Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

i was just kidding about the brazilian\argentinian thing mate ;) ..... althought there's always a bit of truth behind every joke :JAY:

however i wasn't ranking teams... at all! that was not my point (also because it's pretty much impossible to properly rate top class national teams and compare them).

u see, when i wrote

i was just implying that it's much harder to get a spot into the argentinian squad than into the german or italian and french.
that doesn't necessarily mean argentina has a better starting 11 or is a better team..... it just means that argentina has much, much more high quality choices than any other national team in the offensive department.
and i guess that's pretty much undebeatable.... i mean u could line u 2 or 3 different offensive setups with the argentinian players who didn't make it to the world cup..... and each of those "leftovers offensive lineups" would be "world class" nontheless.

i was just looking at the situation from pastore's point of view... i certainly wasn't trying to rank national teams.... i was just saying that, given the huge ammount of world class options, becoming an albiceleste player is a much more remarkable achievement than getting a spot in any other national team squad, that's it.
and that certainly doesn't mean that i think argentina has definitely a better team than any other national teams, as being a better team isn't just about having great players ;)
Now i see, sorry for this annoying OT. And about this argentina/brazil, there is a BIG truth behind this joke, mostly in our side than in Argentina imo.

Eh ? The only reason the team crashed as it did was thanks to the clown in charge.
:LOL: Yeah i know, same with Brazil, Mano brought a lot of youngers and our "Joga bonito" back .

I agree with Milanista, Pastore seems like a creative nº 10 and this comparation with Coutinho is unfair because they play in different ways imo. Pastore x Ganso would be more fair.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Viviano and Mirante as the other goalies?

And what about Balzaretti, he could be there too.

Maybe that Cagliari forward should get a chance in a friendly as well.

yeah viviano and mirante have been great so far :))
as for balzaretti, i just can't figure out why he's overlooked by both prandelli and lippi.... i really can't. and the craziest thing is that the likes of zambrotta and molinaro (!) seems to be ahead of balzaretti in prandelli's mind :SHOCK: really weird.

about matri, yeah, he's been doing very well for 2 seasons now, i think he earned himself a callup.... i mean, it's not like gilardino is on fire theese days.
giovinco too would deserve a callup, given what he's done so far in parma.

Lukas, don't worry, u have nothing to be sorry about, i wasn't very clear in my point so i can easily understand why u misunderstood me. :BEER:

btw what's going on with theese new generation of foreign youngsters? over the last 2 years there have been so many foreign teenagers who made an instant impact.... first it was thiago silva and pato, then pastore and hernandez, this season there are ilicic and coutinho.... u would expect foreign youngsters to undergo a period of adaptation... but in serie a this just doesn't seem to be the case :SS

wel all know about previous season rookies who were awesome from day one (thiago silva, pato, pastore and hernandez), so let's just consider this season's new additions.
that coutinho kid, he just joined the champions league winning team, one of the best teams in europe.... he's still 18 and all of a sudden found himself surrounded by world class players..... yet it seems like he couldn't care less... he acts so natural on the pitch... no worries, no fears whatsoever...he looks like a veteran!

and this ilicic kid (22 years old) who basically came out of nowhere. i'm not that surprised by his skills... coz after hearing rossi's and sabatini's comments about him i realised he was meant to be a talented football player..... but the personality of this kid is just crazy. i mean, first month in a new club, new country, new league, new lifestyle.... first shot in a top league.... and yet....

first match as a starter against INTER... great performance and goal.
second match as a starter against JUVENTUS in torino (!)... another great performance and another goal.
third match as a starter against FIORENTINA in firenze (!).... with his first touch of the ball he hits the bar.... and second time he gets the ball he scores with a screamer from outside the box..
seriously check out the balls on this dude!!! :CONFUSE:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Ben, wasn't Illicic bought together with another Slovenian (Bacinovic???).
Does the other one also plays regularly?

It seems Palermo had a slow start but are on full throttle now. I hope they can charge again for a CL place...

