Time for our newspaper roundup now and unsurprisingly the Gazetta is obsessed with what they are calling La Grande Corsa – or the great race – here as you can see, bizarrely printed in English in an Italian newspaper. They believe there are 11 teams in with a shout of winning Serie A. Leaders Roma hold a one point advantage over Bologna and a 9 point lead over city rivals Lazio, who are down in 11th. Anything is possible of course in this great league of ours. Holders Juventus are still favourites with the bookmakers whilst last years runners up Bologna are once again second, but their ageing squad is showing signs of creaking…

Creak as it might, we have a great chance of winning Serie A. Do it for Baggio. Do it for…The Micker. We might be struggling to find a goalscorer to hang our hats on but we are the league’s leading scorers, maybe we should just accept that Serie A is a harder league to score in. That said, we’ve seen what Rob has done with young Hubner on a Thursday, so there’s always room for improvement.

We would be fools to forget we still have the chance of winning the Coppa Italia. Serie B side Genoa stand in our way but they arguably outplay us for much of the opening exchanges, taking the lead in the second half. All of this after Baggio thinks it’s 1994 and blazes a penalty over the bar. He atones for his error with a late leveller to make us favourites going into the second leg in a few weeks.

Salernitana are just outside of the great race and it shows – Purk finds some form and keeps us in the mix.

A point against Milan isn’t the worst result but bad news is to follow…

Three months out for Shalimov! That’s awful news, he’s a model of consistency above ageing veterans in attack. James is only out for two weeks, thankfully.

An unconvincing performance sees us hold Genoa to a 0-0 draw. We’re through, and that’s all that matters.

This is an odd afternoon. We’re 2-0 up at Lazio and cruising when Lorenzo Amoruso sees red. We should surely win with a two goal lead against 10 men but no, Corentin Martins has better ideas and we have to settle for a point.

Joint top and Juventus are dropping back but there’s still only 6 points between 1st and 8th…

Ravenna are poor. We dismantle them.

Parma suffer a shock loss at home to Lecce. It makes no sense, but it’s a mad league this year.

Champions League time now and we have the difficult task of going to Barcelona. Baggio snaffles us an away goal but we lose 2-1 to an Alfonso penalty. No shame in that and a fighting chance in the return leg.

A 0-0 draw at Brescia is not good.

Squad’s in good nick…

Nevertheless, we’re able to batter Piacenza. The Micker wraps it up.

Despite Couto’s early red card, Barcelona are able to keep us at arms length and Pep effectively finishes the tie. Lessons learned, I hope.

Another ridiculous day out sees us fail to beat lowly Treviso. A draw will do I suppose but even Dwight Yorke scored.

Somehow we’re 3 points clear with 7 games left.

Look at our last three fixtures though! 5th, 3rd and 2nd. That’s going to be interesting.

Juventus have dropped out of the race but still hold us at Stadio Delle Alpi. Beating them remains very difficult.

As shown in this Coppa Italia first leg. Injuring Maldini in the first minute seems like one of my better ideas.

Normal service is resumed at home to Udinese.

A point at Cagliari is ok in insolation but who knows anymore.

We fail once again in the Coppa Italia final. Juve are a big game team.

Ronaldo has us on toast again but Baggio keeps a cool head to slot home a penalty to save us a point.

Those three big games to come now and a 2 point lead. Roma have dropped right off despite being top at the start of this episode.

They have no answer to a Rob Page header. Aldair’s red card helps our cause.

Purk turns on the style at home to Parma. When he’s on form he is exceptional, it’s just finding that consistency.

I didn’t expect this. Ravenna stun Napoli which means…

YES!

With a game to spare. It saves us needing to get a result at Fiorentina, which might have been risky.

A heavily rotated side loses 2-1. I don’t care, we’ve won Serie A with Bologna.

See?

Roma took 7 points from their remaining 14 games which saw Zdenek get the sack. That’s a ridiculous run of results. Big fan of Fiorentina losing 12 games and finishing 2nd. A stranger season you will not see.

Look at all these people who outscored Dwight Yorke…

Awards time and it’s good news for me and…Matteo Sereni.

Interesting retirement news, Stoichkov has saved me the hassle of trying to flog him

As we saw in the Cowdenbeath save, his regen is magnificent. I must have him.

Unnecessary construction of the weeeeeek…

That’s the end of the news, so it’s on to looking at the regen market and more importantly to see if our reputation has increased sufficiently for us to buy some actual talent, and not Stan Collymore.

Unfortunately though I have to take a break for a short while. I’ll definitely be back with this save as I’m enjoying it, but personal circumstance means I need to bring the shutters down temporarily. I’ll be back as quick as I can.

Thanks for reading and I’ll hopefully be back soon with more. Ciao!