Forget the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo.
Ciro Ferrara will this evening attempt a far bolder zoological experiment: unleashing dolphins in Leith. Not that the head coach of Italy's under-21 side has acquired the services of Flipper, although given the volume of players that have withdrawn from his squad for the friendly against Scotland and the weather this week you couldn't blame him for trying.
Round 33 of the Serie A season – postponed due to the death of Piermario Morosini a week-and-a-half ago – will be played today, depriving Ferrara of Siena's Mattia Destro, Milan's 'Little Pharaoh' Stephen El Shaarawy and others that have helped the 'Little Blues' blaze through qualifying for the 2013 European Championships in such impressive style, playing five, winning five, scoring 16 and conceding just two.
The group that trained at Easter Road last night contains just three Serie A-based players, Milan's Mattia De Sciglio, Inter's Samuele Longo and Roma's Federico Viviani, but writing the Italians off because the rest of the squad play in Serie B is more ill advised than attending one of Mario Balotelli's indoor firework demonstrations. Why? Because almost all of them are actually owned by top-flight clubs and only cutting their teeth in the second tier.
Then there's the Pescara effect to consider. It's one of calcio's little curiosities that every Italian team has an animal-related moniker, but few have taken it as far as the club from the Adriatic coast. Since reforming post bankruptcy in 2008, they have been known as 'Delfino Pescara', which translates as 'Dolphin Pescara'.
Led by legendary chain-smoking, controversy-courting Czech tactician Zdenek Zeman, Pescara have enchanted Italy this season with their gloriously reckless, kamikaze brand of football. Currently third in Serie B, they have scored 72 goals – 24 more than league leaders Torino – conceded 50 and drawn only five games, less than anyone else in the division.
The Delfino have four representatives in Ferrara's squad, twice as many as other club, with Marco Capuano, Marco Verratti, Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile all likely to start this evening. Verratti, Pescara born and raised and the youngest member of the Azzurrini party aged 19, has been likened to Andrea Pirlo, although his combination of tough tackling and elegant passing lends itself more readily to Daniele De Rossi comparisons. Insigne is a pint-sized, pacey and prolific Napoli-owned winger; Immobile a 22-year-old striker and Serie B's top scorer with 20 goals this term. Co-owned by Juventus and Genoa, Immobile has long been earmarked as a potential future great yet this is the first call-up he has received during Ferrara's reign, therefore he more than anyone else has something to prove in the capital.
It was at Pescara's Stadio Adriatico that Morosini collapsed, but suggestions that could have an adverse psychological effect on them were debunked on Friday night when Insigne and Immobile both hit braces in a stunning 6-0 victory away to fellow promotion candidates Padova. If the Delfino duo show that sort of synergy again tonight, Billy Stark could be left wishing Ferrara had given Flipper a call after all.
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