For the Italian women’s teams in the Champions League, it’s all about taking part

It is unfortunate for Manchester United (who, after my ‘bet on the Red Devils’ recommendation last week, suffered a heavy defeat against Hull City, of course), the only English side in the Champions League drawn against two Italian teams, Como and Roma; the others face just one (Liverpool against Inter, Arsenal and Manchester City against Napoli) or none at all, as in the case of Aston Villa. The Serie A representatives will contest the competition in the Decoubertin spirit—since winning the trophy appears unlikely—while English clubs will compete with the conviction that they can succeed. It may be wiser to focus on the Europa League and the Conference League, especially this year, given that you have sent us Milan and Juventus, with the Rossoneri drawing two English sides, Sunderland and Bournemouth, and the Bianconeri set to face local and amateur teams.

It’s the final days of the transfer window, and we must remain composed: the media are churning out possible – but unlikely – transfers every two hours, so that fans will become frustrated when they do not materialise, and that is when the astute operators pull off sensational deals with rival clubs, having pretended right up to the last minute that they wanted to keep a player they had in fact sold back on 15 June. It is all a charade, of course, complete with snubs between clubs, fake medical certificates to skip training sessions, chairmen blocking their own managers on WhatsApp like offended girlfriends just to avoid buying them the winger the squad is missing, and theatrics like those of Alvarez in Spain, with Atlético Madrid and Barcelona trading insults via television interviews and vowing war over the Argentine striker’s transfer, talking about ‘crossing the red line’ as if they were Trump in the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking of Trump, I follow the adventures of Fiorentina with a certain amusement; their chairman, Giuseppe Commisso, has invested a great deal – a huge amount, in fact – and has the same mannerisms as that scoundrel in the White House, earning himself some marvellous ‘fuck offs’ after having to read from his phone in public just to say ‘I love Fiorentina’. He has also promised to take the team back ‘where it deserves to be’ – an ambiguous and potentially dangerous phrase used to feign grand ambitions and create false hopes. Who decides what a team deserves? If it were up to the fans, in the vast majority of cases their club deserves the Scudetto, or at least a place in the Champions League. After a while, though, the places run out. Unless, of course, you’re an English team.