This Week on ATP

Firstly, I apologise for the disintegration of “Siena Week”. I really had intended on spending more time with the Robur and I didn’t mean to abandon them, but I simply ran out of time last week. Social events pulled me away from the computer and I barely had time to even get online (let alone research and post). Although I got a decent amount of Siena work done it was nowhere near as much as I’d wanted, so I’ll probably make them the first club I revisit when the fixtures repeat. Anyway…

This week’s feature club are Parma. I’ve been looking forward to writing about the Gialloblu since I started the blog and I thought I’d treat myself after two tough research weeks. I’ve always had a fondness for Parma since first getting into Italian football in the ’90’s. They were one of the first teams to catch my imagination on Football Italia and I have lots of great memories of some of the fantastic players they had back in the day. Really looking forward to revisiting these sides and taking a closer look at Zola, Chiesa, Cannavaro & co.

More from me tomorrow.

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Introduction

Welcome to Around the Peninsula: an attempt at documenting the 2011-12 Serie A season, one club at a time. By doing this I aim to improve my own knowledge and understanding of Calcio, while hopefully shedding some light on what has become one of football’s most misunderstood leagues.

No competition fascinates me more than Serie A despite my Scottish upbringing and affection for the English Premier League. Living in a post-Football Italia (and now, sadly, post-Calcio Italia ) Britain can make football in Italy tough to follow. I plan on getting around this by fully immersing myself in the fortunes of Italy’s top tier clubs for the duration of the season, and I welcome any like-minded individuals to come along for the ride.

The idea is to nominate a different club every week and analyse their campaign with references to recent performances, upcoming fixtures, history, squads, and management. Special consideration will be given to Milan, Inter, Napoli, Lazio and Udinese on European weeks, and Azzurri internationals will be covered whenever possible.

The site was thrown together on a whim so things are a little threadbare at the moment, but aesthetic improvements and additional content will come in time. For now, the main focus is to concentrate on this weekend’s Serie A action, starting with this week’s feature club A.C. Cesena and their Saturday evening clash with S.S.C. Napoli.

More to follow.

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