May 2013
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““Jovetic is a strong player and he has to be signed, without talking about it...”
– John Elkann, Juventino vero
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Don't Stay Silent When You Should Be Screaming...
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” - Edmund Burke
As you are undoubtedly now aware, Roma’s travelling fans racially abused Mario Balotelli and Kevin-Prince Boateng during their game at Milan’s San Siro on Sunday. The Rossoneri in attendance responded by answering Roma fans’ monkey chanting with cries of Nerone, bruciali tutti! – a clever...
March 2013
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How Leonardo Bonucci Silenced The Doubters
€15million sounded a lot. When Juventus announced the signing of Leonardo Bonucci from Genoa in the summer of 2009 it looked like they had, despite the arrival of a new and supposedly more astute management team, once again overspent on a player. His early showings in the Bianconeri shirt did little to appease those fears among supporters who had seen defenders such as Jorge Andrade, Jean-Alain...
“The concept ‘a bit racist’ doesn’t exist. There are no tolerable quantities of...”
– Kevin-Prince Boateng addresses the United Nations, March 21 2013
Juventus Primavera & Youth Sector Latest ~ Click... →
“I don’t want to play behind closed doors because of these idiots. It would be...”
– Antonio Conte on racist Juventus fans
December 2012
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Fabio Capello's Kings Of Rome
It ended with them besieged by their own supporters who, hungry for souvenirs, preceded to strip their heroes of those famous Giallorossi shirts, shorts, socks, vests, literally anything they could get their hands on to remember the occasion. It was a day they would never forget. Everything about that sunny afternoon back in June 2001 was almost perfect for AS Roma as they ensured they took the...
October 2012
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Midfielders At The Heart Of Juventus vs Napoli...
This Saturday sees the resumption of what is quickly becoming the hottest battle in Serie A as Napoli once again travel north to face off against Juventus, the team who represent everything supporters of the Partenopei despise. Seemingly their entire ethos is to rally against the establishment, painting themselves as outsiders, happy to live in the shadow of Vesuvius but never content to be put...
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Player Focus: Angelo Ogbonna Worth The Asking...
Angelo Ogbonna is currently one of the most in-demand defenders in Italian football with rumoured interest from Manchester United, Juventus, Arsenal, Everton, Bayern Munich and Milan being reported on a daily basis. Yet outside of the peninsula not many will have heard his name, with even fewer still having actually watched him play. There is a simple reason why the central defender is so...
September 2012
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Growing Pains For Milan Pair
“Chaos in Milan. It’s never this bad!” cried the front page of Corriere dello Sport last Monday, reacting to seeing the city’s two clubs both lose the previous weekend. Indeed, before Milan’s midweek win over Cagliari, the pair had combined to take just three points from seven home matches following three draws and four losses, with Milan themselves having already...
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Brian Clough, Barcelona & Tedious Genius
To those of us who love a good stat, the regular output of various twitter accounts are like manna from heaven, allowing our inner geek to be continually nourished with the wonderful droplets of information dispensed. Whatever the league, player or competition in question, we read it, store it in our memory and then recycle it - incorrectly of course - a number of weeks later when it once more...
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Juventus make welcome return to the Champions...
It hasn’t been the easiest of journeys but finally they are back. When the Champions League anthem is played over the Stamford Bridge PA system on Wednesday evening, the eleven men wearing the famous black and white stripes of Juventus will be the first to do so in almost three years.
Indeed, the last time the Turin side played a fixture in Europe’s elite competition was a 4-1 humbling at the...
Juventus Youth Sector Latest ~ Click To Read →
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Serie A Focus: It's NOT All About The Money!
As is now customary, Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport has published the salary of every player in Serie A. The figures are given in terms of annual salary paid after tax and includes no bonus payments of any kind, allowing the most simplistic of comparisons across the teams, players and nationalities of the leagues players.
Among the breakdowns published by the famous pink paper is...
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Why did Juventus sign Nicklas Bendtner?
Whether through drunkenness or as part of a publicity stunt he shows off his pants. He’s got a terrible attitude and thinks he’s the greatest striker alive today. These criticisms – plus many others that are unrepeatable here – have reigned down upon Nicklas Bendtner and Juventus since the former Arsenal man joined the Turin giants late last week.
Read more at WhoScored.com
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That Watford & Udinese Thing: Reasons To Be...
In the summer of 1986 Udinese were in trouble. As punishment for their part in ‘Totonero bis’ – a match-fixing scandal which tore through the game and left many of its players and clubs tainted forever – the Friulian club were relegated to the second tier of Italian football. While his arrival may not have had the global impact of Silvio Berlusconi’s landing at Milan some four months earlier,...
