WHEN Gianfranco Zola left provincial Parma for the joys of cosmopolitan Chelsea two months ago, it seemed like the smart move of a man with enough wit to abandon a team on the way down for one on the way up.
Zola and Chelsea have just completed a successful Christmas and new year run, but it has been a good holiday period for Parma, too.
Just hours after Chelsea's 3-0 FA Cup third round win against West Bromwich on Saturday, Zola and his wife Franca made for the airport to catch a plane for Parma.
The little Sardinian did not want to miss his old club's league tussle with arch rivals and current league leaders Juventus.
Zola brought his old club some good luck, too, since he was on hand to see Parma scramble a 1-0 win, following a second minute goal from Enrico Chiesa.
That Parma win, in their first fixture of 1997, followed an equally impressive 1-0 win away to Milan on the last day of 1996. And those two successive wins, plus a previous draw with second placed Vicenza, may just have turned around a Parma season that seemed headed for total disaster.
Club president Stefano Tanzi has no doubts: "At last we've seen the real team, a side that battles and never gives up. The squad is solid and united and I think we can aim for second place in the title race, which this year gets you into the Champions League," he said.
Four weeks ago, talk of the Champions' League would have seemed daft. Parma were just above the relegation zone and new coach Carlo Ancelotti seemed destined for unemployment. Now Parma are just eight points behind leaders Juventus.
One of the most successful Italian club sides of the 1990s and winners of the UEFA and Cup Winners' Cups, Parma had surprised many by opting for sweeping changes this summer.
Always competitive since winning promotion to Serie A in 1990, Parma had occasionally flattered only to deceive in the title race, most notably two seasons ago when they lost out to Juventus after a season long, head to head battle.
There were those in the Parma camp who felt that the club could do even better and, accordingly, out, went coach Nevio Scala, the man who had masterminded their rise from Division Two. He was replaced by former AC Milan and AS Roma player, 37 year old Carlo Ancelotti, a man who served his managerial apprenticeship first as assistant to Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi and then with second division Reggiana.
Parma then hit the market, splashing out an estimated $35 million on new talent such as striker Enrico Chiesa (Sampdoria), Argentinian Hernan Crespo (River Plate), Frenchman Lilian Thuram (Monaco) and Brazilian defender Ze Maria (Flamengo). A host of players including "stars" such as Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov (Barcelona), Faustino Asprilla (Newcastle United) and Filippo Inzaghi (Atalanta) were shown the door.
The new look formation, however, could hardly have made a worse start, being eliminated from the Italian Cup by Pescara from the second division and from the UEFA Cup by Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes in the first month of the season. Subsequent league defeats by Lazio, Perugia, Inter and Udinese prompted widespread speculation that Ancelotti would be on his bike by Christmas.
In the middle of precisely this period, Zola was offloaded to Chelsea, much to the disgruntlement of Parma fans and pundits alike.
It seemed perverse, to say the least, that Ancelotti wanted to use a player as obviously talented as Zola in a wide midfield role. Neither he nor the team seemed capable of getting anything right.
Even if club president Tanzi repeatedly said that he did not intend to sack his coach, almost no one believed him. Indeed, the expression of relief on Carlo Ancelotti's face on Sunday night would suggest that he, too, had taken his boss's words of reassurance with a large grain of salt.
Ancelotti may argue that his whole squad is beginning to play better, but even he cannot deny the contribution made by Croatian international Mario Stanic, the man brought in to replace Zola.
One must now wonder if Ancelotti is not about to repeat himself. Last season in his first managerial post with then second division Reggiana, he got off to a miserable start, only to recover and win promotion to Serie A. Asked if he intended to repeat that performance with Parma, Ancelotti joked: "Problem is, here I have to win the championship title."
