcelona, a Real Madrid, a Juventus or a Roma, have no hope of success in these money dominated days that the achievements of Chievo come as a glorious corrective, a reminder that in football, as in life at large, money indeed isn't everything. Something which indeed was demonstrated last season by the stupendous success of little Alaves, the Galician team when they went all the way to the final of the UEFA Cup, humiliating such a mighty Inter on the way, and losing that final to Liverpool in a helter skelter of a game only by the narrowest of margins and by the freakiest of very late goals.
Like Chievo, that Alaves team benefited from the excellence of a wonderfully shrewd manager, Mane, a dab hand in finding players who may have fallen by the wayside, and rebuilding their careers. Such players as the striker Javier Moreno once of Barcelona, and the exciting attacking left back, Romania's Cosmin Contra. Both, alas, had to be sold during the summer, to Milan, but that is the sad aspect of it all. Little clubs, precisely because they are briefly successful, have to cash in quickly on such success and such players.
Chievo have several such, including those who have arrived on loan. In 1986, Chievo were still an amateur club playing in the obscure Interregional Championship. Upwards and onwards went Chievo being promoted C2, lower section of Division III, in 1997, to C1 in 1989-90, Serie B in 1994 and now at last, triumphantly, this season to Serie A. Rejoicing in the nickname of The Flying Downers - as in the old adage, almost, if pigs had wings, they would fly. Dismissed as Downers, Chievo now revel in their nickname.
Wings or wingers? For Chievo rely heavily on their rapid progress down the flanks. Eriberto and Manfredini exploit them vigorously. Eriberto, one of five players in comproprieta, meaning joint owned with another club, is a 22-year-old Brazilian, discarded by Bologna after two seasons, 33 Serie A appearances, and just one goal in each. Last season he was however a material factor in Chievo's surprising rise from Serie B, and this season he has been flying; and no pig! The other winger is Sisostri Manfredini, who was dumped by Juventus after a single season. From the Ivory Coast, he went on to play four seasons with four different clubs in Serie C1 and C2. Things improved: two seasons in Serie B followed with Cosenza and Genoa. Thence at last to Chievo, and promotion last season from Serie B. He's 26.
The adventurous midfielder Eugenio Corini, in dynamic form this season, also had a spell at Juventus, from 1990 to 1992, good enough to hold a regular place, with 47 Serie A appearances. But by 1997 he'd found his way to Verona, making the very short trip to Chievo in October, 1998. He is now a vigorous 31.
The strike force of Bernardo Corradi and Massimo Marazzina, who began his career with Inter but in two seasons never got a game. He actually left Chievo for Reggina and Serie A last season, having in 1999-2000 scored an impressive 16 Serie B goals for Chievo in 30 games. Corini is the man with whose shrewd passes the Chievo attack keeps going; with pace and panache. But as 32-year-old centre back and captain Maurizio D'Angelo modestly says, much will depend on whether his team can maintain its level of "intensity".
Wise words come from an ex-player who was wise before his time; I speak of Gianni Rivera who was already talking like a seasoned campaigner when first I met him, a 16 year old, in the Roman Olympic Village in 1960. "This club is a little bit the bad conscience of the big operators. Both for the wisdom of the way that it is run and for its football, it is an example to follow. I hope that Chievo will open the eyes of many people; even if I doubt it."
They surely don't seem to have opened the eyes of Luciano Moggi, general manager of Juventus, and the very personification of big money, wheeler dealing, once ironically described for his economy with the truth as "The Nice Pinocchio of Italian Football." For Moggi, Chievo are no more than a flash in the pan, saying that Chievo remind him of Udinese and Atlanta last season, fading after a very good start to the season. A somewhat inept analogy as those are two famous and well established clubs very familiar with Serie A while Chievo have come out of nowhere.
My old friend, journalist Gian Paolo Ormezzano, writes darkly of possible conspiracies against these upstarts, of dubious refereeing decisions and doubtful positive dope tests. Let us hope not. Chievo with their glorious beginning are a wonderful example and incentive to poorer clubs all over Europe; a reminder that clever transfer and tactical policy, shrewd coaching, can bring rewards still.
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