Paddy Agnew/Euroscene: Three years ago, on the eve of the Italy v Holland Euro 2000 semi-final, I was cornered in the press room at the Amsterdam Arena by a group of colleagues determined to impress upon me how "bad for football" it would be if Italy were to beat The Netherlands.
It would be a triumph for boring old negative catenaccio at the expense of Dutch total football, I was assured.
As someone who has lived in Italy for the last 18 years, covering Italian football throughout that time, I have always been struck by the alacrity with which the Italy-bashers come out to crow with delight when Italians clubs and/or the national team fail.
Recent seasons have offered the Italy-bashers plenty of cheer. Three seasons of whitewash in European club competitions, a last-minute loss in the Euro 2000 final in Rotterdam, last year's ignominious World Cup exit at the hands of South Korea and a recent European Championship defeat by Wales have even led some commentators to predict the definitive "Decline and Fall" of Italian football.
Over the last year, I have been interviewed on umpteen occasions about the "crisis" in Italian football. I have vainly tried to point out that whereas the word "crisis" might well be accurately used in relation to the finances of Italian football, that term could hardly be extended to the whole movement.
After all, results are results. By the end of this season, Italian clubs will have won five and played in 10 of the last 15 Champions League finals, not to mention winning eight of the last 15 UEFA Cups. In the same period, Spanish clubs have won four and played in seven Champions League finals, without winning an UEFA Cup.
More emphatic still is the miserable record of English clubs, admittedly undermined by the 1985-1990 ban. In the last 15 years, only Manchester United have made the Champions League final, winning it in 1999, whilst in the same period only Liverpool have won the UEFA Cup (2001).
Clearly English football is in crisis. Which indeed it may be, judging by the second round Champions League failure of Arsenal and not to mention the tactically inept performance of Manchester United against Real Madrid.
Even Alex Ferguson would have been "roasted" by the Italian media for those performances.
The belief Italian football is based on a negative, cheating, percentage game is hard to eradicate from some minds. When Dutch legend Johann Cruyff suggested earlier this year that an all-Italian Champions League final would be "bad for football", he was probably also speaking for many, fans and experts alike.
The joy about the "beautiful game" is that one man's "negative football" can be another's "winning football". One man who has never made a secret of his admiration for the Italian way is Portuguese coach, Brazilian Felipao Scolari.
"People are always talking to me about entertainment, about spectacle and that sort of thing. Well, let's get one thing clear, this game is about a struggle between two teams to get a result. In the end, what counts, is which team wins," says Scolari, adding: "Football is not a circus where the winner is the side which pulls off more backheels, more nutmegs and more dribbles.
"At the moment, there are no better teams in Europe than AC Milan and Juventus. Milan are better on the ball, perhaps have more technically refined players but Juventus have more muscle and more will-power."
Over to Old Trafford next week for another instalment in the "Decline and Fall" of Italian football.
