Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

I have to admit, that was a very powerful Inter tonight. One of Mourinho's best, after the Roma 4-0. Very motivated, heads high, constant pressure and constant chances. Very dangerous.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

Seek said:
But I never thought of Mancini as a good coach..maybe cause of his ties to Inter lol
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:D

Milanista said:
I also do not rate Mancini that highly. He was given a great squad with almost unlimited funds. He was also 'given' big coaching roles. Someone like Zenga started from amateur sides, Eastern Europe, and now Serie A. I think he will get better and better, and eventually become a very good manager. imo Mancini is very spoilt, arrogant and overrated. If we are talking about last year, i'd have given it to Spalletti or Prandelli. They created a 'style' for their teams.
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i honestly think mancini is a very good coach. he has some weaknesses, but also some great qualities.
he has a great ability in reading the plays, really top notch.
but sometimes he tries to hard to be "the man". he likes to modify a lot the tactical display of his teams.... maybe a bit too much... sometimes during the matches u almost have the feeling the players don't even have the time to realise what he's expecting from them, to absorb his tactical directives, that he already changed the tactical theme of the game.
i guess it's a matter of ego. he likes to do many adjustments to show how good he is.
unfortunately that's the reason why i think he wouldn't have a big success in england. the average fan can't undestand his changes, without a good commentator who is able to explain what are those changes for. now, there's no such thing as a good commentator in england, so every time mancini's team would loose, the fans would moan about the coach adjustments and changes (coz they can't understand wich was the purpose of those changes). and that's a shame coz i think he would love to coach in england.... and i can't see him coaching in italy again (at least for a while).... i guess he'll end up in spain.

stefano your points about are correct. mancini has always been given big coaching roles.... he was really lucky coz eriksson realised he could become a great coach and decided to pick him as his assistant manager at lazio. then there was fiorentina, lazio again and then inter. sure that's quite a start.
but we also have to admit that he has always done great wherever he went. actualy i think his best coaching experiences were fiorentina and lazio...... i didn't really like mancini's inter (even tough it was still so much better than mourinho's inter), and the only reason why i do rate high his work at milano, is because he was able to do what many great coaches weren't able to do before him (turning inter into a winning team).

he's not a top class coach, but he's very good. and u can realise this as soon as u take a look outside italy. here in italy u would compare him to the likes of ancelotti, lippi, capello, spalletti, marino, beretta, mazzarri, giampaolo, rossi, prandelli.... now wonder he would look "average".
but what if mancio would coach in spain? would u say schuster is better than him?
and what if he would be coacing in england? rafa is definitely on a higher class, and ferguson (if he's the real arteficer of the great team man utd proved to be in the last 2 seasons) too is better than him.... but would u really say wenger is a better coach than mancio?? :THINK:

however as for me, i think beretta should have won the award this season, as he's the one who deserved it more. spalletti and prandelli both did a great job too, but they both already won the award twice, so....

however there's some justice in it. mancini deserved the award in 2001 and 2004 for the great job he did at fiorentina and lazio (those teams were really a joy to watch), but they didn't give him the award. so even if he was not the best coach in italy last season (at least imo) it's still pretty fair.

edit:
i forgot to put this. it's from alessandro del piero's official site.

Here we are 250...
I'll never get used to these numbers..every record is always a new emotion. As every single goal scored. It's not the achieved target to excite me (even if it is important, I just consider it to be a step) but above all the most exciting thing is what is behind the victory, the path that leads to certain results.
250 goals ( or 251?!).. That's a lot.. For the forward they are very important, even if they don't mean everything (shouldn't mean everything) because the team and the final result come first. And it's not just a phrase, but the only way that leads you to the victory. My goals... I remember them all and I'm affectionately tied to all of them. Sometimes when I'm asked to choose the particular ones, I feel that it's not correct toward the rest of them! I remember all the hugs and exultations and so, having reached the number of 250 goals now it's me who would like to hug all of you, who rejoiced at my victories both on the pitch, next to me and thousands kilometers away. Above all thanks to those who would have been close to me even if I didn't arrive at 250, but stopped at the first one. I'm really happy that you were delighted with my way to play and I'd like to assure you, that I've heard all of you! But now we don't have to stop here, because I'm absolutely sure that the best goal as the most beautiful victory are something what I still have to sweat for, something what will come tomorrow...

