“It’s tough for Spinazzola and Azmoun but there is hope, Mancini has a major problem but he doesn’t have two broken legs and therefore will play in Bologna. It’s not like someone who has a nail problem and doesn’t play. Paredes and Pellegrini available for tomorrow , as well as Cristante”. José Mourinho spoke like this about a year ago, when Chris Smalling was a real problem. Because the Englishman, with an elephantine salary for the Giallorossi, had practically never managed to play in Mou’s last year.
As soon as he left, Smalling had sent a long letter to explain what the situation was. “The last few months have been the most frustrating of my career. There are things, in football as in life, that we can control, and others that are beyond our control. This injury belongs to the second category. The absolute priority is to ensure that I I can play for AS Roma to my full potential for years to come.” It didn’t go that way, because in the summer he packed up and chose the Saudi League to start again.
The debut was certainly not excellent, far from it. Given that in Arabia, between his Al Feiha and Al Raed, in his first start as a starter he broke the deadlock with an own goal after six minutes of play. Then, at the start of the second half, he picked up two yellow cards in the space of four minutes, leaving his team with ten men tenth of the second half, when the score was 3-0. It ended with a top five with goals from Fouzair, El Berkaoui – brace – and Al Amri. In the eight games since he arrived, Al Feiha have collected just seven points. Chris Smalling turns 35 today.