Serie A Superthread 2011/2012

RichTea

Every other league has their shiny new thread, so why not?

Early preseason predictions anyone?

dor83

It's still hard to call at the moment because most of the teams haven't made their big transfers yet but I reckon Roma should have another good season and they might even win it this year, I think they need to sign Burdisso but they should get him and I also think Adriano will do very well or them.

I am finding it hard to be optimistic about Inter this year with Rafa in charge, there has even been talk of him buying Lucas and also letting Cambiasso go which would be a huge mistake, and with his record against the smaller teams in the Premier League I don't expect to be winning the Scudetto this season.

Juve should be better and seem to be making some good signings so they should be on about a level playing field with Roma and Inter imo, and with Del Neri I also think they have a good coach this year, which was their main problem last year imo.

Milan will depend a lot on what they do transfer wise, if they get Fabiano they will have one of the best strike pairings in Europe imo but I think they need to spend a bit of money on their midfield if they are going to compete.

I think we will have a better impression of how everyone will do after the WC ends and we start getting some serious transfer activity. I'm just hoping that it's as good a season as last year, both the title race and the race for 4th spot went to the last day and it could really have gone either way.

Peyton Manning

A lot of uncertainty at Roma at the moment. Strong rumours that the club will be repossessed by Unicredit on Monday. Basically, Roma's major shareholders are the Sensi family (through their group Italpetroli) but they are €300 million in debt to Unicredit. Rosella Sensi could delay this through legal action, but a lot of reports coming out that Unicredit will repossess the club next week (some reports are saying that Sensi would prefer this to happen).

DerekDGoldfish

If the bank do reposses the club, I can see a mass exodes from Roma
other clubs will see an easy target and the banks may try to get as much of their money back as possible,
altough you could say this would devalue the club and make it less easy to sell unless a new buyer is readaly identifiable the bank may consider one in the hand worth more than 2 in the bush.

Pinturicchio

Inter to win again unfortunately.

I'm hoping for 3rd place for Juve.

Pinturicchio

What do you think of the decision to reduce the amount of non-EU players you're allowed to sign per season from two to one? It's an attempt to force clubs to play more Italians and therefore improve the Azzurri. It seems silly to me. It'll only further reduce the quality of Serie A.

godtabh

dor83 wrote: »

I am finding it hard to be optimistic about Inter this year with Rafa in charge, there has even been talk of him buying Lucas and also letting Cambiasso go which would be a huge mistake, and with his record against the smaller teams in the Premier League I don't expect to be winning the Scudetto this season.

I agree with this.

I think Inter made a bad choice appointing Rafa. I think there were better managers out there (both attached and managing teams) that they could have got but with the World Cup on and the season not to far away from starting they made their minds up quickly.

Letting Cambiasso go would be the worst move we could make right now

Pauleta

Yeah i think Inter will take it again. I was convinced Juve were gonna win at the start of last season and then they flopped epically. Nobody is in a position to challenge them unless Roma's financial problems are sorted.

Also get your cash on Lazio going down this year

speedboatchase

Hah, loved that Adriano missed his first day of training http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3276/serie-a/2010/07/05/2010252/roma-striker-adrianos-punctuality-problems-continue-report

Ya Juve could be good, glad to see they bought Bonucci. Lot of rumours about Milan looking for Keisuke Honda, I know CSKA only bought him but you never know

Also Ghana's Ayew has said he wants to go to Serie A http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=806010&sec=transfers&cc=5739

Raskolnikov

speedboatchase wrote: »

Hah, loved that Adriano missed his first day of training http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3276/serie-a/2010/07/05/2010252/roma-striker-adrianos-punctuality-problems-continue-report

The man should be at the peak of his career, lining-out as first choice striker for Brazil in the World Cup. It's sad that he's thrown away his career like this.

Eire-Dearg

Ayew is a good player, he'd fit right into the Serie A.

In terms of league winners, I can't look past Inter Milan. I doubt they'll be anywhere near retaining the CL, but Serie A yes.