Alessandro
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http://www.alessandrodelpiero.com/ADP/doAction/site/ShowPage?ndname=MainHome&lgrfnbr=1
it's just impossible not to admire this man :WORSHIP:
the atmoshpere for his 250th goal was epic aswell.... u don't see that snow in torino very often
081129%20Campionato,%20Juventus%20v%20Reggina%204-0%20250%20Goal%20News%20Grande%201.jpg
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

did'nt expect it to be serious as he came and continued the match... Real Fighter that guy.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

Does anyone know where I can get this Napoli away kit ?

340x.jpg


I have looked on the usual UK sites (subside, kitbag etc) but no luck. I also have not seen it on eBay. Are there any italian sport shop websites that would sell it ?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

So many young Argentine talents, especially in the attacking department..

who do you reckon will make it to the top? I'm not talking about Messi, Tevez, etc. but like Lavezzi, Zarate, Higuain, etc.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

tevez, messi and higuain already play for some of the greatests clubs in the world so i guess they already made it to the top.
lavezzi is already an amazing player and zarate might become top class aswell in the next few years.

afterall argentina has always produced amazing talents.

anyway, almost half of the season is gone now. wich are your feelings so far guys?

just took a look at the champions league draw. some very interesting matches coming on :)

Edmundo, i don't know about italian football shirts websites, but u'll find that shirt for sure on napoli's official website ;)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

lo zio, as an Atalanta (and Palermo) fan, i wonder how Cigarini is doing...

Concerning the CL, i look forward to Inter-Man Utd...one very ambitious team will be eliminated...i think this could already mean the end for Mourinho as one might logically expect Man U to win this (somehow Inter always fail..).

And then concering serie A, which are the new talents that emerged ???
What happened with Udinese who were very good for a while but sort of imploded ?
What about Palermo ?
Who will relegate and who will promote to serie A ???

I know lots of questions...i'm a big fan of Italian football but in Belgium we hardly see any matches in Serie A...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

Yeah I was gonna ask about Udinese, they have some great players (Di Natale, Zapata, Quagliarella, Felipe etc etc) but I've seen they have drifted away after starting well. It's a shame, I really like them.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

Well thay started well and even got the first spot for a while. Then they started loosing who should have been easy games against the likes of chievo and then drifted away. You can say that things got back to the way they should be with the big teams claiming he big spots after a surprising start. Maybe it is because of the UEFA cup matches and maybe they are not prepared for such a competition and don;t have enough backups...

But I think Napoli are more the surprise of the season than Udinese
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

it's hard to say what happened to udinese.... maybe they're not yet used to handle this kind of pressure and media attention.
however they have the quality and the depth to finish the season among the top 8 (wich considered the quality of the league this season, is a huge achievement).

now that fiorentina is out of the CL, it's going to be a great fight for the 4th spot with the viola, napoli, genoa, udinese and lazio.... not to mention roma who is pushing damn hard to reach the top 4.

udinese really has it all. they have many great players, some experienced quality players (like di natale and domizzi), some very interesting youngsters (sanchez, tissone, coda, motta inler), not to mention the likes of zapata, felipe, d'agostino, obodo, pepe, floro flores, quagliarella.... damn what a team, i just wanted to pick the best ones and i almost mentioned their entire squad.. however, seriously guys like d'agostino, di natale, zapata and inler could already be playing for a top team.
every team (even the top teams) face its ups and downs through the season....
they didn't make big changes and their coach is a fucking genius, so they'll sort it out pretty soon.

as for napoli, i wouldn't call them as a surprise either. i mean look at their team..... i almost can't tell wich team is stronger between napoli and udinese.

but napoli has a huge weak point: the fans
the napoletani are probably the most passionate fans in italy (even more than genoa, samp and roma ones).
this is usually a big factor (it's almost impossible to win at the san paolo stadium) but when the team starts do do really well, the fans pressure becomes enourmous. it would be hard for milan's experienced champions to handle such a huge pressure, let alone napoli's youngsters....
i actually expected napoli to blow out instead of udinese (as the pressure in udine is way lower).