And how are Genoa doing?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Not great. Apparently Gasperini isn't too happy about the transfers since he has almost no say or control, since they're mainly done by Preziosi (the president). Although almost all of Genoa's best players in the last 3 years are Preziosi's signings, such as Milito, Motta and Borriello.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

But all those didn't last more than one year. Veloso won't last for more than one also. I can see why he might be sad. Toni scored btw and he was super excited with the goal.

btw what's going on with theese new generation of foreign youngsters? over the last 2 years there have been so many foreign teenagers who made an instant impact.... first it was thiago silva and pato, then pastore and hernandez, this season there are ilicic and coutinho.... u would expect foreign youngsters to undergo a period of adaptation... but in serie a this just doesn't seem to be the case :SS

Kids these days don't know how to be shy. All the facebook, twitter, and mobile phones is giving them a lot of attention they simply think they are something huge but who am I to talk. :D
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I've just read in Gazzetta that Barcelona is planning a 40 M€ deal for Pastore. :SHOCK:

I know he wants to go there. But it's better for him to help Palermo and lead the midfield for the rest of contract under an excellent coach and club.

Besides how could Barca afford him ? They may look at him as a Xavi replacement but they'd need to ship someone out first.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Pastore turned us down because he didn't want to sit on our bench, if he goes to Barcelona I can see him sitting on theirs for years.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I've just read in Gazzetta that Barcelona is planning a 40 M€ deal for Pastore. :SHOCK:

It would be the worst possible move for him, literally how would he get into that them ahead of Xavi and Iniesta, or even Fabregas (whom they are supposedly going to sign next summer)? Even if he is better than these three players as he's not from the region he'll have to be twice as good to overcome the bias in selection.

Also financially Barcelona is not in a great situation I think they could have to sell a player to afford the £40m, if they have to sell someone like Pique to sign him it could unbalance the whole team.

He is much better off staying at Palermo playing in a league that has more than 2 strong teams, anyway Italy is a better country than Spain to live in (better food, fine artworks, economically more stable, much better women, better place to bring up childern) and Palermo is a much more vibrant city than Barcelona.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Pastore turned us down because he didn't want to sit on our bench....
yeah but that was on season ago.... when people in europe didn't know much about him.
right now he's the most hyped kid in europe (and rightly so, i might add).
1 year ago he was not top club's starting 11 material... today he most certainly is. infact even a top club whose formation doesn't fit him would probably change the shape of the entire lineup, just to fit him in.... man utd would certainly do that. infact i believe javier would be a starter in most of the top clubs in europe right now.

but u're right, not in barcelona. he would probably become iniesta's backup.... but then again, being iniesta's backup is quite a nice position... because whenever guardiola decides to bench one of the 3 forwards upfront and moves iniesta in the offensive tridente, then iniesta's backup suddenly becomes a starter..... and as we saw last season, this happens pretty often.

anyway that's not gonna happen imo. no club would ever spend that much money on a player who isn't even gonna be an unquestionable starter.... that'd be crazy.
i mean, it was already crazy enough to try and get fabregas this summer (for pretty much the same reason i explained before about pastore).... but from a "political" point of view, that was some sort of a forced move.
fabregas was rosell's trojan horse during his campaign. plus fabregas is already an established world class player (by established i mean he already played at top level for several seasons) and there's catalano blood in his veins.
none of this applies to pastore. there are no elections in sight, javier isn't catalano and he isn't even an already established world class player...
so there's no way barca is gonna offer 40 millions for pastore. to be honest i dont' think anyone is gonna offer 40 millions for him. i mean yeah, he's absolutely amazing, but even if he would keep playing like this for his entire second season (wich is likely :COOL: ).... would u spend 40, 50 millions on a kid with only 2 season in europe in his curriculum? i'd say 30 millions would already be a great offer.

