FanHouse SerieA

Jose Mourinho might say he's not so special anymore, but he'll have to be something pretty close to that to accomplish his latest mission -- rehabilitating the image of Italian football.

"[We must] make the fans more responsible and change their relationships with the police. In other countries we don't see nice images. We see violence, deaths, fans who are banned from traveling to away games.

"I will never forget that my bench at Chelsea was three metres away from the fans: I could see fathers, sons, women, children, families. There football was without fear ... Whatever the result, life will go on. I would be proud, one day, to have contributed to changing calcio. Why shouldn't things be like this, one day, in Italy too?"

I can think of many reasons why it won't be, starting with the fact that club owners seem to like things the way they are. Plus. the ultras wouldn't have an excuse to get their stabby on when visiting fans who walk down the wrong alley.

I wish Mourinho all the luck in the world in cleaning up Serie A, but he's going to need a ton of help, and I have my doubts that he's going to get it from people who could make a difference. He'll be in for a real shock when he gets his first match result sheet in advance of the matches themselves.

For the record, "I'm fantastic" in Italian is "Sono fantastici." So says Google, anyway.

In a move that was as hard to predict as the sun rising in the east this morning, former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was named the new manager at Inter Milan today.

The big Italian club has won Serie A three times in the last three years under Roberto Mancini, but after a series of spectacular flame-outs in the UEFA Champions League, Inter sacked Mancini and brought in the Special One to change their European fortunes.

Inter plans to start by giving Mourinho £100 million to spend during the summer transfer window, which means the raid on Stamford Bridge should begin any day now. Didier Drogba is probably gone after his Moscow slap fest -- even though Henk Ten Cate, the coach who tossed Drogba under the bus, was shown the door last week. Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Ricardo Carvalho might follow Mourinho to Milan as well. After all, if you want to kill your old club, you start by buying all their biggest stars, right?

The sheer amount of hype surrounding 18-year-old Brazilian forward Alexandre Pato has reached a fever pitch in Europe that makes the NBA arrival of LeBron James seem tame by comparison.

Pato is already being compared to Lionel Messi, Barcelona's Argentinian superstar. Some are saying he is not only A.C. Milan's future, but the Italian club's last best hope to save this season. These astronomical expectations made our pal Brian Phillips at The Run of Play wax philosophical.

So what was better, watching him or not watching him? What, between achievement and potential, do we love more? Seeing a player accomplish something has the thrill of reality in it; but our imaginations are always larger than reality, and seeing a player accomplish something also means he can't accomplish more than what we see. In Pato's first match, I saw Ronaldo, one of the best players in the recent history of the game, return from injury and score two goals. But where Ronaldo was only what he was, Pato what infinitely more than he was, and it was Pato who made the game electric.

It's the presence of Ronaldo, however, makes Pato's Italian debut a much more interesting story.

If last Sunday's Premier League Grand Slam wasn't enough to whet your appetite for club soccer at its highest hype level, two other dominant European -- La Liga in Spain and Serie A in Italy -- are serving up huge superclub matches that will air on Sunday morning in America.

First up in Italy, Serie A champs Inter Milan will take on European champs AC Milan in the famed Milan derby. (9:00 AM ET, Fox Soccer Channel.) Inter currently sits comfortably atop the league table once again. On the other hand, AC Milan's form in its own league has been dire. They're stuck in 11th place with only 18 points and zero wins at home. They're also listed as the away team here, despite playing at the San Siro, the stadium they share with Inter. Will that psychological edge get them over the hump?

Then it's El Clasico in Spain, as La Liga leaders Real Madrid head to Camp Nou to face 2nd-place Barcelona. (1:00 PM ET, GOLTV) Barca is four points behind Real on the league table, but they're unbeaten at home. However, they will be without Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, who's out with a thigh injury. Ronaldinho might sit as well after getting an earful from manager Frank Rikjaard yesterday. It may fall to Samuel Eto'o to score goals against Real, who have had much less drama but much better results away from home. Can Real steal a win and take a commanding seven-point lead in Spain?

When you're the cellar dweller in Serie A, you'll look anywhere for talent that can prevent you from getting relegated to Serie B. Italian club Cagliari is doing just that, signing a goalkeeper from, of all places, a high school in San Ramon, California.

Sometime in the next two weeks, David Bingham will board a flight to Italy to join one of the top soccer leagues in the world.

Bingham, a senior at California High and a star goalkeeper for the Grizzlies, said Wednesday that he has been offered a contract by Cagliari of Italy's Serie A and will leave school to join the team. He is rushing to finish some crucial classes at California and will complete his schooling via independent study in Italy.

Bingham reportedly turned down full scholarships from 14 NCAA Division I schools to sign with Cagliari, who saw him at a tournament in North Carolina and invited him to Italy for a two-week tryout. Now he'll be an American teenager in Italy, getting paid to be a reserve goalkeeper in one of the top domestic leagues on the planet. Must be nice.

Bingham does not appear to have any caps with any U.S. national soccer teams, which are packed to the gills with goalies. If he manages to crack Cagliari's lineup, though, that might change.

(H/T: The Offside)

Italian soccer is once again in chaos after a disc jockey who was a Lazio fan was shot and killed by police during a clash between Lazio and Juventus fans.

Police are calling the shooting a "tragic error," while fans throughout Italy protested the fact that games continued today. Atalanta supporters nearly broke through protection glass while protesting the continuation of their match against A.C. Milan, and more fans protested outside a TV station in Milan. The sign in that photo reads, "Racism stops the league, but the death of a fan means nothing."

Italian police have taken a hard line against soccer fans after an officer was killed last season during a scuffle between Catania and Palermo fans. It appears those police may have gone overboard. Conflicting reports indicate that the family of shooting victim Gabriele Sandri is accusing police of murder, while riots have broken out in Rome, with ultras attacking police stations and overturning cars.

Additional information is available at The Offside and Pitch Invasion.

(CORRECTION: Getty Images' translation of that line was incorrect. Raciti was the name of the policeman killed last season.)