CELTIC and Rangers are not the only Scottish sides facing big European names this midweek. Fiorentina arrive in Edinburgh for Thursday’s Europa Conference League tie with Hearts.
It is a fixture that will bring to mind a player who shone in the colours of both sides – the silky-haired midfielder Stefano Salvatori. The Italian died in October 2017 from cancer at the desperately young age of 49. Salvatori is remembered by Hearts as a key figure in the Scottish Cup-winning team which beat Rangers to the trophy in 1998.
A fierce battler on the pitch, he was a quiet, gentle soul off it. In Anthony Brown’s book Reminiscing With Legends which chronicles that 1998 triumph, we learn more about Salvatori’s character during his time at Tynecastle – information which brings both a smile to one’s face and which also might leave you reaching for a handkerchief.
In one anecdote, Neil McCann, the former Hearts winger, details one inclement afternoon at Aberdeen in February 1997.
“We were wearing our yellow and black away kit and, this is not a word of a lie, Stefano had a t-shirt, a top and a waterproof jacket under his strip. You could see the collar of the jacket sticking out of the collar of his strip. I think he was the only guy I ever played with who dried his hair after training. Most guys are straight out of the shower and away home, but every day Stefano would dry his hair with the hairdryer. What a guy.”
What emerges in Brown’s book is a picture of a man who loved Hearts and Edinburgh, who returned often to see old friends and bought several properties in the city.
It helps to explain why, when he died of cancer five years ago, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre was packed to the rafters with Hearts fans wishing to pay their respects to him.
It was a function at which Salvatori’s wife Gillian spoke and at which she struggled to get through her speech, not just because of the emotion of the occasion but because of the reaction from those present.
“I couldn’t finish a sentence without there being a chant of ‘Salvatori’. I got interrupted at the end of every sentence with applause and people signing his name.”
Rangers and Celtic Champions League opponents in a rut
LIVERPOOL and Red Bull Leipzig represent formidable opponents on paper for the Old Firm in the Champions League week but, as the old adage goes, football is not played on paper.
Let’s take the former first: Jurgen Klopp’s side have been a shadow of the one that challenged on four fronts last season and almost scooped the quadruple. Whether it is a hangover that they are suffering or simply an adverse reaction to losing one prong of a formidable attacking trident in the shape of Sadio Mane, all does not appear right at Anfield.
If this were the Rangers side that almost conquered Europe in the second half of last season there might be reason to believe an upset might be on the cards on Merseyside tomorrow night but Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side have looked pretty anaemic themselves. At least they will go into tomorrow’s encounter relatively fresh following a canter over Hearts having played against 10 men for more than 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, Celtic just might have the game plan to upset Red Bull Leipzig on Wednesday in Germany. The Bundesliga side have endured a woeful start to the season. Prior to Saturday’s 4-0 victory over winless Bochum, a lack of goals and a porous defence had left them mid-table, a position they remain in after just three wins in this campaign.
Having already lost to Rangers in last season’s Europa League play-off match, they are unlikely to be relishing the arrival of Ange Postecoglou’s Scottish champions.
Tagovailoa deserved better from Dolphins
FOR all the exposure that has been given to the dangers that head injuries present to sports stars in later life it seems some lessons remain unheeded. Tua Tagovailoa was passed by the Miami Dolphins to play against the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL five days after appearing to suffer a concussion in a match against the Buffalo Bills when he collapsed on the pitch after a tackle. The Dolphins claimed the quarterback sustained a back injury but others suspected differently.
“If Tua takes the field tonight, it’s a massive step back for #concussion care in the NFL,” tweeted Chris Nowinski, a neuroscientist and founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation which campaigns for safety in head impact sports. “If he has a 2nd concussion that destroys his season or career, everyone involved will be sued & should lose their jobs, coaches included. We all saw it, even they must know this isn’t right.”
Nowinski’s worst fears were realised when Tagovailoa was slammed to the ground and could be seen clinching and spreading his fingers – a known symptom of brain trauma.
“I take no pleasure in being right,” Nowinski tweeted five hours later. “Pray for Tua. We saw this coming.”
It’s a big week for Franco Smith
THE season has started in ignominious circumstances for Glasgow Warriors with defeat in Italy against Benetton Treviso followed up by another humiliating loss against Ospreys under their new South African head coach Franco Smith.
It is not just that Warriors have lost these games, they have done so in abject style, continuing a miserable run of away form in the United Rugby Championship that stretches back to January last year.
What makes this season’s away defeats all the more galling is that the Scotstoun men were so impressive at home in victory over Cardiff last weekend. The first major test of whether these are just early season teething troubles or something more malignant comes this week when Glasgow host Bulls on Saturday. The crack South African side were runners-up in the URC last season and they have started this campaign in equally, err, bullish form with three wins from three matches.
However, Edinburgh showed two weekends ago that the Bulls can be got at when they should really have won in South Africa but for a fluffed late kick by Henry Immelman.
As a one-time Bulls player and former Springbok, Smith knows South African rugby inside out but that knowledge will count for little if his players repeat the mistakes of Saturday’s dispiriting loss in Swansea.
What’s On TV
THERE will be another chance to gauge the progress made by Josh Doig at Verona since his arrival from Hibernian in the summer when his side hosts early season surprise package Udinese in BT Sport 1’s Serie A game this evening. The Scotland Under-21 international has already made his mark with a goal in the 2-1 win over Sampdoria and an assist in the 1-1 draw with Empoli. There’s no guarantee Doig will start this evening’s encounter having sat out the previous game against Fiorentina – which ended in a 2-0 defeat – but he recently revealed that Italy has made a big impression on him.
“It’s all new, the city, the layout, the people – everything is new but I’m embracing it as much as I can,” he said while on Scotland Under-21 duty. “I’ve only been there for two or months but I already missed the city, when I came home the other day. I was gutted to be away, as good as it was to be home. My girlfriend Molly has moved over. She’s actually got into university there so it’s perfect. She’s studying fashion at a fashion school. She’s more clued up than me. She has advanced highers and is properly brainy!”
It sounds as if Doig is pretty switched on himself.
7
The number of away matches Glasgow Warriors have won in all competitions going back to August 2020