and it's not coz i don't think he's that good. actually if there's anyone worthy a crazy offer today, that's pastore.... but 40 millions are really too much money for a youngster.... it would be stupid to splash so much money on a single young player... pastore is a fantastic player, but with 40 millions there's so much a club could do.... i mean seriously, can u imagine what rossi and sabatini (palermo's coach and general manager) would do with that kinda cash??? when u consider what they were able to do with such small funds... hell with that money they would probably turn palermo into a european top club! :P

but then again, it must be said, that's just how i see it. and top clubs don't seem to share my opinion on this concern, as real madrid already proved this summer, offering 25 millions for pastore (WTF! 25 millions for a 20 years old kid who just played his first season in european football!?!?! that was even more crazy than this barcelona 40 millions rumour! :SHOCK: )
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

He is much better off staying at Palermo playing in a league that has more than 2 strong teams, anyway Italy is a better country than Spain to live in (better food, fine artworks, economically more stable, much better women, better place to bring up childern) and Palermo is a much more vibrant city than Barcelona.

i really don't think he's gonna stay next season. he's been smart enough to pick a team who could guarrantee him a starting spot (palermo). but now that he's "the next best thing" he will probably want to capitalise on this hype and move to a top club. it's understandable... i mean, i would do it.
and it's not just him either. i believe zamparini too will want to sell him this summer (to capitalise his investment). right now everyone in europe talks about pastore...everyone wants pastore.... that means that this is the right moment to sell (i mean next summer, not "now" of course).

as for palermo being a better place to live in than barcelona.... i gotta disagree with u mate. palermo is indeed a very nice city and it's hard to find a better place to live in.... but barcelona most certainly is one of those few places. and i know what i'm talking about as i lived in barça for about 6 months, a few years ago.
gotta agree about the women though... there's no match between sicilia and catalunya when it comes beautiful women....but then again no region in the world (at last in the part of world i've seen..... and i've been in a lot of places) beats sicilia in that department........ no region except sardegna (when it comes to women, sardegna is the closest to heaven u can get :P )... sorry for the little off topic (but afterall, and i'm sure Sina and Special One will agree with me on this, women are never "off topic" :D )
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

In all honesty, I prefered San Sebastian, Sevilla and Valencia to Barcelona. Where I was (Raval near las Ramblas) was ok, but there were so many pickpockets, literally you walk 4-5 mins and 3-4 people try it. I've lived in the former Yugoslavia so am familiar with the methods of pickpocketing so can spot it easily, but heaven help an outsider who doesnt know about these things.

As for women it's hard to top southern Italy, but from where I've been Crimea (southern Ukraine) and Ciudad del Este (Paraguay/Argentina/Brazil borders) were exceptional.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I quite agree with you on Pastore Ben, for both Palermo (money) and Pastore it wouldn't be good if he stayed two more seasons.
I'm pretty certain Pastore will leave in january (i sincerely hope not as a bit of a Palermo fan).

I don't agree on the women: the most beautifull women in the world live in Gent and Shanghai.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Well I hope he stays and Zamparini does not try and force him out to cash in on him.

Pastore at Barca in five years time might be reasonable when Xavi has retired.

Besides he's nicely settled in Palermo with a lovely Sicilian girlfriend (obviously any kids will turn out to play for Argentina ;) ). I think the press have seized upon him saying he'd like to team up with Messi and play at Barca and Leo saying how nice it would be to have him at Barca.

Don't think a nation that can boast Velasquez, Goya, Murillo etc will be pleased by your comments cfdh edmundo. ;)

That said Italy's cultural heritage in that field of the art's is also immense.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

In all honesty, I prefered San Sebastian, Sevilla and Valencia to Barcelona. Where I was (Raval near las Ramblas) was ok, but there were so many pickpockets, literally you walk 4-5 mins and 3-4 people try it.

yeah, i know what u mean... but the thing is raval isn't exactly the nicest barrio in barca. most people consider it as part of the ciutat vella (the old city, the core of barcelona).... and actually it is.... but it was born as an "extension" of the ciutat vella, due to demographic growth. so it wasn't originally part of the "old city".... and it isn't really a a nice barrio, "population-wise".
the real core of barcelona is el barrio gotico. that's the heart and soul of the city. la rambla itself is quite overrated imo (it's the most "touristic" barrio in barca, hence the less "catalan").

