Montella madness

I don't know about you, but when Montella signed on-loan at Fulham and bumbled around in the reserves for the first couple of weeks, I thought to myself :

'Ah, there's another former Italian, a name from the past, trying to realise an English dream, all a bit too late.'

I mean, we've seen it before with Roberto Mancini at Leicester City and Attilio Lombardo hairing his way to Crystal Palace.

The spent-out forces, the has-been's. Don't get me wrong, they're still a big lure, and they're still more than capable of winning a match in the flick of an eye, but in Montella, just like all the others, they're past it.

Right?

Wrong.

Montella is the business! Still only 32, he is short of losing is touch for a while longer, and with a scoring record that this journalist will not even bother to cheapen with a cliched simile.

For Roma, Sampdoria, Genoa and Empoli combined, 186 goals in 300 starts.

Now we all know Roma, like most other clubs, have got their problems, but even they know he is still the real ticket having this week negotiated what appears to be a pretty likely summer move to those other Italian minnows, AC Milan - who are reportedly happy to cough up his £72,000 A WEEK wages.

Which, at the end of a somewhat process, begs a couple of questions.

- why is he at Fulham?
- and why the hell is he behind Brian McBride, Heidar Helguson and Collins John in the pecking order?

It really is a funny old game.

Only one take-off for the aeroplane so far ...