Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I had only read the story about the Cremonese match and the sedatives, and yes this i an hilarious story...
From what i had read in the Belgian papers it seemed as if this was a very professional scam with the Cremonese incident as the only "mistake".

So Ben, you say that they are all a bunch of loosers...i sure hope so. Football playerss usually are not the brightest guys...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

well from what emerged from the cremona pubblic attorney office, there's nothing "professional" about this organization. the fact itself that they failed in their criminal purposes half of the time speaks for itself.

however that doesn't mean this isn't a serious matter. hilarious and dumb as theese people can be, they still managed to compromise the result of at 9 matches (all played in serie b and lega pro).
and also keep in mind that we still have very little information on this scandal, because the inquiry isn't over yet and the pubblic attorney is obviously trying to keep secret as much information as possible until investigation phase will be officially over.
unfortunately this secrecy is generating the wildests and most ridiculous rumours (rumours which get usually disproved the day after).

also the fact that the investigation isn't over yet means we can't be sure there isn't something more (we still can't exclude the possibility that theese people may have compromised also some serie a matches) neither we can be sure that there isn't someone more "serious" behind theese idiots....... although i find that quite unlikely. organized crime doesn't get mixed up with idiots like theese.... it would be too risky. anyway i'll keep u posted when something certain comes out.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

lo zio said:
a serie b side it's better than a serie a midclas team because a serie b side can give them a starting spot and less pressure.
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what pressure? i'm talking about the teams in the lower half of the table. true the relegation battle isnt finalized until the last match day, but c'mon??? there's as much pressure competing for a top finish in serie b (then with the playoffs). Besides, isn't a bit of pressure good for these kids? How else can they develop mentally? I'm not talking about throwing them in the deep end but they got to learn to at least float on water. True not all them can handle it, but some should, a core group who will go on to bigger and better things. I'm not convinced playing serie b is any good for them. You say 40 games in serie b as a starter is better than 20 games in serie a coming off the bench? I disagree. Even with Santon. His problem wasn't his inability to handle the pressure. Had very little to do with that. His problem his inability to reclaim his spot from Chivu/Zanetti. And when he couldn't recapture his old form and convice Mou he deserved to be in starting XI he just crumbled. Again, nothing to with all this attention from the media. You're trying to wrap these kids in bubble wrap their whole lives, it's no good for them IMO. it makes things worse because when even a single U21 makes it to serie a there will subsequently be so much pressure on him to perform....

One thing to think about is the number of tactical instructions some of these kids are fed by their managers before and during games. In egnalnd and spain these youngsters are just encouraged to just play (see Redknapp) so i reckon that weighs them down a little.

lo zio said:
but how could they fix the matches without involving the referee? well they tried to persuade the players "to sell themselves" (and that's where cristiano doni comes into play... apparently he's one of those who reached an agreement with those bastards).
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wait, so Doni is 100% guilty? Signori too? This crazy :LOL: You know, i bet this is more common place than we think. Across other leagues as well. But it always seems to leave a bad mark on Italy, because the whole mafioso/gangster aspect. So how does this affect serie b promotions and play-off matches?

hey so what are you thinking about the 4-3-1-2 formation? I reckon italys is more suited with 3-5-2 formation. Yes, outdated, but you have the right players to pull it off, particularity wingbacks (maggio, cricisto, dossena, cassani). Palombo should be in the midfield (he is an idiot for going down to serie b, he's just 30, euro 2012s are just around the corner, italian mid is far from settled.... fucking wake up you louse :DOH:) he's more authoritative and sure of himself than De Rossi. Not sure about the striking pair. Cassano isnt clinical enough. Mario just isnt reliable. You need Rossi in their because he's quite pacy. Pazzini is better suited for a possession team i think. Going on the counter just isnt his thing. Italy should emulate Napoli and Udinese as close as possible because you sure as hell aint Barca :P
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

rfu said:
what pressure? i'm talking about the teams in the lower half of the table. true the relegation battle isnt finalized until the last match day, but c'mon??? there's as much pressure competing for a top finish in serie b (then with the playoffs). Besides, isn't a bit of pressure good for these kids? How else can they develop mentally?
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the pressure that comes for the relegation battle is huge mate. i can safely tell u that a lecce player faces even more pressure than, say, a udinese player. there's a huge gap between serie a tv-rights money (dozens of millions) and serie b tv rights money (less than 2 millions usually)... with so much money at stake u can't afford a single mistake.... bottom line, it's not an ideal situation for a teenager.