san sebastian (btw people prefere to call it "donostia" over there) is indeed a very nice place... but donostia is more of a village and it's impossible to compare it with a big city like barçelona.
sevilla is great (like the entire andaluçia, afterall), but i prefere barça.
as for valencia instead, i dunno, i mean it's absolutely beautiful, but i found it a bit too "modern" (but that's just me i guess).

the only spanish city i liked more than barça is zaragoza. what a wonderful city that is! my favourite place in spain... the big problem though is that there's no sea.... and for a siciliano is hard to live in a city without sea :))

Gerd there's absolutely no chance we're gonna sell pastore in jannuary. that is just impossible. it will most likely happen in summer.

Albi, i certainly understand what u mean. 1 more year with rossi could only do better to him. and yeah, he always keeps saying he's loving his time in palermo (btw i didn't know he got himself a sicilian girlfriend. good for him! :)) ).... but there are also other factors to consider.
here in palermo javier gets 500k per year. and he has little to no chance of getting some champions league action. so, after 2 years of constant improvement in palermo, we can't really blame him for wanting to "go to the next level" :))
however, i gotta say, so far he's never talked about moving from palermo, and whenever a big club has approached him he's always declined with a "no thanks, i'm fine here" :))
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I'm sure Pastore won't leave Sicily solely because of Arancini.

arancini.jpg
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Any truth to the investments Palermo will get for an arabic friend of Zamparini? Looks like he is dreaming of keeping Pastore and building something around him.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Ben what's with the reports of your president calling Del Piero a diver!? Looking through the replay of that incident there was contact, but I admit seeing it the first time from the normal camera that it looked like a ridiculous dive.
Anyway I was just wondering what you've heard on it.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Indeed lo zio. He's a nice kid. There was a quote from an Italian football journalist saying he is unusual in reagrds that he is a quiet person off the field.

A different kind of pasta..... Apparently a Sicilian saying. ;)

I do think Palermo could be onto something if they can maintain and add to this squad having only narrowly missed out on the CL.

I do think too many players run away from the challenge of taking their club as far as they can go prematurely and from us watching from afar one of the key concerns is that he gets time to play.

He need not worry about a move either as Batista has already said he is a key player in his future plans.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Women are never off-topic talk. By the way, a Swedish friend told me best girls are the Swedish ones but I don't agree with him at all, I've always preferred the Latins. :P

Sooner or later Pastore will leave the beauty and charming Palermo city but don't worry, your recent history shows your direction and staff know how to manage a club in a successful way. You've lost Amauri, Cavani, Kjaer and so on but you've always found good replacement for those empty slots. I must admit, didn't use to follow Serie A like Premier League or La Liga but, the grow of teams like Palermo, Genoa or Samp, made me want to watch carefully the calcio again (oh, and Miccoli, I need to see this guy week after week. grrr I hate you Ben, watching him live every 2 weeks. :RANT:).

It seems to me this year we will have an interesting season, probably the most exciting in 5 or 6 years (seriously, I'm tiring of Inter's dominance). Great young players coming around, well organized teams and good tactical games (some people hate tactical games but I love it).