Pinturicchio

Adriano looking a bit... chunky upon his (late) arrival to Rome.

Seaneh

Pinturicchio wrote: »

Adriano looking a bit... chunky upon his (late) arrival to Rome.

If his bodyfat% and weight are above a certain figure on the day of the first game of the season he loses something like 60% of his wages for that week and every week thereafter that he is over weight.

dor83

Seaneh wrote: »

If his bodyfat% and weight are above a certain figure on the day of the first game of the season he loses something like 60% of his wages for that week and every week thereafter that he is over weight.

I reckon he will be back to full fitness in no time, from what I've read he will have two training sessions per day, one for football and one for fitness with the Primavera's fitness coach. He will also be sleeping in Trigoria, Roma's training ground , where he will be allowed out at night but will have to ring the doorbell to get in, so there will be no hiding from any late nights he has. I think he'll do very well for Roma, I reckon he will be almost back to his best after a few games and will be scoring quite a few goals.

Seaneh

he had a great season in south america so hopefully you are right. him with Vucinic and Totti for support will be scary when on form.

Pinturicchio

Yeah, I expect him to do well but I wonder how long he'll be able to keep it up for. I hope for his sake there isn't another collapse.

RichTea

Seaneh wrote: »

he had a great season in south america so hopefully you are right. him with Vucinic and Totti for support will be scary when on form.

All three of them on form = My ideal world.


Roma have some financial uncertainty to deal with right now though. UniCredit are taking over very shortly and will soon be on the lookout for a new buyer. Hopefully it will end up being someone with a vested, firm interest in the club*.

*And lots and lots of money please.

Mr. Presentable

Transfers confirmed thus far:

BARI
Acquisti: Coda (Udinese); Romero (Udinese); Pulzetti (Livorno); Ghezzal (Siena).
Cessioni: Bonucci (Juventus); Ranocchia (Genoa); Meggiorini (Genoa); Carobbio (Siena); Kamata (Siena).

BOLOGNA
Acquisti: Paponi (Perugia).
Cessioni: Savio (Monaco 1860); Guana (Palermo); Raggi (Palermo).

BRESCIA
Acquisti: Sereni (Torino)
Cessioni: Rispoli (Parma).

CAGLIARI
Acquisti: Pinardi (Modena); Martignoni (Locarno).
Cessioni: Marzoratti (Empoli).

CATANIA
Acquisti: Antenucci (Ascoli); Pesce (Ascoli).
Cessioni: Martinez (Juventus); Moretti (Ascoli).

CESENA
Acquisti: Galuppo (Parma).
Cessioni: Volta (Sampdoria); Djuric (Parma).

CHIEVO
Acquisti: Cesar (Grenoble).
Cessioni: Yepes (Milan).

FIORENTINA
Acquisti: D'Agostino (Udinese).
Cessioni: nessuno.

GENOA
Acquisti: Diego Angelo (Naval); Ranocchia (Bari); Meggiorini (Bari); Rudolf (Debreceni); Toni (Roma), Eduardo (Sporting Braga), Rudolf (Debrecen).
Cessioni: Amelia (Milan); El Shaarawy (Padova).

INTER
Acquisti: Biabiany (Parma); Castellazzi (Sampdoria); Coutinho (Vasco da Gama); Faraoni (Lazio).
Cessioni: Arnautovic (Werder Brema); Quaresma (Besiktas); Donati (Lecce); Toldo (fine carriera).

JUVENTUS
Acquisti: Pepe (Udinese); Storari (Sampdoria); Lanzafame (Parma); Bonucci (Bari); Martinez (Catania), Motta (Udinese).
Cessioni: Cannavaro (Al Alhy); Molinaro (Stoccarda); Caceres (Barcellona).

LAZIO
Acquisti: Pintos (San Lorenzo); Gonzalez (Nacional Montevideo); Bresciano (Palermo).
Cessioni: Carrizo (River Plate); Faraoni (Inter); Hitzlsperger (West Ham).

