Summer mercato 2009

Top 10 Things To Expect In Italy This Season
With a new campaign now nearly upon us, Carlo Garganese takes a light-hearted look at 10 things that are certain to take place in Italy in the 2009/10 season…
11 Aug 2009 11:30:46


10) Antonio Cassano misses the World Cup, Simone Pepe goes

Marcello Lippi continues his stubborn refusal to select Antonio Cassano, meaning that the Sampdoria star is left at home for the World Cup. Lippi persists with his tragic 4-3-3 system and instead takes Udinese winger Simone Pepe, Fiorentina forward Alberto Gilardino and Bayern Munich oldie Luca Toni to South Africa.





9) Aurelio De Laurentiis insults every person in the whole world

Not content with bashing Fabio Cannavaro and Ezequiel Lavezzi, as well as erupting like Vesuvius that “the English live badly, eat badly and their women do not wash their genitalia”, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis actually succeeds in insulting every person in the whole world. How does he manage this? He says that “anyone who believes Roberto Donadoni to be a bad coach is an idiot”.





8) Adrian Mutu doesn’t pay his Chelsea fine

After being ordered to cough up €17 million compensation by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being sacked for testing positive for cocaine during his Chelsea days, Fiorentina star Mutu has no intention of paying the money back. The Romanian takes the case to the European Court of Human Rights, and surprise, surprise – he wins.





7) Roma fans invade training

Come on, it happens every season whether Roma are doing well or badly. The Giallorossi are in Scudetto contention but defeat in the Derby della Capitale against Lazio sees all hell break loose. Alexander Doni’s car has a brick put through its windscreen, Luciano Spalletti is chased around the Colosseum being pelted with tomatoes and eggs, while a group of 500 fans invade Trigoria. The chaos only comes to an end when a Beast emerges from the trees and scares away all the hooligans.





6) Samuel Eto’o the best player in the world, says Jose Mourinho

One of Jose Mourinho’s favourite psychological tricks. At Chelsea, Petr Cech was the best goalkeeper in the world, John Terry the best defender, Frank Lampard the best midfielder and Didier Drogba best striker. Last season at Inter, 'The Special One' described Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the world’s No.1 player – how long before Eto’o replaces him? Cone man Giuseppe Baresi (Steve Clarke) is apparently the globe’s greatest assistant too.





5) Ronaldinho stars in Saturday Night Fever III

With John Travolta unavailable, director Sylvester Stallone calls on the services of another overweight has-been for the starring role. The plot involves the buck-toothed Brazilian combining stressful days at AC Milan with a party-animal nightlife. Ronnie never gets to bed any earlier than 6am and there is also a cameo performance from Silvio Berlusconi, who in one scene steals the Brazilian’s 18-year-old girlfriend, only for Arsene Wenger to save the day by promising the youngster a contract at Arsenal and guaranteed regular action.





4) Maurizio Zamparini & Walter Zenga have a fight

Mix together the craziest president in Italy with the craziest coach, and there is guaranteed to be a nuclear explosion. The pair declare their love for one another during the opening weeks of the season as Palermo top the table before Zamparini launches a withering public attack on Zenga after the Sicilians only manage a 1-1 draw away at Juventus. The duo are then involved in a fist-fight live on Italian TV, Zenga walks out of the club, Zamparini brings back Francesco Guidolin, sacks him, brings back Zenga again and declares the two are best friends once more, before ditching the Italia ’90 keeper for a second time. Guidolin returns for the final six weeks of the season.





3) Juventus’ full-backs cost them major honours

The Bianconeri are in contention to win both the Scudetto and Champions League, but their disastrous full-backs cost them both trophies. In a key title showdown with Inter, Jonathan Zebina is sent off for headbutting Massimo Moratti before punching a cameraman. While in the Champions League final against Barcelona, Juventus lead 1-0 with five minutes to go before Cristian Molinaro and Zdenek Grygera both score spectacular own goals from 30-yards out.





2) Milan just avoid relegation

After a miserable transfer summer, Milan still head into the season with the ridiculous hope of winning the Scudetto. Despite triumphing in the Derby in week 2, Milan lose to Siena, Livorno, Bologna, Udinese, Bari and Atalanta in the first couple of months and by Christmas find themselves rock bottom of Serie A. The Rossoneri remain in the relegation zone all season until an own goal by Juventus’ Molinaro in the final minute of the final day saves them.





1) Inter flop in the Champions League

The Nerazzurri win the Scudetto by default, but when they are really tested in Europe they fail miserably once again. Jose Mourinho’s men scrape through a group containing Sporting, Dynamo Kiev and Debrecen on goal difference before being dumped out in the second round by Barcelona, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring the winner with the first Champions League knockout goal of his career.





