CARE AND FEEDING OF A YOUNG ITALIAN DEFENDER

Newcastle United fans, including us, have been calling Sylvain Marveaux's name for a while now, and on Saturday, it looked like we had it right. Now the buzz is building for another substitution, and while we've beaten that drum on this blog as well, I'm not as sure about rushing Davide Santon into a lead role at Newcastle.

Don't get me wrong: I think Santon can become a star at St. James' Park. But I'm also Italian - well, half-Italian, but for an Italian boy, the half that matters: the maternal half. Maturity doesn't come fast for us Italian males, and if you don't believe me, check out the scorch marks in Mario Balotelli's bathroom. It may be wise to bring Santon along the way an Italian mother would: incrementally, with lots of positive reinforcement and limited room to fail.

My first loves in soccer, thanks to my transnational roots, were the Italian national team and A.S. Roma, the closest big club (along with Lazio) to my family's hilltop village in southern Umbria. While the Premier League and Newcastle have surpassed Serie A and Roma in my heart, I still keep up with the Giallorossi, and I was intrigued by Santon's recent comments on a Roma web site, in an article about how close Santon came to joining Roma before his Newcastle transfer. In an interview with LaRoma.net Santon admits he was interested in going to Rome - the Italian press reported it widely at the time as his preferred choice - but he says he's happy having landed at Newcastle, in part because the Premier League isn't so hard on young players: "It's a problem in our country's league, while England is different. If you mess up in a match they don't massacre you. They try to help you instead."

I've never understood why, in a nation where 80 percent of males still live with Mama at age 30, Italian managers are so impatient with young players. Perhaps it's because the managers are themselves Italian males and eager to dispel the stereotype of the tender mammone or "big mama's boy." Perhaps this indicates Alan Pardew, who displays all the earmarks of a patient father, might have a better go with Santon than Roberto Mancini faces with Balotelli. Granted, Santon may not be as much of a challenge to begin with. But during his struggles after a flashy start with Inter, Santon came in for his share of criticism for immaturity, christened "Il Bambino" and chastened in the press for his "excess of notoriety" and "mistaken friends" - in English idiom, keeping not the best of company.

So here's hoping the staff and fans in Newcastle are gentle with a young, talented Italian who found it hard to live up to Maldini-sized expectations in his home country - someone who flew Mama in to cook while he was acclimating to Tyneside. There's a strong tactical argument for injecting Santon into the lineup now, just as had become obvious with Marveaux. But I remember being 20 and Italian, and I'm thinking it may be better to turn up the heat in Davide Santon's room, find him an Italian chef, and let him grow naturally into his spotlight.