LECCE
Acquisti: Olivera (Penarol); Donati (Inter).
Cessioni: Cacia (Piacenza); Marilungo (Sampdoria).

MILAN
Acquisti: Yepes (Chievo); Amelia (Genoa), P. Aubameyang (Lille).
Cessioni: Dida (fine contratto); Favalli (fine contratto); Coppola (Siena), Storari (Juventus), Buscaglin (Grosseto), P. Aubameyang (Monaco).

NAPOLI
Acquisti: nessuno.
Cessioni: Contini (Saragozza); Calaiò (Siena).

PALERMO
Acquisti: Kasami (Bellinzona); Maccarone (Siena); Pinilla (Grosseto); Guana (Bologna); Raggi (Bologna), Glik (Piast Gliwice)
Cessioni: Simplicio (Roma); Giovio (Grosseto); Bresciano (Lazio), Kjaer (Wolfsburg).

PARMA
Acquisti: Armero (Palmeiras); Paonessa (Vicenza); Rispoli (Brescia); Paletta (Boca Juniors); Djuric (Cesena), Palettta (Boca Juniors)
Cessioni: Biabiany (Inter); Lanzafame (Juventus); Jimenez (Ternana); Galuppo (Cesena).

ROMA
Acquisti: Simplicio (Palermo); Adriano (Flamengo); Rosi (Siena); Guberti (Sampdoria), Lobont (Dinamo Bucarest).
Cessioni: Motta (Udinese); Toni (Genoa).

SAMPDORIA
Acquisti: Curci (Siena); Volta (Cesena); Marilungo (Lecce); Zaza (Atalanta).
Cessioni: Castellazzi (Inter); Storari (Milan); Guberti (Roma).

UDINESE
Acquisti: Motta (Roma); Vydra (Banik Ostrava); Muriel (Deportivo Calì); Karagounis (Atromitos).
Cessioni: D'Agostino (Fiorentina); Pepe (Juventus); Coda (Bari); Romero (Bari), Motta (Juventus), Zimling (Nec), Gotti (Empoli).

dor83

So the FIGC has penalised Moratti and Preziosi over the transfers of Motta and Milito.

Massimo Moratti and Enrico Preziosi have been punished for irregularities regarding last summer's transfer of Diego Milito and Thiago Motta to Inter, the FIGC's official website confirmed.

The National Disciplinary Committee announced their ruling on Friday and both presidents will be fined and 'inhibited', meaning they are prohibited from being involved in a number of transfer activities relating to their clubs.

Moratti has been sanctioned for three months and will pay a fine of €45,000 and face a three-month 'ban'. Preziosi, who had been sanctioned previously, will pay €90,000 and be inhibited a further six months.

The punishment is considered rather light regarding the circumstances, as there were suggestions that there could be a points deduction for the two clubs or the contracts of Milito and Motta could be cancelled.

Other officials at the clubs can still engage in the transfer market, as only the presidents are prohibited until their sanctions expire, so in essence their summer campaigns should not be affected severely.

Now as far as I'm aware, the problem with the transfers is that Preziosi was banned from conducting transfers at the time, but if this is the case why is Moratti being punished? As far as I can see he didn't brake any rules, unless he is being punished because he conducted the negotiations with Preziosi knowing he had already been banned? That is the only reason I can think of. No major issues for either team though as they will both have other people to conduct transfers during the bans and they are small fines too.

Mr. Presentable

1 Buffon
2 Motta
3 Chiellini
4 Felipe Melo
5 Sissoko
6 Grosso
7 Salihamidzic
8 Marchisio
9 Iaquinta
10 Del Piero
11 Amauri
13 Manninger
14 Giovinco
15 Zebina
16 Camoranesi
17 Trezeguet
18 Poulsen
19 Bonucci
20 Lanzafame
21 Grygera
23 Pepe
24 Pasquato
25 Martinez
27 Ekdal
28 Diego
29 De Ceglie
30 Tiago
31 Costantino
32 Storari
33 Legrottaglie
34 Alcibiade
39 Marrone

dor83

Napoli have signed Cavani.