As for Cigarini, Gerd, unfortunately he's not playing right now. a few weeks ago he broke his knee ligaments, and he's not going to be back really soon.
of course, since he got injured atalanta struggled to win.... it's unbelievable the impact that kid has on the teams he plays for.... especially if u consider that his role usually requires that coolness and experience that just mature players have.
he might really become a monster.

as for palermo, we're not really doing much better than last season results-wise. but that's not a rilevant point as the qualilty of the league improved a lot since last season..... and we lost the likes of amauri, zaccardo and barzagli.
anyway (unlike last season) i'm absolutely delighted by our season so far.
Ballardini gave us a "plot" a "structure".... and the players realised that aswell, as u can really notice how confident they are when they play the away matches.

our football is really entertaining and attractive, and even though we aren't on the same level of the likes of lazio, udinese, fiorentina, napoli, genoa, i'm ok with that :)

the only team which really surprised me so far is sampdoria (and not in a good sense obviously).... thay had such an horrible start this season, u really wouldn't expect from such a team... they should be fighting with the likes of genoa, napoli, lazio.... or at least with palermo..... however they're just 4 points behind palermo, and i can already see them reaching us in a few weeks.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

Sampdoria were absolutely outclassed by Standard de Liège in the UEFA Cup two weeks ago, i went watching that match...Samp fielded almost a reserve team because they considered the derby against Genua more important...and they got beaten there too...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

But Reja is a great coach and he will lead them to great things, I really think if the team can stay together it will win the league.

Also the fans of Napoli are the greatest in the whole of Italy, and probably the greatest outside of Latin America. They have made the San Paolo a fortress, no team wants to go there and even for the big teams like Milan and Juventus there is real pressure playing away in Napoli.

But it's not just sport it's the people of the city as a whole, it's a place that lives and breathes passion. The South, and Napoli in particular, suffers a lot of marginalisation and descrimination (and you could even call it almost aparthied) from the North. People in the North are always complaining about the South, when I was there all the news would blame the South for Italy's problems. I remember this "Lega Nord", who were a big political force, trying to seperate Italy politically a few years ago. Well, give me the backstreets of Napoli any day ahead of some dull, grey, cardboard office block city in the north. For the people of Naples football is a massive passion, it's one of the most important things in life, for a long time the South has struggled in Serie A, but now justice is being done!

My point is, it's harsh to blame the fans of Napoli, they get carried away with emotion and just really want the team to do well. It's like the fans of Inter and Juve just see the team playing, and it's like watching a fast car, it looks good and it's all image. But for Napoli it's like watching your family play (and Naples is very much a family city) so for the fans of Napoli, when they see players like Lavezzi, P.Cannavaro, Santacrocce and Calaio (when he played) it's like watching your brother or your son play. So of course they get excited about the team doing well... it's in their dreams, it's emotional connection - it's exactly the same as Argentine football fans, and many fans in Eastern Europe.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

lo zio said:
it's hard to say what happened to udinese.... maybe they're not yet used to handle this kind of pressure and media attention.
however they have the quality and the depth to finish the season among the top 8 (wich considered the quality of the league this season, is a huge achievement).

now that fiorentina is out of the CL, it's going to be a great fight for the 4th spot with the viola, napoli, genoa, udinese and lazio.... not to mention roma who is pushing damn hard to reach the top 4.

udinese really has it all. they have many great players, some experienced quality players (like di natale and domizzi), some very interesting youngsters (sanchez, tissone, coda, motta inler), not to mention the likes of zapata, felipe, d'agostino, obodo, pepe, floro flores, quagliarella.... damn what a team, i just wanted to pick the best ones and i almost mentioned their entire squad.. however, seriously guys like d'agostino, di natale, zapata and inler could already be playing for a top team.
every team (even the top teams) face its ups and downs through the season....
they didn't make big changes and their coach is a fucking genius, so they'll sort it out pretty soon.

as for napoli, i wouldn't call them as a surprise either. i mean look at their team..... i almost can't tell wich team is stronger between napoli and udinese.

but napoli has a huge weak point: the fans
the napoletani are probably the most passionate fans in italy (even more than genoa, samp and roma ones).
this is usually a big factor (it's almost impossible to win at the san paolo stadium) but when the team starts do do really well, the fans pressure becomes enourmous. it would be hard for milan's experienced champions to handle such a huge pressure, let alone napoli's youngsters....
i actually expected napoli to blow out instead of udinese (as the pressure in udine is way lower).

