I must admit I was never comfortable with him in the middle of the park, as I felt he was too small to be a Centre Half, though his experience, did help him some way in this department.
Was he too comfortable at Dundee in the twilight of his career? Age 34 with 3 year contract, he is no spring chicken now for moving on to another Team. Will he do a Marco Negri and sit picking up his wages until the end of his contract? He must be on quite a good deal at Dens after all.
Marco's career at Dens has been a bit chequered to say the least. Troubled with injuries initially, despite the Specialists saying he was ok to play? Was this the start of his skating on thin ice with his friend Ivano?
No one more than Marco should know that the one thing Ivano expects and demands from his players is commitment to his Team and Loyalty. We all know Ivano has high standards and if they are breached, you are in trouble. A few players can testify to that this season.
Marco did look good at Left back against Rangers in the first game he played there, but he was caught out against St. Johnstone and though the penalty decision was soft, it was a needless challenge as Hartley wasn't going to score from that position. This could have cost us the 3 points, again and finished our chances of finishing in the top six. Was this another factor in De Marchi's demise.
Then there was the Hearts game, we were beginning to control the match, then Rae is scythed down by Makel. Sure players are entitled to protest at tackles like that, but the situation had calmed down, why did De Marchi get involved to the extent of letting our over zealous officials have an excuse for sending a player off? It's not like it's a secret that we are the brunt of more dubious decisions than most.
Summing up, is it any wonder Ivano wants rid of De Marchi?
He doesn't want to play all the time, is he only a fair weather player?
He's started making rash challenges that can cost us games?
He cost Dundee FC £500,000 gate & TV money against Celtic at Parkhead through getting involved in a
situation needlessly, as I believe we would have beaten Hearts with 11 men.
There may even be other incidents we haven't been made aware of behind the scenes, but I can only comment on what I've witnessed.
Subject: De Marchi comment
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001
From: Hilandeck@aol.com
To: BoabL@blueyonder.co.uk
Boab, Alex Anderson at Dundee@FromTheTerrace here.
Marco Go. Rae Stay. Two more signings come our way
On players in our current squad, the great news is that Gavin Rae has signed a one year extension to his contract, the sad news is that Marco de Marchi has been put on the transfer list.
Sad as this is it was also expected after the events of Wednesday night. Well, to be more accurate, it was expected after we saw Ivano B in the Dens park tunnel telling the BBC's Rob Mclean that "someone will have to pay for this" while talking about De Marchi's lack of discipline.
You wouldn't have to be a Mensa card-holder to work out who our "Allenatore" was referring to and what form said "payment" would take. There was initially a fine but now he's been officially placed in the shop window. However, anyone who saw Friday Night Sportscene last night will probably have their doubts on that one: The little biopic on Ivano Italiano - he was fitted with a mike during the Hearts match and his touch-line behaviour filmed - revealed a manager consumed with passion for his team and filled with rage at their failures. It also revealed that there is NOT A LOT of English being spoken on our touch-line.
There was an extraordinary outburst where Ivano turned to the assembled backroom staff and subs on the home bench and ranted away in his native tongue, gesticulating towards himself and the ground. My Italian is about as good as my Swahili but the term "Mia Squadra" - "MY TEAM" - and "Pezza di Merda" (forgive the spelling) - "PIECE OF SHIT!" were clearly intelligible and were shouted twice each. Now, the BBC didn't tie that outburst up with any particular piece of action on the pitch but you've got to wonder if he was referring to De Marchi: ie "That piece of shit will never play for my team again".
This is, of course, pure speculation on my part but if anyone out there has a bit of Italian lingo and saw the same clip, would they please drop us a line. It'd be good to know if he was indeed refering to De Marchi - because, if he was, then Marco is most definitely OUTTA HERE!
If you've been living on a different planet for the past week then nip over to our match report page to find out exactly why Marco was sent off. I don't know how many punters agreed but, at the time, it seemed pretty clear to me that MdeM had behaved bl**dy stupidly. You've got to find linesman Stuart MacAuley just a tad freekin annoying because of his "Teacher's Pet" act in bringing Underhill's attention to something which even Lee Makel, the recipient of Marco's kick had let go. However it is the rules of the game and we can't have any complaint against anyone other than de Marchi for compromising us like that.
One thing which last night's "worm's eye" BBC film of the Hearts game showed was the incident between Rae's header being cleared off the line and Makel fouling Gav. This string of events led up to the de Marchi incident but, as stated on FTT Dundee's match report, the Wednesday night highlights of the match failed to show the tackle which occurred in-between: I had thought it was Flogel tackling Giorgi but, my memory being as reliable as my Italian, it turns out it was "F**k Off" Boyack who hacked Marcello M. This was shown by last night's film and it confirmed just how "juicy" I'd remembered this tackle to be. It was a clear foul which Underhill didn't blow for but it also demonstrates that Gavin knew the Hearts players were rattled, desperate to clear their lines and lunging in to tackles as he went into the 50-50 with Makel.
Why is this important? It shows, along with his lack of a reaction after Makel's foul, that Gav was looking for a foul from, and possibly a booking for, Makel. He knew what was coming and, to my mind, accentuated his fall to the ground because Hearts players were commiting rash challenges all over the pitch. de Marchi has got in on this vibe and tried to earn Makel a booking by inciting him under the ref's nose. It back-fired.
It's all very sad, particularly when you remember the way Marco totally cancelled out the threat of Allan Johnston in our recent home match with the champions. He didn't give Rangers a sniff down that wing - either through the overrated Johnston or the overlapping Robert Malcolm.
As I've said, perhaps De Marchi is just being sweated but it seems unlikely given our manager's honourable nature. All stereotypes of Italians as play-actors who refuse to admit guilt for anything they do wrong have been quashed by Ivano Italiano this season. He immediately put the blame for Wednesday night's incident on De Marchi's head when most of Dens Park was calling for Stuart MacAuley's blood. First day of the season at Motherwell, when Ivano himself was sent off, he immediaetly told the assembled press that the ref had been correct to send him off, he'd been stupid, a bad example and a guy of his experience should know better.
If he's THAT brutally hard and honest with himself, you can't see Marco de Marchi having much of a future at Dens.