Napoli have pulled off a real coup with the signing of Uruguay international striker Edinson Cavani from Palermo.

The 23-year-old’s future has been the subject of much speculation in recent months, but no one expected him to arrive at San Paolo.

Palermo had apparently received offers from Tottenham and Wolfsburg, but the player’s intention was to stay in Italy, expressing a preference for Inter.

Napoli had spent the summer looking for a striker capable of scoring between 15 and 20 goals a season, but until yesterday their efforts had proven fruitless.

The club’s director of sport Riccardo Bigon was coming under fire after promising much at the start of the transfer market but delivering little.

However, Cavani’s signing is arguably the biggest surprise of the summer in Serie A.

Napoli have arranged to loan him until the end of next season with a right to buy inserted into the agreement worth a reported €16m, which will apparently be payable over four years.

I'm really surprised no bigger clubs were in for him, in the current market I think €16m is a good price. Palermo have lost a few players this summer, Kjaer and Cavani most notable, and imo they haven't got much money for either, from what I've read about €30m for both. I really am surprised by both of these transfers, the money and the clubs they moved to.

Dolph Starbeam

Seaneh wrote: »

If his bodyfat% and weight are above a certain figure on the day of the first game of the season he loses something like 60% of his wages for that week and every week thereafter that he is over weight.

I think thats a bit ott, Roma knew who they were signing didn't they? I agree he is a bit more chubby than usual in that photo, come the season start he will have it down but i wouldn't be expecting miracles, anyways isn't his strenght his main attribute.

Pinturicchio

dor83 wrote: »

Now as far as I'm aware, the problem with the transfers is that Preziosi was banned from conducting transfers at the time, but if this is the case why is Moratti being punished? As far as I can see he didn't brake any rules, unless he is being punished because he conducted the negotiations with Preziosi knowing he had already been banned? That is the only reason I can think of. No major issues for either team though as they will both have other people to conduct transfers during the bans and they are small fines too.

Yes, this. They both got away very lightly.

dor83

Pinturicchio wrote: »

Yes, this. They both got away very lightly.

Why, what punishment do you think should have been given? The talk of points reductions and taking the scudetto was ridiculous, it's not like the transfers themselves were illegal, Genoa wanted to sell Inter wanted to buy and it wasn't an unusually big or small fee.

Pauleta

http://www.football-italia.net/jul15j.html

Saudi interest in Roma takeover
The Saudi royal family are said to be very interested in buying Roma this summer, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Roma are officially up for sale after Rosella Sensi agreed to a debt-settlement plan with the family's creditors Italian bank UniCredit.

La Gazzetta understands that representatives from UniCredit held a meeting with people acting on behalf of the Saudi royal family in a luxurious Roman hotel two days ago.

Roma have been the subject of interest from the Middle East in the past.

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktum, the famous Dubai sheikh, was once serious about investing in the Giallorossi.

UniCredit have been taking advice from Rothschild in their efforts to find a buyer.

Their search so far has focused on foreign investors, as UniCredit doesn't believe there is anyone in Italy rich enough or serious enough to give Roma long-lasting stability.

Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal certainly fits their criteria.

He was 19th on the latest Forbes rich list with a fortune said to be worth £19.4 billion.

Interesting

Pinturicchio

dor83 wrote: »

Why, what punishment do you think should have been given? The talk of points reductions and taking the scudetto was ridiculous, it's not like the transfers themselves were illegal, Genoa wanted to sell Inter wanted to buy and it wasn't an unusually big or small fee.

The President of another club (I think it might have been Bologna) got a longer ban for just having dinner with Luciano Moggi. There's no incentive for clubs not the flout the rules if they'll barely be punished when they do.

