THE EURO FILES: Hometown heroes Lucas Perez and Patrick Cutrone fire old clubs out of the doldrums... as Deportivo La Coruna and Cesc Fabregas' Como earn promotion

Perez returned to Deportivo last year and fired them out of the Spanish third tierCutrone has played a key role in helping Como secured promotion to Serie AWhen you’re in the stadium you HAVE to support your own players - Listen to the It's All Kicking Off! podcast 

Around 1,200 miles separated Cesc Fabregas’ promotion party at Italian second-division club Como last week and Deportivo La Coruna’s return to Spain’s second division.

But they were brought together by a common theme — a striker going home, and going up.

Former Arsenal and West Ham forward Lucas Perez paid big money out of his own pocket to rejoin hometown team Deportivo last year. His dream was to get the former European force out of the tumbleweed of the Spanish third tier.

Patrick Cutrone turned down the chance of European football elsewhere when he left Wolves in 2022 to join Como — it was where he grew up and where, guided by his father, he took his first steps as a player. His dad Pasquale had died just seven months before, aged only 58.

Cutrone’s mission was to fulfill a promise to get the side back in Italy’s top flight where they had not been for 21 years.

Cesc Fabregas has helped coach Como to promotion to Serie A alongside Osian Roberts

Hometown hero Patrick Cutrone won the vital penalty leading to Como's promotion last week

The fall into obscurity of the once ‘Super’ Depor has taken none of the fervour out of the club’s supporters and 32,000 filled Riazor last Sunday to watch Perez’s 57th-minute free-kick send them up.

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Thierry Henry and Jamie Vardy among the famous faces to join in celebrations as Cesc Fabregas' Como continue their fairytale story by earning promotion to Serie A

One of only nine clubs to win La Liga, Deportivo were in the Champions League every season for five years from 2000 and reached the semi-finals in 2004.

Perez, a player who once scored a hat-trick for Arsenal in the Champions League, was unhappy at top-flight Cadiz and wanted to go home.

When financially stricken Deportivo couldn’t pay his release clause he coughed up the £428,000 himself, as well as taking a staggering pay-cut — he was on around £856,000 per year at Cadiz and is on closer to £86,000 now. It was all worth it last weekend when Perez’s goal secured Depor’s promotion.

‘They said I was crazy, well blessed be the madness!’ he said during the manic celebrations.

Just as emotional was Cutrone two days before, when he won the penalty that saw Como equalise against Cosenza to send them back to Serie A.

‘I dedicate everything I have achieved to my father. I promised him I would get back to the upper echelons,’ he said in the press room as the team coached by Fabregas and Welshman Osian Roberts fulfilled the ambition of their Indonesian owners, the Hartono brothers.

Cutrone arrived at Molineux for £23million in 2019 but never lived up to his billing as an AC Milan and Italy prodigy.

Milan had signed him aged 11 and he had made it through the club’s various youth teams to the first team, where he scored 18 goals in the 2017-18 season. But at Wolves he struggled and so he was loaned out to Fiorentina, Valencia and Empoli before ending up at Como, back where he was born, in the summer of 2022 for a nominal fee.

Lucas Perez, pictured playing for Deportivo La Coruna in 2017, returned to the club and scored 13 goals in 32 matches to help fire the club out of the third tier of Spanish football

His nine goals last season saved them from relegation in Serie B, and his 14 goals this season won him the division’s Player of the Season and got Como back up.

Perez is 35 but does not want to retire until he has got Deportivo back to the top tier. Cutrone, 26, is also going nowhere.

He told Gazzetta dello Sport: ‘Playing in front of people you have known since childhood, seeing them during the week and at the stadium, gave me an extra boost.’

Perez could not have put it better himself.

Bumbling Barcelona ready to sack Xavi... again!

Xavi is leaving Barcelona… again.

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Barcelona could do ANOTHER Xavi U-turn, with 'president Joan Laporta urged to SACK their manager after board members were angered by his comments'

The 44-year-old coach, who quit in January (because he was about to be sacked) but was allowed to change his mind last month (because Barca failed to find anyone else) could be gone after Sunday’s last home game of the season.

Xavi clocked up 100 La Liga games in charge in midweek at Almeria but neither president Joan Laporta nor director of football Deco travelled to Thursday’s game after the coach made comments about how difficult it would be to compete with Real Madrid next season.

Xavi was only telling it like it is. Barca need to shave £171million off their wage bill to meet La Liga’s financial fair play controls. Laporta, ever the populist, did not like Xavi being that frank and also took offence to the coach briefing that he had not wanted the club to spend £25.7m in January on Brazilian forward Vitor Roque, 19, who has only started twice.

Meanwhile, the club want to play a lucrative friendly in South Korea at the end of this month but have met with resistance because players will need to join their national teams ahead of the Euros. Friends of Xavi have told him he is best out of it. Advisors to Laporta have told him he should find another coach.

Maybe Bayern Munich and Barca could set up a support group. Would Thomas Tuchel accept Xavi’s wages? Could Xavi learn German?

Barcelona are preparing to sack Xavi again after admitting it will be difficult to compete with Real Madrid amid the club's financial constraints

Allegri leaves Juventus with Thiago Motta set to join

Massimiliano Allegri was sacked on Friday by Juventus — it was for the best.

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Massimiliano Allegri SACKED by Juventus just days after winning the Coppa Italia and threatening to 'hit an Italian journalist in the face and RIP his ears out'- amid growing tensions with club executives

It means he goes out in a blaze of glory having won a record fifth Copa Italia in his last game in charge on Wednesday against Atalanta. It also means he won’t have to shake his replacement Thiago Motta’s hand on Monday when Juventus play at Bologna.

Don’t buy the nonsense about Allegri going because of his behaviour after winning the cup. He told sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli to ‘get out’ of the post-game celebrations and threatened to rip Tuttosport editor Guido Vaciago’s ears off for ‘not printing the truth’, but they were hiring Motta anyway.

Motta was filmed celebrating with Bologna fans after they qualified for next season’s Champions League. He jumped up and down as they chanted ‘Stay in Bologna!’ but stopped when they chanted: ‘Whoever doesn’t jump is a Juventus fan’. They know where he’s going.

Massimiliano Allegri lifted a record fifth Coppa Italia in his final match in charge of Juventus

Bologna head coach Thiago Motta is poised to take over from Allegri as Juventus manager