Well, I think I gonna chose some italian squadra to start a campaign on FM this year. Don't know which one, maybe Genoa, maybe Palermo, I'll decide when the game comes out. :)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I'm sure Pastore won't leave Sicily solely because of Arancini.
LOL!
i had a couple of them just last week when my uncle came from napoli. whenever one of my uncles\aunts comes here in palermo to visit my mother, the first thing they ask are arancine and cannoli. as soon as i knew my uncle was here in palermo (he's an architect and one of the coolest persons i've ever met), i went to my mother's house to visit him. first thing he tells me, right after a wellcoming hig is "it's so great to see you kid... now where are my arancine?!" :P
Zeem said:
Any truth to the investments Palermo will get for an arabic friend of Zamparini? Looks like he is dreaming of keeping Pastore and building something around him.
nah. this arabic investor (a friend of zamparini who happens to be a sheikh) is just gonna invest into the new stadium construction. that's the only project he's gonna be involved in. and that's absolutely fine for me, as i don't want us to change our management strategies.
Matt said:
Ben what's with the reports of your president calling Del Piero a diver!? Looking through the replay of that incident there was contact, but I admit seeing it the first time from the normal camera that it looked like a ridiculous dive.
Anyway I was just wondering what you've heard on it.
zamparini wasn't specifically referring to del piero. he just complained with the refs association for the several wrong calls palermo was victim of in the last few weeks.
it's quite usual here in italy.... as soon as a club gets damaged by some wrong ref's calls in consecutive games, the president comes out with a public statement to "defend his team".... it's kinda stupid, but everyone seems to do it here.
btw matt, how did your trip to milano went? did u go to the inter -juve game eventually? :))
albiceleste said:
Indeed lo zio. He's a nice kid. There was a quote from an Italian football journalist saying he is unusual in reagrds that he is a quiet person off the field.
yeah, he is a really nice and down to earth kid. but i gotta say here in palermo we were quite lucky on this concern in the last few years, as all our players seem to be very happy and never cause any sort of trouble, not in the dressing room, neither off the pitch... the last troublemaker\trash talker we had in our team was di michele.
albiceleste said:
I do think too many players run away from the challenge of taking their club as far as they can go prematurely and from us watching from afar one of the key concerns is that he gets time to play.
yeah i know what u mean, but it's hard to blame them. as a football player the first thing u want is to establish yourself as a valuable player. and when you're a youngster in order to get that recognition, u need a club which can guarrantee u enough playtime to prove yourself. but once u get that international recognition, it's normal to aspire to bigger challenges (such fighting for the league title, playing in champions league, joining a top club) and get a higher wage.
palermo can't guarrantee that.
afterall it's a mutual relationship. we give theese youngsters a chance to improve as football players, to grow and to prove themselves into a top league, while they give us their talent and full commitment for a few years.... and for a low paycheck.

infact that's the reason why we never part on bad terms with our players. whenever a palermo player leaves the club, the whole city remains grateful to them... and they always remain very attached to the team.
i mean just look at this, that's the last press conference simplicio made as a palermo player, his "goodbye conference" to palermo. i know most of u can understand italian, but u don't really need to know the language to understand his sorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpzborfYCho&feature=related
and that's just the last of them. it usually happens with every player who leaves palermo. when juve came here in palermo last season to play against us, the whole stadium celebrated amauri's return to palermo (even though with a juve shirt) with the chants we used to sing for him when he was a palermo player. at the end of the match he couldn't hold his tears and cryed like a baby, applauding to his former fans.
The special one said:
Sooner or later Pastore will leave the beauty and charming Palermo city but don't worry, your recent history shows your direction and staff know how to manage a club in a successful way. You've lost Amauri, Cavani, Kjaer and so on but you've always found good replacement for those empty slots. I must admit, didn't use to follow Serie A like Premier League or La Liga but, the grow of teams like Palermo, Genoa or Samp, made me want to watch carefully the calcio again (oh, and Miccoli, I need to see this guy week after week. grrr I hate you Ben, watching him live every 2 weeks. ).

It seems to me this year we will have an interesting season, probably the most exciting in 5 or 6 years (seriously, I'm tiring of Inter's dominance). Great young players coming around, well organized teams and good tactical games (some people hate tactical games but I love it).
yeah, as long as we keep our managers, our youth team coaching staff and our scouts, we're gonna be fine... as they've always proven they can provide us a good team, even when a great player leaves the club.

as for serie a, i gotta say the last 4\5 seasons were actually great to follow. i know this inter dominance is getting quite boring, but there's been an outstanding improvement in the quality of the football played by midclass and low-class teams.
last season for instance was absolutely insane. the race for the 4th spot was amazing, with palermo, samp, napoli, juve genoa and fiorentina battling all year long.
plus, another great thing about serie a is that also low class teams (those which usually battle to avoid relegation) always keep playing football... i mean "quality football", with the ball on the ground.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

From what I've been reading it's basically Roman slang for 'geezer/chav/lad/scally', but more affectionate than insulting. Macheda said "like me, Rooney's a bit of a coatto" but the 'like me' part wasn't reported to make it seem like an attack. Totti has referred to himself as a coatto before too so I don't think it was said in a bad way. Macheda is working class himself anyway so wouldn't make sense.