As for Cigarini, Gerd, unfortunately he's not playing right now. a few weeks ago he broke his knee ligaments, and he's not going to be back really soon.
of course, since he got injured atalanta struggled to win.... it's unbelievable the impact that kid has on the teams he plays for.... especially if u consider that his role usually requires that coolness and experience that just mature players have.
he might really become a monster.

as for palermo, we're not really doing much better than last season results-wise. but that's not a rilevant point as the qualilty of the league improved a lot since last season..... and we lost the likes of amauri, zaccardo and barzagli.
anyway (unlike last season) i'm absolutely delighted by our season so far.
Ballardini gave us a "plot" a "structure".... and the players realised that aswell, as u can really notice how confident they are when they play the away matches.

our football is really entertaining and attractive, and even though we aren't on the same level of the likes of lazio, udinese, fiorentina, napoli, genoa, i'm ok with that :)

the only team which really surprised me so far is sampdoria (and not in a good sense obviously).... thay had such an horrible start this season, u really wouldn't expect from such a team... they should be fighting with the likes of genoa, napoli, lazio.... or at least with palermo..... however they're just 4 points behind palermo, and i can already see them reaching us in a few weeks.
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nice post, speaking of napoli, how about this quote from there manager


"If they want to go to England then in the end they're going to go, but they need to understand this: the English live badly, eat badly and their women do not wash their genitalia. To them, a bidet is a mystery."
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

gomito#10 said:
nice post, speaking of napoli, how about this quote from there manager


"If they want to go to England then in the end they're going to go, but they need to understand this: the English live badly, eat badly and their women do not wash their genitalia. To them, a bidet is a mystery."
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those are not napoli's coach words, Gomito. Reja would never use such words.
Edy Reja (napoli's coach) might not be a top class coach (Edmundo, i think calling him a "great manager" is a bit of a stretch.... he's a good manager, no doubt about it, but when i think about "great" managers, other names come into my head).... however he's a true gentleman, a class act.

appearently (i'm saying appearently coz i didn't hear those words from his own voice, i just read the quote on a newspaper, so it should be taken with a pinch of salt), that quote comes from Aurelio de Laurentis, napoli's owner and president.
unlike Reja, De Laurentis is far from being a class act (at least imo), so i wouldn't be that surprised if he would have really said that.

the thing is all napoli's stars are confirming themselves this season too, so many clubs are starting to follow them (chelsea is looking for lavezzi and hamsik, real madrid is looking for maggio, sevilla is looking for gargano, etc...)
it's gonna be a hard task for napoli's management to keep all of em in napoli in the next few years.

however De Laurentis didn't say that in an "official situation", so know one knows if he really said that (except those few who were close to him when he might have said that).

Edmundo, i'm not "blaming napoli's fans" i never would... i'm half napoletano afterall. i'm just saying that playing for napoli is really a unique experience. nothing can prepare u to that, and it doesn't matter for how many top clubs in the world u played for.... Napoli is just something different (as u seem to know pretty well).
but u know how they say "too much love can kill u".
when u play for Napoli u're a part of a family (your comparison was pretty spot on). that means that u have no private life anymore... that everything that concerns u, concerns the whole city. and this can be an amazing feeling, but that unbelievable love and passion might well destroy u (especially if u're young, as most of napoli's players).
I spent most of 1988/1989 in Napoli and those days i was very "close" to the team. i was allowed to enter the Paradiso (former napoli's clubhouse).
to make it simple i got to know some of the players pretty well, and i can tell u that when that team became a serious title contender, the pressure was just insane.

one question Edmundo. u lived in napoli for a while didn't u? :))


Gerd said:
Sampdoria were absolutely outclassed by Standard de Liège in the UEFA Cup two weeks ago, i went watching that match...Samp fielded almost a reserve team because they considered the derby against Genua more important...and they got beaten there too...
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the genovesi's passion is huge. despite being a "northern city" genova shares the same spirit of southern cities (sure they're still far from the napoletani, but they could easily be compared to the likes of palermitani or romani).
the genova derby is one of the most important in europe, the second most important derby in italy (after the roma derby).
for a genovese winning the derby is the most important thing. u can even screw up the whole season, but u just can't loose the derby.
that's why i was absolutely sure sampdoria would have lost against standard (having to play the derby just 3 days after).
but sampdoria is really quite a team, and i'm sure they'll be back on track very soon.... actually the victory against sevilla this week might be a sign of things to come :))
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

gomito#10 said:
nice post, speaking of napoli, how about this quote from there manager


"If they want to go to England then in the end they're going to go, but they need to understand this: the English live badly, eat badly and their women do not wash their genitalia. To them, a bidet is a mystery."
Click to expand...