u're right that learning how to handle the pressure is an important aspect in a player's growth.... but we should respect some sort of a learning curve (serie b - serie a midclass club - top team). plus i believe there's "healthy pressure" and "unhealthy pressure". the pressure that comes with a serie b playoff battle is healthy.
the pressure that comes with the rest of the world looking at u as the next maldini after just a handful of matches as a starter (wich is what happened to santon).... that's definitely unhealthy and it doesn't help a youngster in his growth.

i'm not trying to wrap youngsters in a bubble like u say.... i just don't want them to burn themselves and to collapse under the mediatic attention at a stage in their carreers when their shoulders aren't yet strong enough to handle such pressure. big difference ;)
btw about santon, i clearely remind mourinho saying that all the mediatic attention over santon was having a bad impact on his performances mate. i'm quite sure of that.
rfu said:
wait, so Doni is 100% guilty? Signori too? This crazy You know, i bet this is more common place than we think. Across other leagues as well. But it always seems to leave a bad mark on Italy, because the whole mafioso/gangster aspect. So how does this affect serie b promotions and play-off matches?
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well there's still nothing 100% sure so far (like i said the pubblic attorney isn't sharing much information with the public and the investigations aren't over yet).... but it seems doni is probably involved in this..... and signori is almost certainly heavily involved.
as for your comment about this betting\match fixing filth being much more common than we might think, i completely agree with u.... we only know about germany, italy, greece and a few other leagues, but i have a very strong feeling this is a much wider issue that involves european football as a whole.
no susprise betting has been on top of uefa and platini's concerns in the last few years.
as for the consequences on the playoffs and the promotion of the teams which seem to be involved in this shit... it's still early to have a clear idea.... but i wouldn't be surprised if atalanta wouldn't be promoted in serie a this season.
rfu said:
hey so what are you thinking about the 4-3-1-2 formation? I reckon italys is more suited with 3-5-2 formation. Yes, outdated, but you have the right players to pull it off, particularity wingbacks (maggio, cricisto, dossena, cassani). Palombo should be in the midfield
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i like that idea honestly. once guidolin held a fantastic lesson on tv about 3-5-2.
after breaking down the formation he explained the 3-5-2 setup is the most common among national teams because it's the easiest to handle for the players. each player has its specific duties, with no possible overlaps. it's an extremely straight forward formation wich can be "absorbed" by the players in just a few days of trainings and tactical sessions (wich is why national teams coaches tend to recurr to it so often, given they don't have to much time to work with their players).

and i also think it could suit our team quite well. like u said all our sidebacks would fit instantly (balzaretti, criscito, abate, cassani, maggio play pretty much as wingbacks in their club teams, so it would be perfect).
plus it would allow us to line up aquilani (or montolivo) in their proper role (as a mezz'ala) without loosing too much in terms of midfield coverage.
i really like that idea..... however there's a huge BUT.
to line up this formation u need cbs who know how to handle a 3 men setup. a 3 men defensive line is a completely different thing from a 2 cb defensive setup. it's the biggest tactical revolution u can try on a team...... and national team football doesn't allow revolutions (as there's not enough time for the players to adapt to a new system). u have to react differently, u have to coordinate your movements with 2 partners and not just one, u have to learn new diagonals... it's really a big change.
and i'm not sure our young cbs can handle that. bonucci and chiellini never played in a 3 men setup. bocchetti and cannavaro junior know how to handle it, but right now they're not in the team.... then u have ranocchia who played in a 3 men line for a few months in genoa... i don't know if they can handle such a change..... but imo it's worth a try. :))
rfu said:
Italy should emulate Napoli and Udinese as close as possible because you sure as hell aint Barca
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no national team can play like barça. even spain itself is lightyears behind barça. i think we should try to play accordingly to our qualities. this current italy is a relatively short team with great technique, lots of good passers, which doesn't have a big benchmark forward a la vieri o a la toni (pazzini is a fantastic cf, but he's completely different from them).