Inter and Milan and have been cooking the books again. Milan signed three youngsters (Daminuta, Filkor and Fossati) from Inter for €7M. When did they do this? Just 30 minutes before the World Cup final kicked off so that it wouldn't even make the news. Wait for them or other useless youngsters to be transferred in the opposite direction for roughly the same price. That way both clubs will have more "valuable" assets.

Pinturicchio

Italian Football Is Dead - Luciano Moggi
Moggi has relaunched his attack on the FIGC...

Former Juventus director Luciano Moggi has accused FIGC president Giancarlo Abete of "killing Italian football" as he launches a sharp sting on the powers that be.

His attack follows on from Inter striker Mario Balotelli's agent Mino Raiola, who claimed Abete should resign from his post at the helm of the Calcio tree.

He even claimed Balotelli would boycott Serie A because of measures Abete introduced which limits foreign transfers.

And Moggi has taken his argument even deeper in his Tuttomercatoweb.com comment column.

"Shooting at Abete now would be like taking the last brick away from a house that has fallen," Moggi blasted.

"Italian football is rebelling against absurd decisions from one man that is slowly killing our football.

"Euro 2012, Euro 2016, [Sepp] Blatter that gives the World Cup presentation to [Patrick] Vieira, [Roberto] Donadoni's flop at the Euro 2008, failure in South Africa. Is that not enough? No.

"We also had to add the fact that we changed coach of the national team while one was still in position. These were suicidal and illogical strategies.

"Italian football has had enough of Abete, not me who is in the past, but the football league and its 20 presidents. Someone please save us."

Le King

Hopefully Milan can improve this year. Adiyiah looks a decent prospect.

Irishrossoblu

Pinturicchio wrote: »

The President of another club (I think it might have been Bologna) got a longer ban for just having dinner with Luciano Moggi. There's no incentive for clubs not the flout the rules if they'll barely be punished when they do.

Yep our ex president Menarini got 3 month ban for being good mates with big Luciano. He did reccomend 3 players to Bologna and was trying to get in, but he was stopped.

carlop

Pinturicchio wrote: »

Inter and Milan and have been cooking the books again. Milan signed three youngsters (Daminuta, Filkor and Fossati) from Inter for €7M. When did they do this? Just 30 minutes before the World Cup final kicked off so that it wouldn't even make the news. Wait for them or other useless youngsters to be transferred in the opposite direction for roughly the same price. That way both clubs will have more "valuable" assets.

This is still going on? It's actually ridiculous that they still get away with it.

Napoli are constructing quite the attack for next season. Lavezzi, Qua and Cavani. I haven't seen a huge amount of Cavani but I've heard very good things.

Pinturicchio

carlop wrote: »

This is still going on? It's actually ridiculous that they still get away with it.

Napoli are constructing quite the attack for next season. Lavezzi, Qua and Cavani. I haven't seen a huge amount of Cavani but I've heard very good things.

They're not breaking any laws. Who's going to change the laws to stop them doing it? Berlusconi? :pac:

Le King

Pinturicchio wrote: »

They're not breaking any laws. Who's going to change the laws to stop them doing it? Berlusconi? :pac:

I don't really understand what the problem is. Obviously there is one. Care to explain?

Pinturicchio

Osu wrote: »

I don't really understand what the problem is. Obviously there is one. Care to explain?

The problem with what they're doing?

Both clubs are making their financial books look healthier than they really are.

The three players involved in this particular deal are not really worth €7M. Milan paid this much for them so that they can increase the value of their assets (they can say they have a youth team worth €20m/30m/whatever). Milan will make back the money they spend on buying these players by selling other youngsters to Inter for inflated fees. This way, neither club actually loses any money but both clubs are worth more. It goes on and on like that.

Le King

Pinturicchio wrote: »

The problem with what they're doing?

Both clubs are making their financial books look healthier than they really are.

The three players involved in this particular deal are not really worth €7M. Milan paid this much for them so that they can increase the value of their assets (they can say they have a youth team worth €20m/30m/whatever). Milan will make back the money they spend on buying these players by selling other youngsters to Inter for inflated fees. This way, neither club actually loses any money but both clubs are worth more. It goes on and on like that.