As Ben said it was the Chairman who said this and not Reja. But we don't even know if the Chairman actually said it. And in Italian it would be hard to say exactly that, so personally I don't think he said that. What he probably said was something like food in Napoli is better (pretty much fact) and Neapolitan women are nicer to look at (he might have been a more colourful with his description)...

lo zio said:
one question Edmundo. u lived in napoli for a while didn't u? :))
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Near Aversa, it was only a few months, but it's pretty much a suburb of Napoli, I used to go there sometimes and also to the beaches at Mondragone. I spent some more time in Bari (Puglia) too, fantastic place all around the region. Really nice people in both Aversa / Napoli and Bari, always friendly totally opposite to the north... good times.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

Yeah... well it's on the official site for 70 Euro, which now is pretty much 70 pounds! I am looking for it cheaper, for instance I can get any of the following kits

Most Premier League, Roma, Lazio, Inter, Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Valencia, Marseille, PSG, Bayern, Dortmund, Hertha, Barca, Atletico, and losts of International (country kits) for £25 each at sports world (another British chain of shops that is going to go bust)...

I'll wait hopefully the Napoli away kit can go down in price to around £40 / €40... The home one is available for that price.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

It's really annoying me how the club is heading towards a Galacticos direction. If this continues in a few years time, I don't know how much more I can stand the club...... We're really selling our souls at the moment with all this stupid marketing, neglecting youth players and shipping away great players like Gourcuff and Paloschi.... and getting players like Ronaldinho and Beckham.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

Milan is becoming a Joke. Anyone catch CNN's coverage of the Hamburg game? I meant to say the coverage of Beckham. If Beckham starts the game against Roma it will definitely ot be Ancelotti's choice...

But again. This might be till the end of the year only. Paloschi and Gourcuff are only loaned out. We will get Abate back. Thiago Silva and my hope a young defender will come. Plus we have Kaka,Borriello, Pato,Flamini,and Antonini as young players with needed old players like Pirlo,Nesta, and Gattuso for a well balanced and experienced team.
Antonini--Nesta---Silva---Zamb--
Gourcuff--Pirlo--Flamini
--------Kaka------------
----Pato---Borriello----
Things look good from for next season now except a new LB.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

He's had 2-3 good seasons. takes more then that to be remembered with the greats.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

YoungGun_UK said:
He's had 2-3 good seasons. takes more then that to be remembered with the greats.
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well most of world class players stay on top for 3 seasons.

there are several world class players in europe, but just a few of them hold their "crown" for more than 4, 5 years.

ronaldinho is not the same player he used to be 2 years ago, but he still is something special. actually as far as i can tell his only issue is "mobility". the only thing that clearely changed in his style is that today he's much more static.
sure mobility is quite an important thing when u're an athlete..... but to be honest i've seen many world class number 10s who were much more static than ronaldinho (like rui costa)..... and despite their "mobility issue" they still got a lot of credit.... at least from me :)

that offensive line up Zeem posted looks very nice to me, and i can't see any room for ronaldinho in there.........
but then again, u don't spend 20 millions on ronaldinho to make him a backup.
and there's another thing that should be taken into account. that static ronaldinho still managed to score 7 goals in 14 matches, during his first italian experience.... so even if ancelotti didn't want ronaldinho in milano, sure he won't cut a player with such a rich "dowry".

on a different note....
from now on we can officially call moggi a criminal
http://uk.reuters.com/article/footballNews/idUKL855507420090108?sp=true
finally!
now let's wait for the appeal.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season

im not saying he should be in there or even that he fits in with milans set up. im just saying he will play because they bought him and they have to fit him in somewhere.
 
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