A tale of cigarettes, grappa, time travel and hopefully goals
Season 2 – 1998/99
We finished season one with Dario Jnr having helped Venezia secure promotion to the top flight of Italian football, meaning the little Bisonte will be playing in Serie A 13 years earlier than D Snr, or depending on how you try and explain time travel, a season later. I can’t figure out if we are ahead of schedule or behind. Does the future that the Old Tatanka lived even exist anymore? Let’s not worry about it.
Venezia made a fair bit of money last year selling players and they know they will need to strengthen their squad if they are to compete. Fortunately, there are some quality bargains in the transfer market.
After all the wheeling and dealing is done Venezia have spent £11.5 million (bankrupting themselves) bringing in new players. However, despite not being able to afford Dario’s wages they still have a large stock of grappa and cigarettes stored in a floating warehouse, so Dario Snr and Jnr agree that starting the year at Venezia is the right move, tactically ignoring the fact that no body was interested in buying the little Bison.
The coaching staff feel that Hubs needs a strike partner, they have paired him up with Dejan Savicevic and tweaked the formation slightly.
The first game of the season is the Coppa Italia 2nd round, all looks rosy after 50 minutes, but when the final whistle blows there are a lot of confused looks on the coaching staff’s faces. Dario’s happy though he still gets a ciggie and a shot.
It’s two goals in two games for the little Bison and this time Venezia hold on for a hard earned victory.
It’s three in three for Dario, as Parma fight back to secure a point against the Serie A new boys.
He just can’t stop scoring, another goal, another game another grappa and cigarette in the bank.
After an away win against Padova where strike partner Savi scores the only goal Tatanka is back on the score sheet as Venezia thump Perugia 4-0. Unfortunately the large stash of grappa and fags that Dario has built up is too much of a temptation for the young lad, so he get himself injured for a month in order to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
Despite D Jnr being out for a month he only misses two games, an away win against Vicenza and a 0-0 draw at home to Milan. When the Bisonte returns from injury he is straight back in the side to face Roma. Dario’s stash is obviously running low, as he scores his first Serie A hat-trick, in order to top it back up with, 24 cigarettes, 4 shots and a new bottle of Grappa.
Not content with his hat-trick, it’s back-to-back braces as Venezia beat Udinese and Bologna.
Venezia are absolutely motoring, it’s unlikely this will continue but for now we just have to embrace the fantastic start.
Bisonte Jnr also gets his first taste of international football, after being overlooked last year he smashes home a hat-trick in his first U21 match. Poppa Bison has to break the news that there are no bonuses for international goals!
Unfortunately the following seven games see Venezia fail to record a win! There are two credible draws at home to Juve and Lazio, three 1-3 losses, to Napoli, Inter and Sampdoria and two unlucky draws, against Lecce and Bari. In that two month period D Jnr only scores once in the loss to Inter.
It is mid-January before Venezia win again, and even though Dario doesn’t score he is grateful for the win bonus, it’s been nearly a month since he drunk some grappa.
Deadline day passes in Italy, and with no interest shown in little Tatanka, and his future for the rest of the season no longer in doubt he feels calm enough to score a 90th minute goal on the last day of January. Breaking his month long goal drought and earning another much needed smoke and shot.
He scores another two weeks later in the 4-0 demolition of Perugia but he fails so score in the 5-0 hammering of Vicenza, instead strike partner Savi gets a well deserved hat-trick.
After scoring nine and conceding none in the last two matches, the tables are turned on Venezia in the next three games. 1-2 losses to Roma and Milan, and a 1-4 loss away to Udinese, the little Bison also fails to score in any of the games.
Two big wins against Bologna and Napoli sandwich an unlucky loss to Juve. Dario scoring two in three games to push his total for the season towards the 20 mark.
Venezia manage to go unbeaten for the final five games of the season, Dario scoring three in five to finish the season with 20 goals, beating last years total by two.
In the end, Venezia finish a very respectable 4th in their first season back in the top flight, claiming the title of “League entertainers” scoring a whopping 67 goals!
You might think Lazio winning the league and little old Venezia finishing 4th would be where the surprises stopped for this season, however, Serie C side Pescara had other ideas. Not only did they make it to the Coppa Italia final, they went and beat Napoli over two legs to lift the trophy. The Coppa Italia does produce some crazy results.
The Venezia squad stats show how important the signings of Onopko and Savicevic were. Lantignotti is an AMC and was really solid all year, even earning a call up to the Italy squad, although he is yet to win a cap.
As we finish season 2, the two Hubs have an important decision to make. Bari are the only club interested in mini Tatanka’s services and Venezia have secured European football, which would be a new adventure for the pair of Bisons and an opportunity to earn some cigarettes and grappa from other European nations.
The now customary summary table sees us wave goodbye to season 2.