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Nomads And Icons: A Serie A Story
Daniele De Rossi recently reaffirmed his commitment to home-town club AS Roma, citing the affection shown to him the previous weekend when the Giallorossi played their first friendly of the new season at their Stadio Olimpico home. The 29-year-old midfielder spoke in reverential tones of his love for everything Roman and the deep-seated loyalty he feels for the club and its famous colours.
In...
August 2012
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Serie A’s Week One Analysis: Il verdetto del campo
Italian’s often refer to ‘il verdetto del campo’ (the verdict of the pitch) as the definitive judge of players, teams and coaches and, by using the games of the opening weekend a number of points become apparent. Yes, after months of speculation, rumour and scandal, the world of Serie A finally gave us some on field action to discuss and, in doing so laid bare a number of inescapable truths.
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Serie A Summer Transfer XI
Serie A returns this weekend and there have been many changes to the teams in Italian football’s top division; not only are there a host of new coaches at numerous clubs, but also a raft of new players in every side across the league. While there have been some major talents lost - with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Ezequiel Lavezzi all moving to Paris Saint-Germain - there are also...
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Serie A's Top 5 Summer Transfers
The start of the new Serie A season is almost upon us, with Italy’s top flight set to return to action this coming weekend. In a summer transfer window which has seen six of the previous campaign’s top twenty performers (according to our own WhoScored.com ranking system) changing clubs, we decided to take a closer look at the top five transfers within the league. With Calcio once again...
July 2012
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Red Shirt Mistake: Kit Controversy For Inter
Famous for their blue and black striped shirts, the Nerazzurri have decided to make their away shirt red to, according to NikeStore.com, “honour the team with bold colours and symbols”. Already reeling from seeing their treble-winning side of just two years ago broken up as they attempt to make the drastic cuts necessary for them to fall in line with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play...
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Juventus Sign Nicola Leali, Paul Pogba, Alberto...
It has been quite some time since the last Youth Sector round-up, but events this week meant it was time to bring another installment to you. With the acquisitions of Nicola Leali from Brescia, Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, and Pro Vercelli defender Alberto Masi, Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici have continued their policy of strengthening the youth sector with a trio of solid signings. The...
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Detailed Profile Of Mauricio Isla and Kwadwo...
Beppe Marotta wasted little time in strengthening the Scudetto winning squad, acting immediately to bring Udinese pair Mauricio Isla and Kwadwo Asamoah to Turin. The pair bring many attributes to a midfield that was remarkably thin on quality outside of the M-V-P trio of Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo. Over on JuventinKnows.com the two men are analysed in depth with...
June 2012
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Italy Lean On Wonderful History Against Germany
Germany have, along with fellow Semi-Finalists Spain, undoubtedly been among the most impressive teams on show at Euro 2012. Emerging with three solid wins which made a mockery of the ‘Group of Death’ moniker bestowed upon their opening round of games, they then set about demolishing a resolute Greece side in a match which at times resembled little more than a training exercise. They also...
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Italy-England History, Subplots & Psychology
‘A present for all the waiters’ was how Fabio Capello described his winning goal against England at Wembley in 1973 - a reference to jokes in English newspapers that 20,000 waiters would be descending on the national stadium to see their native side in action. That one strike, coming in Sir Alf Ramsey’s penultimate match as manager, was only five months after the Azzurri had recorded their first...
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Master Versus Student As Group C Draws To A Close
At his final press conference ahead of the draw for Euro 2012, Cesare Prandelli admitted that the one team he wanted to avoid were not reigning World and European Champions Spain – or heavy favourites for the competition such as Germany or the Netherlands – but the Republic of Ireland. Then ranked as low as 21st according to FIFA, the Italy Coach was deadly serious in his wish to not be paired...
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Zemanlandia Returns To Serie A!
“I was looking for someone outside of Italian football. Uncontaminated. I like his boldness, both toward the game and in his character. He is very motivated. His aim is to score goals.” So said Franco Baldini last year as the Roma General Manager discussed his decision to appoint Luis Enrique as Coach with La Repubblica. Yet they could just as easily have been used to describe the man who...
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Stephan Lichtsteiner: The Right Man For The Job
The new Juventus Stadium had seen just fifteen minutes of official match play when, having had his own route to goal blocked by not one but two opposing players, Andrea Pirlo checked his run and almost without looking clipped a ball over the top of the static Parma backline. Floated perfectly, it dropped to the feet of Stephan Lichtsteiner who had cut in unnoticed from his position on the right....
May 2012
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Another Match-Fixing Scandal Shows Off Italy's...
A police raid on your pre-tournament training camp would, for any other nation, be far from ideal preparation with the opening match merely days away and yet – given their history – it should perhaps cause more concern for Italy’s opponents than the Azzurri themselves. Indeed, as exactly that happened at their national team headquarters at Coverciano on Monday morning it was hard to avoid a...