Mountain. Molehill. :ROLL:
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

gotta agree about the women though... there's no match between sicilia and catalunya when it comes beautiful women....but then again no region in the world (at last in the part of world i've seen..... and i've been in a lot of places) beats sicilia in that department........ no region except sardegna (when it comes to women, sardegna is the closest to heaven u can get :P )... sorry for the little off topic (but afterall, and i'm sure Sina and Special One will agree with me on this, women are never "off topic" :D )

:WORSHIP: :P
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

;)
abou said:
What does "coatto" mean?
coatto was originally a romanesco word (roman dialect). today it became pretty common in every region of italy. it generally refers to people with with no class.
imagine a man stilish, with good instruction\cultural background, polished.... well a coatto is the exact opposite.
a coatto is an unsophisticated, pretty vulgar, rough and unpolished person.
i wouldn't translate it with "chav" as chav, as far as i know, also refers to people with vulgar background and an aggressive mood (am i right on this?). a coatto isn't aggressive. he's just classless.

however, as rich said it isn't really an insult. i mean, it certainly isn't a compliment, but, although the meaning of the word isn't exactly nice, u don't really mean to insult someone when u call him a "coatto". it's more of a mock than an insult. it's just a mocking way to highlight someone's lack of taste (in clothing, in lifestyle, in manners, in pretty much everything).

talking about football players, totti, cassano, rooney, they're definitely coatti. totti is actually a pretty good guy, but he clearely has no idea what style is about... he's not really a cultured person (hence his unpolished nature), and those things make him a coatto.:))

btw abou great avatar! ;)
as for yours avatar instead, riccardo (!) :P ... i can't really say why, but that pic kinda creeps me out :D
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Lol! i have my moments, i guess :P
After the Liverpool game he became the BerbaKing :D
:LOL: i see
Ben, wasn't Illicic bought together with another Slovenian (Bacinovic???).
Does the other one also plays regularly?

It seems Palermo had a slow start but are on full throttle now. I hope they can charge again for a CL place...

And how are Genoa doing?
sorry gerd, i completely forgot about your questions.
yeah ilicic and bacinovic came together from the same squad (maribor).
actually at first, we were just negotiating bacinovic (a very interesting young prospect... he's a bit of a young cambiasso to me). both kids were playing for maribor, the team we met in europa league preliminary rounds. the thing is this ilicic kid was so unbelievably good against palermo it was impossible not to notice him in that match... we easily beated maribor, but that ilicic was a nightmare for our defense.... just an outstanding performance.... the next day i read on the corriere that palermo was suddenly showing interests in ilicic too :P

as for bacinovic, yes, he played 5 matches so far... and he's been very very good. his performances have been overshadowed by ilicic (who has been amazing so far), but i got to say i'm really impressed with bacinovic aswell. he's a very complete central midfielder. he's very phisycal, but he also has a nice touch and a very, very good passing.... he's still young (20 years old), but i think he might become one hell of a metodista :))

as for genoa, i'd say they're already starting to gel. the thing is, with all theese new players coming into the team, it's gonna take some time for gasperini to do his magic.
genoa's market is orchestrated by preziosi himself (the president) and by stefano capozucca, who is genoa's general manager.... a very good general manager ... i'd say he's almost on par with sabatini (palermo's general manager).

they've done some great deals over the last 4 years.... the thing is, every season they pretty much change the shape of the entire team, bringing in lots of new talents (a bit too many imo).
now, from one point of view, that's good for gasperini, as it gives him some great matieral to work with..... but from another point of view, i guess it must be quite frustrating having to start over each and every season... with a completely different team, and having to elaborate a new gameplan to go along with that new team.
nontheless right now they have 8 points (just like palermo) so "gaspa" must have done a pretty good job already (although i have to say i haven't seen yet a match of this new "2010/2011 genoa").
 
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