In the first of a new series, in which Simon McPolin will look at the One Hit Wonders of the footballing world, we turn our attention to northern Italy and Hellas Verona, and in particular the tale of their 1984/85 season. Simon is one half of the team behind the Debatable Decisions website and can be found on twitter @Deb_Decisions.
Have you heard the one about a league that was so rotten that the only way the governing body could guarantee impartiality amongst officials was by assigning referees randomly, rather than let a “special commission” assign them? The punchline? Hellas Verona win Serie A.
The 1984/85 season, in Serie A, was heralded as the dawn of a new era, the Italian Football Association, desperate to shift the focus away from the Calciocommesse betting scandal, took drastic steps to make sure they were being seen to be making the appropriate changes to what looked like a broken system. The fans too, were desperate for something to take their minds off the scandal and the arrival of one of the World’s best players, Diego Maradona, did much in the way of boosting expectation of an enjoyable season ahead. However, whilst Maradona might eventually prove to be one of Serie A’s greatest imports it would be two less well known summer imports that would help guide their side to Serie A glory.
Hans Peter Briegel, a defensive midfielder from Kaiserslautern, and Preben Elkjaer, a Danish striker plying his trade with Lokeren in Belgium, were typical Osvaldo Bagnoli signings. The Verona manager had a reputation for signing players that might not be prodigiously talented, but would compliment their team-mates perfectly and in doing so had built a formidable team at the Stadio Bentegodi. The two new arrivals would prove the final pieces in the Bagnoli puzzle and by the end of the 84/85 season both men had booked their place in Gialloblu folklore.
Verona’s Serie A history, pre 1980s, was bleak, Just eleven seasons spent in Italy’s top flight between their foundation, in 1903, and the beginning of the decade. A ninth place finish in 1976/77 and a Coppa Italia runners up medal in 1976 was all their supporters had to cheer about, but all that changed when Osvaldo Bagnoli took charge in 1981. At 46 years of age he had no top flight experience of his own, having managed a handful of smaller sides, but it seemed to click with Verona and by the end of his first season at the helm he had guided his side to the promised land of Serie A. The following season, 1982/83, he really gave the Verona faithful something to shout about, storming to a fourth place finish and a second Coppa Italia runners up medal. Verona continued their fine form in 1983/84, a slight dip in the league as they finished the season in sixth, but yet another cup final, albeit unsuccessful. The Gialloblu fans celebrated consolidation, arriving and mixing it with the big boys, but none could have predicted what lay ahead.
It says a lot for Bagnoli’s approach to management and the emphasis that he put on having a cohesive unit, a team, rather than a starting line-up of individuals, that Verona had just thirteen players play over half of their league games that season. It should also be noted that four of those players were part of Bagnoli’s Verona side that had won promotion from Serie B just three seasons earlier and it seems fitting that a team built on work ethic and togetherness should start their journey to stardom in front of the twitching cameras that had followed the one man show of Napoli to the Bentegodi on the opening day of the 84/85 season.
The paparazzi might have gone to that match to write a story about Maradona and his start to life in Italian football, but they left it with a story of humiliation for Napoli’s record signing. The mercurial Argentine was expertly controlled by Briegel, who denied his target the chance to get involved in the game and gave his team-mates the opportunity to notch a two goal lead within thirty-three minutes of kick off. Napoli managed to pull one back on fifty-eight, but it would be one of those players who had guided Verona to promotion in 1982 that confirmed the win, Antonio Di Gennaro finding the back of the net in the seventy-fifth minute. Here were little Verona dominating the mighty Napoli and heading straight to the top of Serie A, I imagine there weren’t many Italian journalists willing to back them to maintain that position or form. That was about to change.
Four games later Bognoli’s side would face their toughest test yet, the grand Old Lady of Turin rolling in to town and even the most passionate of Verona fans might have been forgiven for expecting an unbeaten start to the season to be relinquished. Those fans who didn’t doubt their team’s chances were rewarded with a victory that defined their season and a victory that is best remembered for Verona’s second goal, scored by Elkjaer, a goal that embodied their never say die spirit. The Danish striker picked the ball up outside the area and in making his way towards goal lost one of his boots, despite this he persevered and found the net with his sock covered foot. Verona had arrived.
By the end of the first round of games the Gialloblu were still sitting pretty at the top of the Serie A table having won eight, drawn six and lost just one. They added to that win against Juventus with a priceless victory away to Torino and valuable draws away to Inter Milan and Roma as well as home to AC Milan, but perhaps the most remarkable statistic of that early run was their goals conceded column. In the first half of the season they shipped just seven goals and kept an incredible nine clean sheets. People were suddenly taking notice of the back four that was made up of Roberto Tircella, Domenico Volpati, Luciano Marangon and Mauro Ferroni, not to mention Claudio Garella between the sticks. However, could they continue such magnificent form in the second half of the season and would the big teams, the perennial challengers who had struggled for form and found themselves further down the table than they were used to, finally find form and give Verona a run for their money?
The answer to the second half of that question was an quite emphatic no, because not only did Italy’s top teams continue their slump in form and finish the season in uncharacteristically low positions, but Verona did keep their excellent form and in particular their excellent defensive form. A further seven clean sheets and just one loss in the second round of fifteen games set the Gialloblu well on their way to an unprecedented league title. A win against Roma and draws against Juventus, Napoli, AC Milan and Inter Milan meant that they finished the season with just one loss to one of the “big” teams, surrendering to their biggest challengers, Torino, at home with just six games to go. However, they picked themselves up from that blow and pushed on to claim the points that saw them crowned victorious, having conceded a measly nineteen goals in thirty league games.
Looking back at the 84/85 league table makes for interesting reading and not just because Verona hold top spot, but because of the final league positions of the biggest teams in Italy. Maradona’s Napoli ended the season in a massively disappointing 8th place, however, it was the position of the teams from Milan, Turin and Rome that catch the eye. In the fifteen years prior to Verona’s famous win the Serie A title had not been outside those three cities, by the end of 84/85 Inter were 3rd, Milan 5th, Juventus 6th and Roma 7th. A cynic might look back to the opening paragraphs of this article and link their positions to the change in referee selection and I think they would be perfectly justified in doing so (especially considering the quick shift in power the following season, when referee selection reverted to type and Juventus won the title at a canter, bettering Verona’s magnificent defensive record) but focussing on that would do Verona a disservice.
Verona’s win, Bagnoli’s management masterclass and Briegel/Elkjaer stealing Maradona’s plaudits should be marvelled for what they are, exceptional achievements, each and every one of them. The following seasons might not have been so kind to the Gialloblu faithful, by the early nineties they found themselves in Serie B, by the late noughties Serie C, but the 84/85 season will never be forgotten. One long giant-killing that just kept going and seems unlikely to be repeated any day soon, a true One Hit Wonder.
