Interesting new season in with alot of new coaches at various clubs namely, Inter, Milan, Juventus, Samp and Fiorentina. Week 1 29/8/10 Bari - Juventus Bologna - Inter Chievo - Catania Fiorentina - Napoli Milan - Lecce Palermo - Cagliari Parma - Brescia Roma - Cesena Sampdoria - Lazio Udinese - Genoa It isn't the most enthralling of fixtures but it will be good to see how the likes of Benitez and Del Neri get on at the new clubs. Despite losing Kolarov we have gained a sterdy LB in Garrido and a decent player in Bresciano although hardly the most inspiring, it is likely that Hernanes will be coming in after the Copa Libertadores which could be a great coup.
Should be an interesting season coming up in Italy, imo there is no doubt that Inter are hot favorites in spite of Mourinho's departure but imo what is important for the likes of Milan and Juve is to get closer to Inter than they were last year. I still think one of them missed a trick not going for Pellegrini, especially Juventus, Del Neri hasnt really got any 'big club' experience, therefore imo it is a big risk for Juventus to appoint him and imo i dont think they will finish in the top 3 this season. Reasons for this are that their signings dont strike me as anything special: Motta is a handy player when fit but last year Ranieri at Roma played Marco Cassetti when fit ahead of him, so it will be interesting to see if a year sitting on the sielines has affected him in any way, Bonucci is an exciting prospect, and he might develop into a top centre back, for both Juve and Italy's sake as Italy atm seem to possess a lack of top quality centre backs, Jorge Martinez could be hit or miss, Pepe is a decent player but nothing too special at all imo. Another problem for Juve is that it is arguably the worst set of strikers i have seen from a Juventus team in years Trezeguet - Slowing down now and not getting any younger Del Piero - Shouldnt be the captain of the team imo, he cant play two games a week at his age, this should be his final season imo as he is significantly past his best now Iaquinta - Dont rate him against the big sides Amauri - Very inconsistent Martinez - We will wait and see with him before judging him Juve need to buy another striker imo, Pazzini would be the obvious choice but i doubt Samp would sell cheaply, perhaps they could try for Vucinic from Roma but again i doubt Roma would sell, Dzeko is well out of their price range imo, so they might have to make do with what they have Another problem is imo that Juve have too many players still on their books who are either past it or arent really good enough imo, Tiago, Grosso, Camaronesi, Zebina, Grygera, Legrottaglie, they should also sell Manniger now as they have bought Stoari from Milan as back up to Buffon. Milan imo have taken a risk with Allegri and imo Berlusconi needs to give him at least 2 seasons to try and turn things around at Milan. Inter should win it again though, if they get Macherano then it just makes them even more imperious and dominant.
Why do they keep making such uninspiring managerial appointments? Particularly Juventus, although in Milan's case Leonardo had a good start, considering.
It's getting to stage where it's actually impossible to imagine anyone but Inter winning the title, Roma don't have the resources, Juve are stagnating due to poor leadership and Milan are fast becoming a joke. Roma should do ok so long as the Adriano gamble dosen't backfire and they sign a new centre back as at the moment Marco Andreoli is the only cover for Mexes and Juan. This could be a big season for Jeremy Menez as well, Ranieri seems to be getting the best out of him. I think Genoa will make the top four, they have made some really good signings , Eduardo the portugese goalkeeper, Rafinha, Miguel Veloso, Luca Toni, highly rated Argentinian Franco Zucclini, been heavily linked with Prince Boateng as well. How do we make this thread a sticky? I think it deserves to be if La Liga and the Bundesliga are!
What Berlusconi really needs to do is make funds available so the club can buy much needed midfielders, defenders and a goalkeeper. It's all fair and well making 150m euros from player sales in the past few years, but when you're not replacing and investing in what is needed then it's understandable they can't win the league. They're sitting back and watching Bonucci, Eduardo, Mascherano and Krasic either go or be on the verge of moving to their rivals and these are exactly the kinds of players they need. Lukovic and Kjaer are another two players they've let slip too and Ozil would be an absolute class acquisition for them.
The big problem atm is that Berlusconi is the PM of Italy which has been hit by its worst recession in years, their economy is recovering really slowly and when he has a responsability to fufill to the Italian people as PM, the last thing he should be doing is spending vast sums of money on a football club. He really should sell the club imo if there is a buyer on hand to do so.
If that is true then the only assumption i can gain from it all is that he is trying to cut costs and reduce debtloads that have been growing at the club over the last few years. Dont also forget that this season is the first season where clubs in Italy will be operating under a joint tv deal, so the sponsorship money from the Fly Emirates deal probably will cover the money that they lost from last year when they had their own seperate tv deal.
Genoa have made a few decent signings, I wouldn't be surprised if they broke into the top 4. Hernanes is a good signing for Lazio too, a lot of big clubs were after him & I'm surprised he's ended up in Italy but I think he'll do well there.
