Seria A show Channel 4

FlawedGenius

Anyone remember it? Late 90s early noughties. Used to watch it as a nipper before my own match a Saturday morning. Oh the memories!
The intro is fooken brilliant, Goooooooooooooooaaaaallazoooooooooooooooooooo

Seria A seriously gone downhill since.

seanwhite20

Thanks for this. Brought me back hearing that music at the start! I used to love that show, such a shame Italian football imploded. You look at games now and the stadiums are half empty. They show them late at night on Setanta Ireland usually

ollie1

Wow that intro brings back memories used to watch it every week when it was on.

JaMarcus Hustle

I genuinely used to always think the intro music finished with a giant "Go Lazio!" when I was younger. Could never understand the favouritism!

grenache

I remember it but from the early 90s when RTE showed Channel 4's show - 8pm every Monday night.

Nuri Sahin

JaMarcus Hustle wrote: »

I genuinely used to always think the intro music finished with a giant "Go Lazio!" when I was younger. Could never understand the favouritism!

Same.

Rekop dog

grenache wrote: »

I remember it but from the early 90s when RTE showed Channel 4's show - 8pm every Monday night.

Yep back in the day when the likes of Beppe Signori Robbi Mancini Vialli ect were ripping it up, a golden era in football!

PiE

I remember wishing I lived AC Jimbo's life... sitting round Italian piazzas sipping coffee/wine/beer being paid to talk about football.

Living the dream.

TerryTibbs!

Dessert on the table.

_blank_

Jimbo is a legend, for anyone who doesn't know he presents The Guardian podcast, Football Weekly on Mondays & Football Weekly Extra on Thursdays.

Loved watching that show - they also used to show live games on a Sunday afternoon, used to watch them with my Dad.

I loved Sampdoria at the time, and I can't remember why.

GavRedKing

That got me into AC Milan that show.

I always keep an eye on their results and if they're playing on TV I'll watch them even to this day.

AnCapaillMor

RTE used do a 1 hour version on a monday night, i'd watch it religousily. I'd tape it and watch it mon-fri during my lunch break from school.

greendom

Surely its Channel 4 show Serie A ?

AnCapaillMor

Yeah it was a cut down version of it, same intro and all. They did it for a few years.

bullvine

Best football show ever, watched it with my Dad on Sat morning after playing Par 3 Society golf every week. Wouldnt have a clue about Serie A now.

Brilliant Brilliant Show.

SEPT 23 1989

Des wrote: »

I loved Sampdoria at the time, and I can't remember why.

craggles

Jimbo still does weekly newspaper video reviews for the guardian, cake and all!

carlop

Di Canio scoring a cracker for Napoli against Milan and going mental in the celebration has always been a memory that stuck in my head.

I also remember when a Genoa fan was killed by Milan ultras and the crowd forced the game to be called off. My first exposure to the uglier side of Serie A.

bullvine

90's Italian football just incredible, topped off by this.

Current Barca side back in your box.

SEPT 23 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW5WvVcMYCY

bullvine

Its really mental to think back at how much better Milan and Juve were than the rest of the teams in Europe in the 90's.

I remember the look of horror on G Neville in 98/99 when he was told Juventus were still in the champions league when it looked like they would be knocked out.

AnCapaillMor

bullvine wrote: »

Its really mental to think back at how much better Milan and Juve were than the rest of the teams in Europe in the 90's.

Being out of europe for so long after the heysel tragedy really screwed up england. It took them years to recover, noone would go there and teams missed out on the changes in european tactics. Christ united got knocked by some really average teams, i remember arsenal being knocked out by benefica. Italy capitalised on englands ban. I think the ban on foreign players in italy ended around the same time too.

bullvine wrote: »

90's Italian football just incredible, topped off by this.

Current Barca side back in your box.

I remember that match well, i'd ignored the indo soccer section on monday morning so i could catch the highlights on monday night, milan were going for the unbeaten season and were 2-1 down at HT, finished 8-2 and the match didn't even finish, it was abandoned after 80 mins if i remember correctly.

bullvine

Brilliant read here

http://www.football365.com/f365-features/8111396/F365-Focus

bullvine

I didnt realise the match was abandoned, do you know why?

I was also following it and knew they were unbeaten at the time, thier unbeaten run was something like 17 months, ended by Asprilla but you already knew that!

kitakyushu

I followed that show a lot during those years (90-94)

Great time for Italian football. They had just hosted the world cup, had most of the worlds best players at club level and were dominating Europe (Italy was the only league to ever do a "grand slam" of EC , UEFA and CWC in the one season - 1990).

I think that's why I can't get into that league nowadays. The *wow* factor is gone.

FutureGuy

JaMarcus Hustle wrote: »

I genuinely used to always think the intro music finished with a giant "Go Lazio!" when I was younger. Could never understand the favouritism!

