[Smurph]

The Troll, on 27 August 2011 - 10:01, said:

Same They have a strong looking squad this year, Cristian Zaccardo, Hernan Crespo, Sebastian Giovinco, Manuele Blasi and Fabiano Santacroce are all names i recognise and all are good Serie A players. Just avoided relegation last season i think?

Crespo is past it.
They also have Fabio Borini, Francesco Modesto, Raffaele Palladino and Jonathan Biabiany (on loan - he was also on loan two seasons ago).

They finished 12th last season, ten points clear of relegated Sampdoria, and tied on points with Chievo and Catania (went to a head-to-head to determine league position).

They've got a decent enough squad to finish in a similar position again.

[Kris.]

The Troll, on 27 August 2011 - 10:01, said:

Same They have a strong looking squad this year, Cristian Zaccardo, Hernan Crespo, Sebastian Giovinco, Manuele Blasi and Fabiano Santacroce are all names i recognise and all are good Serie A players. Just avoided relegation last season i think?

Smurph, on 27 August 2011 - 10:58, said:

Crespo is past it.
They also have Fabio Borini, Francesco Modesto, Raffaele Palladino and Jonathan Biabiany (on loan - he was also on loan two seasons ago).

They finished 12th last season, ten points clear of relegated Sampdoria, and tied on points with Chievo and Catania (went to a head-to-head to determine league position).

They've got a decent enough squad to finish in a similar position again.

Cheers, lads.

Plan to follow them a wee bit more closely in future, and it certainly helps knowing who is who...

[Mr. Brightside]

I hope Celtic get back in the Europa League so I can go and see Udinese.

[Chinese Whisperer]

South Lanarkshire Jag, on 26 August 2011 - 00:41, said:

Almost, Almost stole your avatar there.

The defining memory i have of Batistuta is of him scoring an overhead kick against Arsenal at Wembley.

Two questions:

1. Did this actually happen?
2. Why were Arsenal playing at Wembley

may just be a 10 year old's dream

They wanted to make more money. Highbury could only hold 34,000 for CL matches, but they could sell 70,000 playing at Wembley.

[craigkillie]

Their record at Wembley in the CL was abominable - I'll look it up later but I reckon they lost more than they won.

As soon as they moved them back to Highbury, they became one of the top dogs in Europe.

[Long live the 69]

Don't really have an Italian team (my Italian family all support Juve). Probably just watch the big games this season.

[Mak QOSFC]

Napoli look appealing at 25/1. Think I'll go £10 each way.

[lichtie23]

mhak QOSFC, on 28 August 2011 - 17:28, said:

Napoli look appealing at 25/1. Think I'll go £10 each way.

They paying out top 4?

[craigkillie]

craigkillie, on 28 August 2011 - 13:38, said:

Their record at Wembley in the CL was abominable - I'll look it up later but I reckon they lost more than they won.

30/09/98 Arsenal 2-1 Panathinaikos
21/10/98 Arsenal 1-1 Dynamo Kyiv
25/11/98 Arsenal 0-1 Lens

22/09/99 Arsenal 3-1 AIK
19/10/99 Arsenal 2-4 Barcelona
27/11/99 Arsenal 0-1 Fiorentina

[Smurph]

Napoli have added Goran Pandev on loan from Inter. I would make them serious contenders for the top four again.

Milan, Juventus, Napoli... one more.

[The Troll]

Smurph, on 29 August 2011 - 18:38, said:

Napoli have added Goran Pandev on loan from Inter. I would make them serious contenders for the top four again.

Milan, Juventus, Napoli... one more.

Both Milans surely?

[Mr. Brightside]

Udinese.

[Smurph]

The Troll, on 29 August 2011 - 20:20, said:

Both Milans surely?

Inter really have struggled in the transfer market. In fact, their only big signing is Diego Forlan (which should go through) and a young Poli on loan from Sampdoria, but they have lost a few really good and fairly important players. You would assume they'd be up their, but if Udinese or Palermo or someone else has a strong season, I could see Inter falling.