Thanks for that. Didn't know that. Sounds really serious actually.

Pinturicchio

Osu wrote: »

Thanks for that. Didn't know that. Sounds really serious actually.

It's not illegal because no one can say those players aren't worth 7m if Milan are willing to pay that for them.

carlop

Pinturicchio wrote: »

They're not breaking any laws. Who's going to change the laws to stop them doing it? Berlusconi? :pac:

Yeah, good point. There must be loads of young lads in Italy who never really made it who have had fees of 5 million + spent on them in their career!

Pinturicchio

carlop wrote: »

Yeah, good point. There must be loads of young lads in Italy who never really made it who have had fees of 5 million + spent on them in their career!

Yep, there are. Although most of them are done in package deals like 3 players in one transfer. One kid spoke out about it a while ago. I think he was only about 17. I don't know where he ended up.

Pinturicchio

Milan have officially signed Papastathopoulos.

http://www.football-italia.net/jul20k.html

Seaneh

Good signing IMO. Had a great season last year and just gone 22.
Will be good backup for Nesta and Thiago Silva. I'd say we are sroted at CB for a while now.

Nesta, Thiago Silva, Bonera, Papa, Yepes and Onyewu.
But we badly need new fullbacks and a top class striker.

Pinturicchio

It says on that link above that Papa could start the season as right back. Seems strange to me.

Seaneh

Yeah, I don't see that happening to be honest, would be better off playing Bonera at right full if we were going to drop Zambrotta for a centreback!

He did play mostly at RB for Geona for the 08/09 season, apparently...

Pinturicchio

Seaneh wrote: »

He did play mostly at RB for Geona for the 08/09 season, apparently...

Was that not the right of a back three?

Seaneh

Good point, it's not really the same...

Pinturicchio

Zdenek Zeman has returned to Foggia. This could be interesting.

SDTimeout

Roma have always been my team in italy and i was delighted with ESPN's coverage of Seria A last year got to see a good few games.

Does anyone know if they have picked up better coverage / more games for this season ? Since they are losing a package of PL games

Mr. Presentable

I don't think distribution is finalised until August. There will be a Friday night game added to the calendar, so that would suggest more games shown on TV.

RichTea

Since there are other threads for a Premier League All-Time XI how about a similar idea for Serie A in the same period?

Italian XI:


................................Buffon.......................................

Costacurta...........Baresi.............Nesta/Cannavaro.............Maldini......


....................Pirlo..........................Lombardo............

..........Totti....................Baggio........................Del Piero............

.....................................Vieri.....................................


Foreign XI:


....................................Julio Cesar...............................................

Cafu...............Desailly.................Mihajlovic................Zanetti.........


..........Nedved................Zidane.................Rijkaard.........

............Batistuta..........Van Basten...........Ronaldo........


Lot of very good players left out of both. In fact I'm sure I've mangled both teams.

Seaneh

I wouldn't have Rijkard in there tbh, only played a season of the premiership era in Italy.

RichTea

Seaneh wrote: »

I wouldn't have Rijkard in there tbh, only played a season of the premiership era in Italy.

Good point. I was looking for a bit of balance in the team though. Not sure who else would be handy at that role....feck it Kaka it is!

Seaneh

RichTea wrote: »

Good point. I was looking for a bit of balance in the team though. Not sure who else would be handy at that role....feck it Kaka it is!

hahaha. Yeah, but seriously you're spoiled for choice. I'd pick Kaka but I'm biased. I'd have him ahead of Nedved by a mile too, but it's all personal preference, Like me picking Boban in my first team even though Milan have had better players than him.

RichTea

Seaneh wrote: »

hahaha. Yeah, but seriously you're spoiled for choice. I'd pick Kaka but I'm biased. I'd have him ahead of Nedved by a mile too, but it's all personal preference, Like me picking Boban in my first team even though Milan have had better players than him.

How did I forget Boban? What a legend. Rui Costa has to be in with a shout as well.