we have several players upfront who are thechnically good enough to "hide the ball", some sidebacks who like to push a lot, some great passers at midfield and a young and absolutely unexperienced defensive line, wich absolutely can't take too much punishment.
therefore i believe we should try and keep the ball on the opposite half of the pitch as much as possible (wich means having an offensive attitude).

anyway the good thing about prandelli is that he always manages to pull the best out of the players at his disposal and always finds the best tactical formula for his players. he's never been tied to a specific tactical solution and always changed the formation according to his players......
so i'm mildly confident. i don't think we're gonna challenge for any title any time soon, but i think that for the first time in quite some time we might see a pretty entertaining and offensive oriented italy (wich is what we saw lately from prandelli's italy).

we certainly don't lack quality (infact in terms of technique this team is absolutely great). what we lack is experience (but that can be solved) and personality..... and that's my biggest concern
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I'm pretty sure someone like Cheillini would be fine in a 3-man defence, given he started his career as a left-back and he'll be comfortable covering on that side of the pitch.

Anyone else hear about what happened to Campagnaro?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

lo zio said:
we certainly don't lack quality (infact in terms of technique this team is absolutely great). what we lack is experience (but that can be solved) and personality..... and that's my biggest concern
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Completely agree. This is where we used to be good - with figures like Nesta/Cannavaro/Zambrotta, Gattuso/Pirlo, Totti/Del Piero/Inzaghi - they were very confident players with distinct playing styles.

We have a few players right now that have a lot of personality, but I don't think they've 'gelled' with the team yet. Such as Aquilani, Giovinco, Ranocchia, Cassano and Balotelli. I anticipate Super Mario to become increasingly important for us in the future.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

He's been seriously injured. Three people have died in the accident.

We all remember the Buonanotte incident ?

The road infrastructure in Argentina is patchy and needs improvement. The number of deaths is one of the hightes per thousand of population despite recent poster campaigns.

It's sad for the victims concerned and Hugo too. Most deaths in Argentina involve young males as in most countries .
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Is there any truth to the rejected bid for Abel Hernandez?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

lo zio said:
................
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gentlemen, this is the criminal mastermind.... marco paoloni..... probably the stupidest criminal in the world right now. :APPLAUD:
marco_paoloni_ansa.jpg
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:LOL:

Brilliantly stupid!! :LOL:

Thanks for all the info. Great read! This is ridiculous! lol

What a bunch of retards!! 50% success ratio! lol

And wow I just lost massive respect for Signori and Doni if this is true. Two VERY good players in their peak! Now they will face charges and will be feeling embarrassed for a long time!! They may have ruined their legacies. Depends how forgiving Italian people... public are.....
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

lo zio said:
btw about santon, i clearely remind mourinho saying that all the mediatic attention over santon was having a bad impact on his performances mate. i'm quite sure of that.
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could be. but look at it this way, had he not have fallen injured, he would've been fine. it was just living up to his earlier standards. IMO he should've toughed it out because he's a shadow of the player he once was at Cesena. But anyway, kid is young as hell, lets not beat on him like he's in his late 20s. Plenty more to come from Santon :COOL:

lo zio said:
as for the consequences on the playoffs and the promotion of the teams which seem to be involved in this shit... it's still early to have a clear idea.... but i wouldn't be surprised if atalanta wouldn't be promoted in serie a this season.
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Daaamn :CONFUSE:

thoughts on Luis Enrique as Roma coach, anyone? First of all, how the hell did that happen? Sounds like a gamble to me. Does he have any senior-level coaching experience? so is he going to bring that tick-taka (whatever its called) type football to italy? goodluck with that. wouldn't be surprised if he receives his marching orders by the end of the year.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Luis Enrique sounds like a gamble to me too. But i would like to see Roma compete for the title again...

Lazio and Genoa are both after Steven Defour by the way...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I don't know what to think about Enrique. He did a very good job in Barcelona B but he has to deal with the huge ego of Totti now. I am waiting for Roma to bring some players.

And oh Ben, Zamparini literally kicking Pastore and Cassani out of the team. Pastore clearly not liking this.

Oh and Klose. OMG! I am really excited about this.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

What the hell.... Ancelotti to Roma seemed to make so much sense! Long before he was even sacked as Chelsea manager, we all thought he'd end up there seeing as how they need a new top level proven coach and Roma being HIS club.. and Roma being ambitious and wanting to fight for title.. etc.