I'm going to quote a really good post on another forum I frequent;

Spoiler

Quote

Well the situation is pretty much same whole summer as we've actually won just one decent full-length friendly. We played well against Chievo and their 3 goals were pretty much their only pieces of attack in second half (2 from long range with poor GK-ing from Castellazzi, one even more horrible to look as an Inter fan as our defence made Moscardelli look like Maradona).

Gasperini hasn't even tried anything else other than 3-4-3 which is very annoying considering the fact that we have looked a lot out of balance.

But the problem, more than the formation, is with the players available. We needed 2 high energy, young, quality all around central midfielders at the start of the summer and someone to add bit more width (not necessarily winger) and unpredictability to the team because Eto'o was the only one able to do it in the forward line last season.

As the summer has moved on, we've found out that we need a defender (young one again, not necessarily top class one, but better than Chivu though) if we are to continue with 3 man defence (Samuel, Lucio injury/form risks, Ranocchia needs A LOT of time to turn into top defender since his tactical sense is lacking very often, not to speak of the other one's). Defender is something we don't seem to be getting although there are some light rumors.

We haven't gotten any of the midfielders we've needed and actually let go of Mariga who should've been the back-up option if we were not able to sign 2 of the central midfielders needed. Now it looks like we'll settle for Poli who is pretty different to the player(s) I feel we need (though I have no big problem with signing Poli as he is a good talent). We should've gone for someone like Vidal, M'Vila, Bender, Sissoko, Asamoah, Guarin, but no... now we start the season with pretty much Motta-Cambiasso central midfield again which reached its peak in 2010. I don't understand what our management done there and how they cannot see that we need a defender.

Neither do I understand what we do in attack. Eto'o went for a great offer and I understand that it's very hard if not impossible to replace him this season, but I can understand going for Forlan for the moment because we don't have any real options before next summer. However it's hard to understand why the hell have we been after f*cking Rodrico Palacio whole summer long - he isn't in top 20 forwards of Serie A even, he is nearly 30 and they speak of us offering like 5 mil (Don't know what Genoa is thinking rejecting that). Even keeping Pandev sounded more reasonable to me. Best thing (which is hardly a great scenario) at the moment in my eyes would be Zarate-Forlan additions. Zarate, although attitude problems, at least puts unpredictability into attack, is young, not that expensive (compared to the 27 year old Tevez or 31 million euro Lavezzi) and very talented (although he needs to work harder to become a world class player). Forlan is someone we can sell in 1 or maximum 2 years without much financial loss other than the wage and then buy someone young and with awesome future.

Although it's not easy job for our directors when it comes to forwards I have absolutely no idea if they and Gasperini are watching the same Inter over the pre-season as well as end of last season because defence and midfield are desperate for new blood - not much pace, mobility and energy in there.

Most funny thing is that we haven't even come close to using our actual starting XI for even one minute during the pre-season. It's something that I very much struggle to understand again.

However there are some things that make me look forward to towards the season or rather some induvidual players. Primavera lads Davide Faraoni, Joel Obi have been absolutely stunning in pre-season and in my opinion even deserve to start the season - Obi probably has been the player of pre-season alongside Pazzini who is in absolutely deadly form upfront (weirdly enough so is Milito so that is one nice problem for Gasperini to have). Then the likes of Cas*****nos, Poli, Alvarez, Coutinho too are looking to start breaking into the team - Alvarez is probably gonna play the most out of those, though I must say, he has yet to win me over. Technically a superb player, but at times he falls asleep which is not what you want from someone who is in central midfield since his pace is not enough to be a dangerous winger from what we've seen so far.

