It’s been nearly two years since we’ve seen the best from Italian striker Antonio Cassano, who emerged as a crucial player for Roma in the 2003-04 Serie A season under then-coach Fabio Capello. After Capello chose to leave the debt-ridden club at the end of that season, Cassano’s considerable talents fell by the wayside as the impetuous striker took to publicly criticizing and ridiculing Roma’s subsequent coaches. As fate would have it, master and apprentice have been reunited this season at Real Madrid, a sign that could bode well for Madrid’s frustrated supporters. Coachesl have often frozen out Cassano, regarding him as more of an attacking luxury than a core member of the starting 11. Indeed, that pretty much sums up Cassano’s first La Liga experience last year, when he managed just one goal in half a dozen starts after moving from Roma in January. Since moving, Cassano has been considerably quieter at Real than he was at Roma, but he’s never hidden his admiration for Capello, who got the best out of him at Roma. “Now there is a person here who has a lot of faith in me,” the Italian told their official website. “This doesn’t mean I’ll automatically be a first team choice, but just that I am happy because he thinks highly of me.” Cassano, still only 24, says that in his short time Capello has already managed to forge a unity within the Madrid squad that was lacking last year.