So did I but I still don't know what it is? gooaalll ___?

J Cheever Loophole

Great show and some great memories. Although I never met James Richardson, he was actually a friend of a friend, and I used to hear some great anecdotes!

He made the show, and the highlight for me each week was when James would go through the papers with his wonderful dry and irreverent humour. One particular moment that comes to mind went something like...

"And the Corriere dello Sport has reported that AC Milan striker George Weah had a lucky escape when he crashed his Ferrari on the main motorway that links the South of France to Italy. According to the report, he was doing over 90 miles per hour at the time when he lost control of the sports car, and ended up hitting the central reservation six times before eventually coming to a halt!"

James then pauses for effect, raises his eyebrows and with a slight shake of the head says,

".........I bet they were some skidmarks!!"

Seaneh

FutureGuy wrote: »

So did I but I still don't know what it is? gooaalll ___?

golazo.

A screamer basically.

Neil3030

They made up the word, as far as I know.

In other news: tune.

Cienciano

James Richardson is a legend. That is all

dahat

Watching that show and seeing Veron play then he came to Utd and i nearly crapped myself,just a pity he did not work out for us.......
In his Lazio days he was some player.........

AnCapaillMor

dahat wrote: »

Watching that show and seeing Veron play then he came to Utd and i nearly crapped myself,just a pity he did not work out for us.......
In his Lazio days he was some player.........

As an arsenal fan i remember him playing with sampdoria, parma and lazio, always thought he was awesome. I remember my mate told me we signed an argentinian he wasn't sure of the name but it began with V, i nearly wet myself and wet myself again when it was Nelson Vivas. Thought the league was over for the forseeable future when utd signed him and RVN.

dreamers75

Richardson was on Channel 5 before it changed. Still brilliant.

uncleoswald

It's criminal that Richardson doesn't get more presenting jobs considering some of the people that do.

Ares

FutureGuy wrote: »

So did I but I still don't know what it is? gooaalll ___?

Seaneh wrote: »

golazo.

A screamer basically.

Neil3030 wrote: »

They made up the word, as far as I know.

In other news: tune.

Its Spanish not Italian. Means great goal. Wouldn't say golazo for a tap in but a screamer as Seaneh said would definitely be a golazo.

Its not made up, just not an Italian word.

Kerrydude1981

Good old George Weah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt49QZwpru4

Remember these guys playing in Seire A

David Platt probably was the most successful English player to play in Italy during the 90s








And of course we cant forget this fella,even though he spent most of his time injured

Seaneh

I always forget that Davids played for Milan... weird...

starviewadams

Parma were my favourite Football Italia team back in the 90's with the likes of Dino Baggio,little Zola,Chiesa,Thuram,Buffon,Crespo and Veron.I thought their jersey was brilliant too!

Used to love watching on Saturday mornings before wrestling,and then watching whichever match was on at 1.45 on Sunday afternoons before my dinner.

They used to have a magazine that I bought regularly enough too iirc.

franglan

Was the name of the main commentator Peter Brackley? Brilliant voice.

FlawedGenius

franglan wrote: »

Was the name of the main commentator Peter Brackley? Brilliant voice.

Reminds me of PES.

Kerrydude1981

franglan wrote: »

Was the name of the main commentator Peter Brackley? Brilliant voice.

He was a class commentator,I think he was one of the reasons I bought Michael Owen World League Soccer for the PS1,brilliant commentary

keith16

Used to watch this with my Dad and two older brothers. I would always pretend I was the commentator before being told to shut up

Ah good times!

batistuta9

Ares wrote: »

Its Spanish not Italian. Means great goal. Wouldn't say golazo for a tap in but a screamer as Seaneh said would definitely be a golazo.

Its not made up, just not an Italian word.

it's not spanish & sorta made up

it's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_Italia#Gola.C3.A7o.21

Golaço!


The show became well known in popular culture for a shout of Golaço!, Portuguese for "fantastic goal", featured at the start and at the end of each show. The sound clip is of Italian television football commentator José Altafini, a Brazilian who played in Serie A for AC Milan, Napoli and Juventus.[25]
"Golaço!" was commonly misinterpreted as "Goal Lazio!" and transcribed as "Golaccio!" in the show's titles.[25] However, James Richardson later added, "I heard Steve De Berry [Steve DuBerry] who'd produced the music for the show say he'd wanted it to sound like 'go Lazio' because of Paul Gascoigne presenting it and so had added a twist to the soundbite."[8]

that's on wiki taken from this interview with james richardson http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/aug/12/sport.obsmagspecial8

Arriverderci Roma, buongiorno Reading
As James Richardson gets set to make his debut as a Premiership football presenter, he reflects on life after Italy
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The Observer, Sunday 12 August 2007
You're presenting Premier League football for the first time this season with BT Vision - does it feel strange to leave Italy behind?