One observation i have made is that Italian fans dont seem to like having a foreign coach, i dont think that speaks for every football fan in Italy but i do think a considerable amount of Italian fans prefer to have an Italian manager, in many cases, the only time a foreign coach is in charge of an Italian club is if that player was an ex-player and crowd favorite, aka Leonardo at Milan, Milhajovic as assistant to Mancini at Inter, in fact when Inter Milan were looking for a replacement for Mourinho this summer, a significant % of them apparently preferred someone like Mijhavoic (sp) to a foreign coach with a high reputation but no experience of Italian football at all like a Benitez or Pellegrini. Perhaps this is a significant reason (Calciopoli and Moratti's role is possibly the most important) why many non Inter Milan fans just hate Inter, the fact that they had no Italian players was bad enough in the eyes of many, but to then fire off Mancini and put Mourinho in charge, even in spite of his reputation, it could have been seen by many as 'ripping the Italian out of Inter'.
Tbh, I wouldn't like it either if all first eleven of my team were foreign, no matter how successful we would be. I understand them to a certain extend. Well, at least the owner of the club is italian. If in a horrible nightmare, somebody would put me into the position to choose between a team of foreigners, with a foreign manager and a foreign or any single "owner" of my club for that matter, I would choose the team and manager.
Apparently at Juventus he has been terrible, i havent watched a huge amount of Juve games but that is the perception many people have of him in Turin. However, when he played for Sevilla i did watch a lot of games of Spanish football and he was an integral part of Sevilla's 2 UEFA Cup wins and challenge for the league title in 06/ 07. Furthermore he did come to Sevilla with a good reputation from Schalke who Sevilla signed him from. I reckon it would be a decent signing for Liverpool, he hasnt done too well at Juve but the rest of the team including the likes of Grosso, Camaronesi, Cannavaro, Del Piero, Amauri, Melo, Diego havent been that good either. He would be cheap too as Juve have a lot of players on their books who they want to get rid of.
Hernanes confirmed :Banana: I am getting very confident about the upcoming season, well at least until the end of the Samp game anyway.
Poulsen has been pritty poor for Juve, but not as bad as some people make out. Juve fans had it in for him from the moment he signed and never welcomed him, he has a very bad reputation it Italy after clashes with Totti and Kaka.
Inter should walk the league as they have a far superior squad. Anything but the league and the appointment of Benitez would be a disaster. Juve should do better than last year and if they manage to get Krasic then that will be a very good signing. Roma should challenge for a top 4 place. Milan again have no chance of winning the league. With Silvio not investing and all the cost cutting that is going on we simply can not compete with Inter. If we manage to stay injury free for most of the campaign we should manage a top 4 finish but if we sustain injuries to our only real quality players Nesta, Thiago Silva and Pato then we could end up finishing 10th. Pre-season has shown we have some young players coming through who look good Strasser, Verdi and Merkel look like ones for the future. Milan must get away from renewing the contracts of old players such as Pippo, Gattuso, Ambrosini, Oddo etc or there is little hope for the future.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/ital...-wolfsburgs-16-million-offer-for-diego-report If these stories are true than imo the club is merely making a scapegoat out of Diego and have listened to the knee jerking fans who want him out. Whilst Diego was very poor last season, it certainly wasnt all his fault, the whole team were complete and utterly rubbish, also bare in mind some players do take more than a season to settle in at a different club in a different country, i certainly think Diego was worth one more season to see if he could cut it at Juve. 2 other things which baffle me at the decision to sell Diego 1) If this money goes towards another striker, than selling your central creative midfielder strikes of stupidity as who is going to supply balls through to the frontmen 2) There are so many average/unwanted players at Juventus who are likely to remain at the club ahead of Diego. Zebina is absoultely terrible and what Juve see in him i will never know, he was a reserve at Roma prior to joining Juve, Grygera isnt a great deal better, there is no room for Tiago and he isnt wanted, Amauri hasnt justified the hype that his transfer to Juventus generated, Iaquinta is decent but certainly nothing special, Legrottaglie is average and past it now. The decison to sell both Giovinco and Diego will imo only make sense if the money is going to go on another creative midfielder, it would be pointless buying a new striker and then having no creative players behind him.
Some bizzare transfer seems to be taking place with Kevin Prince Boateng joining Genoa, but then being loaned to Milan who can't afford to pay for him until next season! Could be a good move for Milan they need a young midfielder and hopefully he adapts to Italian football. The super cup between Roma and Inter is this weekend and hopefully Adriano is going to smash a few goals past his old club!
Neither Milan club was linked with Özil Inter wouldn't need him, and AC probably couldn't afford him...no offence to Serie A but he should be playing in a better league anyway