Luis Enrique to Atletico Madrid which was rumoured would've even been a big gamble for Los Rojiblancos but this makes even less sense given his lack of familiarity with Serie A and complete inexperience.

And all this while Carlo is outta work!!? Really disappointed. Was really looking forward to seeing Carlo on the sidelines for Roma and taking them to the very top.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Sina, i've read somewhere that Ancelotti wants to take a sabbatical year...he wants to take a break to think and reflect about the game he said. I think i must 've read that on the Guardian's website.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

ancelotti is certainly going to coach roma someday. he loves roma and roma loves him. but apparently he wanted to take a break now. he said he's been coaching nonstop ever since 1995 and now he wanted to take a break for a while and travel around europe to study football and update himself.... that's quite old fashioned and cool. in the old days it was a prerogative of italian coaches to do theese "study trips", some sort of a stage around europe to study different schools.

however i believe there's more to it. i think ancelotti wanted to see if theese new roma owners are serious. right now we know pretty much nothing about them. i believe carletto wanted to wait and see how much theese people are willing to invest before taking the roma job. makes sense to me.
tobi said:
Is there any truth to the rejected bid for Abel Hernandez?
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i dunno tobi. i mean the rumour is coming from from palermo's president, wich means it's most likely bullshit. but then again, 9 million euros are certainly not enough to get hernandez, so there might be some truth in it.
look at it this way; whenever u hear a transfer rumour and a statement associated to zamparini, u can consider it bullshit and 99% of the time u'll be right..... unless (and that's where that 1% comes into play) zamparini isn't actually interested in selling that player, in wich case the rumour might actually be true.
and apparently we're not willing to sell hernandez this summer, so this might fall into that 1%. i wish i could be more helpful :))
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terrible news about the campagnaro accident. thanks God he's safe.... i wish we could say the same for the other people involved in the accident (may they rest in peace).
your damn right Albi. roads are quite terrible in argentina (although chile and perù are even worse than argentina in that department). in the early 90s the argie government pretty much outsourced the manteinance of the entire road system, through a very badly conceived privatization. as a result of that cost or road trasport in argentina grew hugely, while the roads conditions didn't improve one bit.
9 years ago i found myself driving an old fiat 500 along la ruta nacional 14.... at night. it was quite terrifying. being an argie yourself, i assume u know what i'm talking about
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zeem said:
And oh Ben, Zamparini literally kicking Pastore and Cassani out of the team. Pastore clearly not liking this.
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what happened yesterday is just sick.
ever since the season ended, zamparini has been patiently waiting for pastore to release some interviews, saying he might leave palermo (zamparini is desperately trying to pin the responsability of the pastore sale to javier himself, so the palermitani won't be mad at him... i guess he thinks we're stupids). but since pastore kept quiet (coz he actually has no intention at all to leave palermo and would like to stay here one more season at least), then zampa made up the whole thing!
he asked a journalist friend of his to spread a rumour .... pastore released an interview in argentina and said he's probably going to leave palermo this summer.
of course it was just a matter of time before pastore and his agent found out about this "false interview" and deny everything.... but that didn't matter, because zamparini only needed this rumour to last long enough to have the italian journalists calling him..... and after a few hours infact every football journalist was calling zamparini to ask his opinion on "pastore's words".
zamparini told the press that he feels a bit sorry but that he also understands pastore and his desire to play in a top club.
can u believe this hypocrite bastard!?!
a few hours later an outraged pastore heard about all this and denied everything. he made it clear that he never released any interview and that he never said he wanted to leave palermo.

but u see. that doesn't matter anymore. zamparini put this show to give pastore and his agent a clear message "u might prefere to stay here, but i want to sell u".
he's doing exactly the same thing he did with kjaer last year (also kjaer was forced to leave by zamparini).
say you're a talented young football player. u're considered "the next best thing" and almost every top club in europe is interested in signing u. yet u still prefere to remain in palermo for a while, so that u can grow more and more experience and keep improving as a football player before joining a top club. u're even willing to lose several millions euros in order to remain in palermo one season more.
afterall u love the city, u have a great relationship with your teammates, u got youselves a palermitana girlfriend, and u consider your coach here (rossi) the best football teacher u ever had. staying in palermo 1 or 2 years more would be perfect.
but then your president fires your beloved coach and spreads fake rumours about u saying u might wanna leave.
what would be your reaction? u know what, fuck u zamparini! u wanna sell me? ok then suit yourself. i'll just pack my stuff and leave..... it's not like it will be a problem for me to find a top team.... and i'm sure my palermitana girlfriend won't mind following me in barcelona, madrid, milano or london.
no one likes to stay somewhere he's not wellcome. and even though palermo loves pastore, zamparini still remains his president, his employer. if the man who pays your salary tells u he doesn't want u anymore, and u have no problems finding another job somewhere else (for even more money).... well u just pack your stuff and leave, don't u.