There's no question how much I love Italian football, and I'm a huge Roma fan, but it's great to be given the chance to do the Premier League after always being seen as the 'Italian football guy'. I grew up with English football, I supported Swansea, and then switched to Arsenal, but I fell out of love with them when they got interesting. I think I preferred them dogged, resolute and the butt of jokes, rather than the flash, saucy, continental side they became. When I was growing up football existed in the festering end of Britain's social spectrum, so it's unbelievable how it's changed, with an incredible number of top players here now. You used to have to go abroad to see this kind of football, but it's happening right here. Serie A is nice and that, but this year the Premier League is more relevant.

How will presenting the Premier League be different to Gazzetta Football Italia

Unfortunately covering English football means ditching the piazzas and ice creams, so we'll have to find a new cliché to peddle each week. In Italy we were always filming on the road, selling the idea of being on holiday and eating ice cream. Now I'm going to be working from a studio on the thirty-fourth floor of the BT tower - but that in itself is pretty fantastic. It's top-secret up there: you get dusted down when you walk in, real Spooks stuff. I hope the one-liners will continue, though.

Did the gags ever get you in trouble?

Just once. We ran a promo for Italy's play-off against Russia to qualify for the 1998 World Cup. We filmed an Italian bloke sitting in a restaurant with the gingham tablecloth and all that and a plate of pasta, and the voiceover said, 'Will the Russians rub their faces in it...?' at which point a hand pushed the Italian's face into the spaghetti.

Word got out in Italy and there were questions in the Italian parliament. They were outraged. Everywhere Channel Four was being labelled as anti-Italian. In the end we re-enacted a spoof version where Pierluigi Casiraghi shoved my face in a plate of spaghetti.

What's the story behind the signature 'Golazo!' yell and why did it sound so much like 'go Lazio'?

For years I told people it was golazo - which means what an amazing goal. But then I heard Steve De Berry who'd produced the music for the show say he'd wanted it to sound like 'go Lazio' because of Paul Gascoigne presenting it and so had added a twist to the soundbite. It became the signature sound of Italian football for a generation of English fans. It also took me more than a season to realise why the show was called 'Gazzetta', and it was again because of Gazza.

Gazza presented the first few episodes of the show in 1992, before you took over. What happened?

Gazza was a lovely guy, but after we failed to get hold of him on a number of occasions it began to wind everyone up. He'd say yes to everything we asked of him, but then just not turn up to do the show. I was the producer at the time and I was asked to step in. I'd never been on camera before but I got the job because I could speak Italian, I had the suit and I was cheap. I thought I'd get ripped to shreds back home, but in the end it worked. What was not to like? It was Italian football with ice creams in a beautiful place. Ken Bates could have done it and been popular.

What are you looking forward to this season?

I can't wait to see how Sunderland get on, because one way or another it's going to be spectacular given they've managed to push back the envelope of awfulness in their last two appearances. Or Keano will continue the miracle and it'll be great. Reading's second season will be interesting and I'm looking forward to Eriksson at Man City - his luck's got to break sooner or later, but then Napoleon always said that luck was the most important quality in a general.

population

Such a great show and Jimbo really should have his pick of work. I really feel a similar highlights show would do reasonable business given some of the recent improvements in Serie A.

Juve buying their own stadium and winning Lo Scudetto, Napoli's emergence under Mazzari, the general feeling that there is more democratisation at the top of the table etc, not just the two great Milan clubs fighting for honours. For those of you that have commented about having a love for Serie A in the past but just going off it, watch a few games if you can, you might rekindle something

meriwether

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HQZnLqmqjM

James with Elvis Costello.

Bizarre. But really good.

meriwether

James rICHARDSON does Italian football on ESPN now, FYI.

Nunu

bullvine wrote: »

90's Italian football just incredible, topped off by this.

Current Barca side back in your box.

I still have that full game on VHS!

Also, a 5-0 mauling of Napoli, that is as close to a perfect team display you will ever get.

kitakyushu

Foggia were probably the most cavalier attacking team I've ever seen. Even more so that Ossie Ardiles Spurs team of 93/94.

tuborg_man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeNZcS_pJ_g

I was a very happy bunny when I found that a month ago. Great memories. Nfl then football italia on a sunday with way to much sugar and no school. brilliant,

Kerrydude1981

tuborg_man wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeNZcS_pJ_g

I was a very happy bunny when I found that a month ago. Great memories. Nfl then football italia on a sunday with way to much sugar and no school. brilliant,

Just spotted Alexi Lalas in that clip Forgot about his time in Italy

flyswatter

Used to watch it every Saturday morning, and often the live game on Sunday.

Peter Brackley FTW!