Ha, Ha. Surely you mean your hero Paddy.

Bottom of the table:

Lazio 39
Siena 37
Palermo 36 (one game in hand)
Torino 34
Catania 32
Parma 30
Cagliari 29
Empoli 29
Livorno 29
Reggina 27

A win today would have almost guaranteed safety but typically Torino manage to lose. We should still be safe but with Torino anything is possible.

At least Juventus are losing - forza Palermo!
1-0 Amauri 11 mins

The papers have been full of stories that Amauri and Palermo have essentially agreed terms for his transfer to Juve in the close season.

If they had any doubts, those should have been dispelled by his absolutely gorgeous curving shot into the top corner, which left Buffon flapping.

And now he's got another.

Forza Palermo.

And Del Piero has now scored twice to equalise for the forces of darkness.

And after Juve hit the post, bar and waste a third great chance, Palermo score with two minutes left.

Palermo 3 Juventus 2, final.

Yet another panic-button managerial firing today, as Torino are about to show Walter Novellino the door and bring back Gianni De Biasi for the third time.

The comprehensive 3-0 defeat at Genoa on the weekend led to ultra protests at the ground, the team coach being blocked and barracked at a toll gate on its return, and similar scenes at training yesterday, all of which proved too much for Novellino to survive, notwithstanding the fact that Toro still have three clubs and four points between them and the relegation places.

To remind people of what the bottom of the table looks like:

Italy: (5 weeks left; three to go down):

Torino 34
Catania 32
Cagliari 32
Parma 31*
----------------
Reggina 30
Empoli 30
Livorno 29

Parma's asterisked game in hand is the away match to Juve that was postponed in the wake of the last ultra death. It will be played tonight.

De Biasi's first match with his new/old club will be at home to Inter Sunday night.

Very much looking forward to Juve's game in hand tonight. No Sissoko (injured) and Iaquinta has picked up a knock in training, while the excellent Zanetti is still out. Tough times for us old ladies.

A win tonight and the CL is within touching distance.

On Toro, I wonder where, if anywhere, they are going sometimes. They have recently had two of the brightest young managers in Italy in the 90s in Zaccheroni and Novellino. It is hard to see how they can attract better ones.

I think they should do enough to survive this season. I certainly hope Juve do them a favour tonight.

Though I think that Cuper has made it somewhat easier for you by going with Reginaldo and Corradi instead of Budan and/or Lucarelli. Cuper's talking about going for the win, but the team selection doesn't really back him up there.

Cristiano Zanetti is a strange case. He was absolutely useless for Inter for an extended period, but has been reasonably impressive ever since he got to Juve and even better than that this year. It's an even more striking case than Cannavaro's transformation once he left the Meazza.

If true, I also think Cuper has bungled his selection. Maybe he thinks they won't win tonight or even get a draw and is saving them for other more winnable games (he said nervously)? It seems very odd on the face of it.

I think Zanetti is an excellent player, I rated him highly at Roma and Chievo, too, I am struggling to remember how he played for Inter, which maybe says a fair bit. I would have him in the Italian squad now.

He was an important buy psychologically for Juve I felt, during the WC, before the final penalty for Juve was decided if I remember rightly. That someone of his quality and big club/international experience was willing to play for Juve in Serie B said a lot I think.

He has been one of Juve's very best performers this season, to me at least.

I think that is a pretty widely shared view, at least among my Juventino colleagues. It's especially remarkable to me because when my son and I first started watching Inter, we distinguished between C. Zanetti and J. Zanetti by referring to the former as "the useless Zanetti". If anyone could figure out exactly what in the Inter environment it is that causes this transformation into craptitude that only lifts upon leaving, they would no doubt be able to get a king's ransom from Moratti. The list is very, very, long, with Pirlo and Seedorf being too other prime examples.

What are you reading about the Amauri deal? I think he makes a lot of sense for Juve, but the Gazzetta rumour yesterday was that Giovinco was among the young players that Palermo could select as part of the transfer (in addition to the 12-15-20 million euro). That seems like an awful high price to pay, no matter how much I rate Amauri.

But then again, I think that there is a rather high chance that such stories are based on nothing more than the fevered imaginings of Zamparini.

It is a strange one, it might be fun, for some of us at least, to come up with a list of such players in the last 10 years or so. Pirlo and Seedorf are among the very best midfielders of their generation in world football for me. A salutory warning about a policy that aimed at/ends in collecting art pieces rather than building a team.

It seems like a "done" deal for Amauri? When asked about Juve after the Palermo game the other week his smiling reaction seemed to suggest he thought so, too. I think he would be an excellent buy for Juve.

I agree with you though, Giovinco is far too high a price to pay. He really could be a very special "home grown" player and a long-term heir to Del Piero, I think in my most positive moments.

Cobolli was adamant that Giovinco was coming back, in an interview on the Juve website in January, and that they would be placing a great deal of faith in him next season.

Mind you he was also, in the same interview, saying that Juve would not be making any signings in Jan and that they didn't need Sissoko!

A list of young Juve talent farmed out never to appear again in bianconero or indeed reach their high potential elsewhere would also be quite telling. Miccoli one of the saddest examples in recent times. He's done ok, but it is a far cry from reports I read in the Italian press that he was mix between Baggio, Schillaci and/or Maradona and such like.

One of my hopes around Juve's demotion to Serie B was that it would instill some humility and a change in focus towards the importance of bringing through young players rather than just buy ready made often overrated players, often, but not always, foreign. Emerson, Vieira, even Cannavaro etc under Capello.

Giovinco is key to this I feel. Though Palladino seems to have taken a back seat recently, I am not sure off the top of my head if it exactly runs parallel to his debut for Italy recently!

Cairo did the same last year when he fired Zaccheroni. Di Biasi came back to steer the club to safety after being fired at the start of the season. I expect Rosina will start games now (hooray)as Di Biasi built the team around him during the promotion in 2006. Just give the ball to Rosina seemed to be the instruction and it worked.

Will be cheering for J**e even though it sickens me to do so.

Torino truly is a strange club and Novellino is paying for their failure to really strengthen the side in January. At the time they made Cristiano Lucarelli and Rolando Bianchi their main targets but failed to sign any one of them.

That said, I wasn't expecting him to be dismissed because for one thing I got the impressiong that being a Granata to the core the fans were willing to give him time.

OTF, your place for Serie A tips.

6Marlets and I slag off Cuper's team selection this morning, and Juve are already 2-0 up after 30 minutes.

Say Juve don't make the Champions League this year. Do any of their stars leave? Three seasons without CL is a long time for the Buffons of this world...