bottom line, even though pastore didn't want to leave palermo till yesterday (he made it very clear so far that he wanted to stay).... i expect him to change his mind in the upcoming weeks :(( .

there was a banner just outside the brasilian consulate in palermo yesterday evening.
dear brazilian friends, please hand us over battisti! in exchange we will send u berlusconi and zamparini. that's a corrupt politician and a lying son of a b*** for a murderer. do we have a deal?
:LOL: u just gotta love sicilians :APPLAUD:
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

OK, thanks.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I see, the sabbatical makes him not taking the Roma job make sense now. Thanks Gerd and Ben.

As for the whole Pastore thing, that's just as shady as it gets! I think even Zamparini has hit a NEW low!! and that was pretty hard to do! lol
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

hey ben, i see why you lie fabbrini so much.... maybe he reminds you of pastore a little ;) he's at udinese right now. should get a decent look in with Udinese playing in europe. But we need U21s playing in serie a, for sure. don't buy your argument at all. wanna know what pressure is? look at henderson and carroll to liverpool, phil jones to man utd, and many more to come, and for ridiculous amounts of money :CONFUSE: now that's pressure, competing for a place with world class players for world's most recognized teams (Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U)... the kind of pressure in italy comes from the fans and clubs presidents who want results and not necessarily football. but these kids should be up to it. three or four at least. But i think serie a teams are open to experiments than you think. Napoli and Genoa a couple of years ago. Roma under Spaletti. Roma now!....About L. Enrique, I think there's more to it than we think. With a new president and a foreign manager, Roma are looking to revolutionize. could go all they way down to grass roots level, with the youth team players and new signees etc. Could be some sort of long-term project and shift towards a more attractive style of football like Barca have been playing, hence it should come as no surprise that Luis Enrique, Barca B-team coach, was brought in to oversee and put it into effect. But I wonder how the fans see it... disappointed or overjoyed? Perhaps depends on what new players come in this summer.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Palermo have signed a number of players now right? Two midfielders now.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Ben or some1 else that knows about these things, i have a doubt: If Parma pay the price agreed on the contract they signed with Juve for Giovincos transfer, can juventus decline the offer or will they have to accept it right away?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

There's an agreed fee for co-ownership, it's not really an 'offer' for Juve to accept or refuse at this point.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

gerd said:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/31/serie-a-season-review-bandinis

I rather liked this Serie A season review on the Guardian's website. I don't watch enough Italian football to judge it, but to me it was a good read.
Any thoughts on this?
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Pretty accurate to me, and I really like his writing style.

On a completely different note, Gazzetta claims that Milan is really near in signing in El Shaarawy. Since I do not know the guy (But I read he's some kind of wonderkid) may I ask someone of you what do you think about the kid?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

So is Bielsa coming to Inter then? I'm creaming myself over the thought of his 3-3-1-3/4-2-1-3 pressing all over the pitch and tearing apart the other narrow midfields in Serie A.

He'll be a breath of fresh air tactically and aesthetically in Italy.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

It is reported Bielsa rejected Inter and now they turned their attention to Gasperini/Zenga. I hope Moratti doesn't realize Delio Rossi needs a job. He even tried for Ancelotti but he kindly rejected. :LOL:

And anyone hear Eto'o's comments yesterday? Very surprising. It seems he made his mind up to leave and knowing Moratti's history with not keeping unwanting players, I think he will. In fairness, his deal from Barcelona might be the best thing that ever happened Inter.

About El Shaarawy, that seems a good deal for Milan but I hope he stays at Genoa this year. He will be barely used even if Cassano left.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I have a feeling Inter might get Villas Boas at some point - attending an Inter game and being a guest at Inter's camp? Something fishy.
 
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