Rino was seething. They just didn't seem to get it. He showed them on the chalkboard and they stared blankly at him. He slapped Jose Mauri a couple of times on the cheeks to get everyone to wake up.
Rino was exasperated. On a scale of on one to ten, one being a lazy Sunday eating pasta and drinking wine with Carletto while lying on a reclining chair as Monica stroked his head, and ten being nuclear, he was probably a seven and a half. At least the players weren't staring blankly because of mobile devices. No, he put a stop to that stupidity. This generation, always on the device, always on the smartphone. The smartphone has made them all stupido. Selfie, wefie, it drove him up the wall. No, he slapped the mobile devices out of their hands and banned smartphones from the training pitch and the dressing rooms.
Rino was angry. But they were still giving him that clueless look even when he used subbuteo pieces to illustrate his point. He slapped Jose Mauri twice on the cheeks and once behind the head for good measure but still nothing.
Rino was irate. He wasn't looking forward to the daily visit to the training ground from the direttore - Leo, the little imp who thought he was better than him. They all spoke to him like they thought he was simple or something. Why didn't Leo purchase better players if he was so clever? He wanted to chase the elf off with a fork. Preferably a big fork like il diavolo uses but a small fork would do. That big French-African tree? The Spanish wing queen and the Uruguayan lesbian? What was Leo thinking? The lesbian's dreadlocks made Rino want to hurl. It was as if Leo was mocking him. Getting more and more worked up, Rino called Jose Mauri to stand next to him so he could slap him at will while picturing Leo Araujo.
Rino was fuming. And what about the other one, Paolo? God's gift Paolo. What value did Paolo bring to the team? Sure Paolo was a fantastic player back in the day, a great athlete, but how was he going to do what he promised, to bring back the great Milan DNA? Rino asked Paolo a number of times only for Paolo to patronizingly tell him "Pazienza mio amico. All in good time." They all thought of Rino as a funny simple angry man. All grinta and no substance. He'd show them substance. He throttled Jose Mauri until both of them became slightly purple.
Rino was enraged. He chased the players around the training ground waiting for the two directors to show up. Jose Mauri surprisingly was pretty motivated for this part of the training session and ran out of reach. Rino settled for slapping Riccardo and Ignazio. Riccardo was always at the back and Ignazio always started pretty well but ran out of steam. He would beat the tactics, style, substance and yes, grinta, into this rag-tag bunch of misfits if it was the death of him. AS Roma wouldn't know what hit them.