What are your views on this topic? What do you expect to happen in Serie A this season? Goal.com wants to know what YOU think

Carlo Garganese, Goal.com

Why both players? And why so much for Bale?

Milan To Launch Bid For Tottenham Hotspur's Gareth Bale Next Week – Report
Leonardo has identified the full-back areas as the weak link in the Rossoneri jigsaw...
11 Aug 2009 10:08:16

Milan are currently preparing for the 19th Trofeo Tim, a triangular tournament between the two Milanese giants and Juventus, which will take place over the weekend, however, they are keeping half an eye on the transfer market.

Once the weekend's competition is over, Il Corriere dello Sport is reporting that the Rossoneri will step up their bids to sign their two remaining targets - Gareth Bale and Lorenzo De Silvestri.

Both players are open to the move, and Lazio's De Silvestri is thought to be stalling over talks with Fiorentina in order to listen to Milan's proposal.

Leonardo is eager to strengthen the defence on both flanks and will match Tottenham Hotspur's reported €13 million asking price for Bale. Meanwhile, the Rossoneri will offer Lazio €8m plus either Massimo Oddo (good deal) or Ignazio Abate (not good) for De Silvestri.

Should the Rossoneri complete the signing of one or both players, it would give a younger, fresher look to a defence that has looked slow and error-prone in pre-season.

Anthony Wright, Goal.com

If we're going to strengthen the fullback positions - which we must - then there's no point in talking about players like Bale, de Silvestri, Drenthe, Dossena etc. Those players wouldn't improve anything (as starters). De Silvestri and maybe Bale would be decent back-ups and in the future could turn out to be Milan starting XI material.

[quote=Ceceves;545000]If we're going to strengthen the fullback positions - which we must - then there's no point in talking about players like Bale, de Silvestri, Drenthe, Dossena etc. Those players wouldn't improve anything (as starters). De Silvestri and maybe Bale would be decent back-ups and in the future could turn out to be Milan starting XI material.[/QUOTE
What do you want? Sergio Ramos? Considering the current economic condition, buys like De Silvestri would be smart, especially when a deadweight like Oddo can be inserted..... You just admitted yourself that these players have more than enough potential to take a starting spot very soon......

Originally Posted by Saliwonczyk

What do you want? Sergio Ramos? Considering the current economic condition, buys like De Silvestri would be smart, especially when a deadweight like Oddo can be inserted..... You just admitted yourself that these players have more than enough potential to take a starting spot very soon......

Heh, I'd rather have De Silvestri than Sergio Ramos Sergio Ramos is Jankulovski 2.0 just worse at defending!

But I do agree that De Silvestri and Bale wouldn't do a whole lot for our starting 11, but perhaps these players are being looked at by Leo, since it's obvious that this kinda signings doesn't fit into our usual transfer campaign.

^^shows how much you know about football in general insulting sergio ramos, that guy would start spain's attacks in the euro's and trackback and defend i swear to god man i hope you think next time you make a such a comparison out of proportion,
Sergio Ramos >>> Maicon

Originally Posted by Saliwonczyk

What do you want? Sergio Ramos? Considering the current economic condition, buys like De Silvestri would be smart, especially when a deadweight like Oddo can be inserted..... You just admitted yourself that these players have more than enough potential to take a starting spot very soon......

Didn't Maldini once say that Ramos was his heir?

No, I don't want Ramos. As Christian said, he's too much like Janku - although I think he's quite a lot better than Marek, not worse. In any case he wouldn't be worth the price we'd have to pay.

But maybe we could've looked at someone like Rafinha (unsettled at Schalke). He's not Maldini either, but having seen him quite a few times (though not regularly) he seems sound at the back, and very capable going forward. Juve have been looking at him, I think - not that we should necessarily pay too much attention to the doings of Alessio Secco...

But him and Zambro covering the fullback positions, with Antonini and maybe de Silvestri as backups would be good, and very attainable if management had just a little ambition.

What we should've done was to hijack Roma's deal for Motta (with us being able to offer CL football and Roma not) and not mess up with the Cissokho deal. Then with a little luck our fullback situation could've been set for the next 10 years.

Honestly, I don't think we need a LB so much, considering we have Antonini who's decent reliable LB, who can defend and at least participate in attacks, which is important because it makes width in our midfield. Side backs are the least important positions in a team. Just look at Juve's side backs. They have 4 of them, 3 of them are crap and one (De Ceglie) is not better than Antonini. Then, there's statistics. Manchester won Premier League and CL with crappy O'Shea, Inter won Scudetto last year with (overrated) Santon, Barca won La Liga and CL with Abidal and Silvinho at LB spot... We'll do well with Antonini.