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Mister Gone: Credit Conte But Don’t Dismiss...
Bewildered, disliked by the majority of supporters and looking ever more out of his depth, Gigi Delneri entered the press conference at the Vinovo training complex last May and informed the audience of reporters that his time in Turin had come to an end. “There will be a new Coach at Juventus next season,” declared the sixty-one year old in his heavy and notoriously difficult-to-understand...
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In Bed With Maradona Euro 2012 Profile: ITALY
Beginning with straight-forward wins over Estonia and Faroe Islands as well as a hard-fought draw with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, Italy’s relatively simple path to Poland and Ukraine was all but sealed when Serbian Ultra’s caused their game in Genoa to be called off. Eventually awarded as a 3-0 win to the home side, it saw Cesare Prandelli’s men take a virtually unassailable lead at the...
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Coppa Win Lets Napoli Out Of Diego's Shadow
After spending many years as a much derided and decidedly second rate competition, the Italian Cup has enjoyed a renaissance in recent seasons and, having ended the undefeated campaign of Serie A Champions Juventus, Napoli will be hoping it can do the same for then. Twenty-two years after their last triumph in the same competition, the San Paolo club may have finally begun to emerge from the...
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Why Fabio Capello Is the Right Man For Chelsea
During the build up to the Champions League Final on Saturday, television cameras picked up shots of John Terry talking with Fabio Capello on the pitch at the Allianz Arena. This sparked numerous manger-in-waiting comments as the Italian has been subject of much speculation linking him to the Stamford Bridge club in recent months. Despite many of these rumours appearing to hinge on the outcome...
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Stats Analysis: Serie A 2011-12 By The Numbers
Italian football has always been home to some of the world’s biggest names and, while many factors have contributed to the lure of the peninsula losing some of its former sheen, there are still many top players plying their trade in the Bel Paese. Many of these – including Gigi Buffon, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andrea Pirlo – have been analysed in depth here on WhoScored.com but, over the course of...
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A Night To Remember: Napoli Win The Coppa Italia
With a combination of good fortune and great play, they did what no other club has managed to this season and win against recently crowned Serie A Champions Juventus. Unbeaten in all competitions, the Turin giants finally succumbed in this, the Italian Cup Final, unable to thwart the advances of Napoli’s ‘Three Tenors’. It was a game which almost perfectly encapsulated everything these two teams...
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Arrivederci Alessandro Nesta
While he introduced himself to the world with a mistimed training ground challenge that broke Paul Gascoigne’s leg almost twenty years ago, Alessandro Nesta departed Milan in a press conference far more in keeping with a career in which has been synonymous with perfection and consistent brilliance ever since he first found space in the Lazio first team shortly after that incident with the...
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Team Analysis: Serie A Champions Juventus
Well, there it is. The Old Lady of Turin is back at the summit of Serie A, Champions of Italy for the first time in five years. After the hell of Calciopoli and the purgatory of a season spent in Serie B, Andrea Agnelli, Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici delivered the ingredients for a successful team and the intensity, drive and intelligence of Antonio Conte moulded them into exactly that. In...
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Get Off The Fence! More Calcio Madness At Marassi
It has quickly become the most televised fence in Italian football. Little more than eighteen months after Serbian supporters had scaled it, the security barrier at Genoa’s Luigi Ferraris stadium was the focus of attention this past weekend as the home fans decided enough was enough in what has admittedly been a disastrous season for the Ligurian side. Much like the Balkan crowd who caused that...
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Forward Thinking: Striking Problems Ahead Of Euro...
The leading scorer charts of the European Championships reads like an impromptu Hall of Fame inductee list. Gerd Muller, Michel Platini, Marco Van Basten, Alan Shearer, Patrick Kluivert, and David Villa have all ended as the tournament top scorer, each reinforcing the reputation they already had established before the competition began.
Read more at ESPNSoccernet
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Andrea Pirlo
It felt like forever, but finally it came, falling from the sky like a gift from God. Roberto Baggio controlled the ball with a typically divine touch, floating past Edwin van der Sar before sending the ball into the back of the empty goal. For lowly Brescia to earn a point away to mighty Juventus in such fashion was, in itself, something of a miracle but this was so much more. This goal and –...
April 2012
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Liverpool Crying Out For Unwanted Alberto Aquilani
Shortly after Alberto Aquilani first arrived in England, a banner was unfurled on the Kop depicting Liverpool’s newest signing as the Russell Crowe character from the movie Gladiator along with the films’ tag-line ‘A Hero Will Rise’. After two seasons away on loan, during which Serie A’s two biggest clubs have seemingly reneged on the chance to sign him permanently, there is once again the...