Sadly Santon looks quite a long way from recovering at the moment - he looks clumsy, never seems to be fresh. The pressure is really not good for him - he wants to succeed badly, but then he is afraid to go forward and lacks confidence and that uncomfortability and fear of failing is translating into defence as well. But one cannot forget that this boy is just 20 years old so we need to be careful with handling him - there are some reports of 10 million euro offers. I really hope he gets back to the player that burst onto the scene in 2009 however. And hopefully our other promising youngsters won't suffer the same problems as he has.

[Naught A Chance]

I've always been an bit of a Napoli fan since I was younger, purely because I liked their strips back in the day. As I got older I began to follow them a bit more closely, either online or on the tv whenever possible. I would say they were involved in some of the most entertaining games in the league last year, Cavani's stoppage time winner against Lecce springs to mind, along with when they won 4-3 at home to Lazio.

Although they fell short of the title last season I always thought they were a little short on numbers within the squad, although they seem to have addressed this in the close season. Although they lost Michele Pazienza to Juventus they have offset that loss by bringing in Donadel from Fiorentina and Dzemali from Parma along with the excellent Gohkan Inhler.

They have also moved to bring in Goran Pandev from Inter and Santana from Fiorentina to complement their already impressive attacking options. Napoli have also brought in a defender from Bolonga in Miguel Britos from Bolonga.

Although they have brought in several impressive signings I feel the fact that have managed to keep a hold of Mazzarri and Cavani is massive for them, especially as the look to build a squad to win Serie A this year.

The real challange however, may be balancing their european commitements along with their league games.

[MotownClic]

WanderingWarrior, on 27 August 2011 - 00:45, said:

Yes they do.

Ok hardly any.

Shit team even shitter fans. As much as I hate the politics of the Hellas fans, at least they a decent curva.

[Naught A Chance]

Victor Ruiz leaves Napoli for Valencia

[AsimButtHitsASix]

None of Atalanta's signings have really caught my eye this year. Hoping to steer clear of relegation at best but a good Serie B season can hopefully give us a good start.

[lichtie23]

So it looks like there will be games this week

[A-Mac]

MotownClic, on 30 August 2011 - 08:56, said:

Ok hardly any.

Shit team even shitter fans. As much as I hate the politics of the Hellas fans, at least they a decent curva.

Shit team

Their total team budget is less than the top clubs pay one of their players & yet they have been able to have sustained Serie A presence, plus also get into Europe.

I'll admit that the fans aren't as good as some other clubs & they will never have the following Hellas do.

I wish i could throw out random insults

[MotownClic]

Iron Pigeon, on 06 September 2011 - 06:24, said:

Shit team

Their total team budget is less than the top clubs pay one of their players & yet they have been able to have sustained Serie A presence, plus also get into Europe.

I'll admit that the fans aren't as good as some other clubs & they will never have the following Hellas do.

I wish i could throw out random insults

You're easily offended for someone who has probably never even been to the Bentegodi.

[A-Mac]

MotownClic, on 07 September 2011 - 07:53, said:

You're easily offended for someone who has probably never even been to the Bentegodi.

What has that got to do with the discussion?

[Long live the 69]

Potentially a 5 horse title race between Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma & Napoli?

I think both Milan clubs & Roma will finish in the top three.

[Smurph]

Long live the 69, on 07 September 2011 - 18:40, said:

Potentially a 5 horse title race between Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma & Napoli?

I think both Milan clubs & Roma will finish in the top three.

I think it will be;

Juventus
AC Milan
AS Roma
Inter Milan
Napoli

I believe all those teams have improved though. It's ridiculous looking at who they have all brought in.

[Kris.]

Will be at the girlfriends this weekend so I'll be able to catch the Juventus v Parma game on ESPN on Sunday. Looking forward to getting my first look at Parma in a couple of years. I fear they could be on the end of a pumping though.

[craigkillie]

Kris., on 07 September 2011 - 22:24, said:

Will be at the girlfriends this weekend so I'll be able to catch the Juventus v Parma game on ESPN on Sunday. Looking forward to getting my first look at Parma in a couple of years. I fear they could be on the end of a pumping though.

So could your girlfriend