With the money we would spend there, it's better to invest in a player who can cover Ronaldinho AND Seedorf because we don't have any decent player to do this. Di Gennaro is crap, and whatever any of you say, Abate is too. Hernanes would be a perfect fit, he even can be a starter ahead of Seedorf, and he's young and would be a direct Seedorf's replacement. He's very versatile too so he can replace Pirlo, Seedorf, or Ronaldinho. And, truth too be told, we are lacking replacements for every one of them. Van Der Vaart could be a cheaper option, but as I already pointed out, just as a Ronaldinho's replacement, not Seedorf's.

Bale is 20 yrs old and the best teams in england are all scouting him it's natural,De Sylvestri is 19 i rather have 2 young guys in the back then loose every game by 3 goals with jakulovski or favalli and start blaming our goalkeeper or coach rather than actually acknowledge the fact that our wide backs are slower than turtles

Originally Posted by Rossoneri Fuego

^^shows how much you know about football in general insulting sergio ramos, that guy would start spain's attacks in the euro's and trackback and defend i swear to god man i hope you think next time you make a such a comparison out of proportion,
Sergio Ramos >>> Maicon

maicon is the best rb in the world(some may say dani alves too)..sergio ramos is peanuts compared to maicon..

Whoah, De Silvestre is 19? Great talent! We need a LB/RB who can easily play at CB if needed, or can adequately cover for Zambrotta if he is forced to play CB due to injury. P.S, where the hell has Albertazzi gone? Suddenly, MGT has lost confidence in him.....

Originally Posted by Revolver

Honestly, I don't think we need a LB so much, considering we have Antonini who's decent reliable LB, who can defend and at least participate in attacks, which is important because it makes width in our midfield. Side backs are the least important positions in a team. Just look at Juve's side backs. They have 4 of them, 3 of them are crap and one (De Ceglie) is not better than Antonini. Then, there's statistics. Manchester won Premier League and CL with crappy O'Shea, Inter won Scudetto last year with (overrated) Santon, Barca won La Liga and CL with Abidal and Silvinho at LB spot... We'll do well with Antonini.

With the money we would spend there, it's better to invest in a player who can cover Ronaldinho AND Seedorf because we don't have any decent player to do this. Di Gennaro is crap, and whatever any of you say, Abate is too. Hernanes would be a perfect fit, he even can be a starter ahead of Seedorf, and he's young and would be a direct Seedorf's replacement. He's very versatile too so he can replace Pirlo, Seedorf, or Ronaldinho. And, truth too be told, we are lacking replacements for every one of them. Van Der Vaart could be a cheaper option, but as I already pointed out, just as a Ronaldinho's replacement, not Seedorf's.

you have some good points there,but i think the examples of teams failing because of really bad full backs are a lot more than the aboves...

the truth is that i am feeling each and every day better with antonini,he really impressed me in our preseason matches,and believe me i hardly get impressed..

the thing is i believe that the money should be spent for a wc dc,and then go for an amc(snejder maybe),i am really nervous about our defence issue(nesta out for 1 year now,ts=? for me,the rest of them=no comment),and the thing that annoys me most is that i dont see any concerns(gali,leo)on that..

Sergio Ramos has lost his shine in recent times (inconsistent, red cards), but has acheived ALOT at such a young age.... Maicon is supposedly in his prime. But still, let's not argue about that, bcs neither are coming to Mialn.... For me, DeSilvestri with Oddo inserted in the deal would be the best... Only problem is he is a RB, and Zambrotta is solid there. Suspect position is LB.....

Originally Posted by Rossoneri Fuego

Bale is 20 yrs old and the best teams in england are all scouting him it's natural,De Sylvestri is 19 i rather have 2 young guys in the back then loose every game by 3 goals with jakulovski or favalli and start blaming our goalkeeper or coach rather than actually acknowledge the fact that our wide backs are slower than turtles

DSilvestri is 21 not 19 and is a good player that could get better with time.

Bale is overratted like all british players its not his fault but he is not worth 13 million. Again he has talent but if he realises it is up to him.

De Silvestri is only 19?I thought he was 21 or something like that,now i really want him more!

I would be very happy if he came to us,whether Oddo leaves or not,i dont care,i really want him to join us,he is so talented that it is really stupid from Lazio to even consider selling him.Really stupid Lotito!

De Silvestri would be a upgrade from what we have,come on guys: Zambro,Oddo,Janku,Antonini,Albertazzi.

He is better then Oddo and Janku,thats for sure,he is further in his development then Albertazzi,Albertazzi could be turning out to be a better player then De Silvestri,but now he is better then our rookie.Only Zambro and maybe Antonini(not sure)are better or at the same level,so how could he be not a upgrade???