Serie A preview

Vincenzo Montella, manager of Fiorentina

Italian football rumbles into action this weekend, with the Supercoppa Italiana taking place on Saturday, the game exported to the Bird's Nest stadium for the third time. Juventus take on Napoli in the Serie A curtain-raiser and interest will be high after Italy's excellent showing in Euro 2012.

Juventus completed an unbeaten season last year, and despite drawing 15 games they conceded just 20 goals all year, which saw them edge home ahead of the more volatile AC Milan who were four points away. As well as a resolute defence the midfield three of Pirlo, Marchisio and Vidal were key to the title for the bianconeri. Pirlo was magnificent in the deep playmaking role and Vidal and Marchisio had the energy to press extremely high-up, giving Pirlo time and space.

They have moved quickly this summer, signing Lucio from Inter on a free and adding Udinese's best midfielders; Mauricio Isla and Kwado Asamoah. Paul Pogba finally made the switch from Old Trafford and with Robin Van Persie heavily linked with a switch, Juventus look in best shape to defend their 28th scudetto (30th if you ask the club).

AC Milan have taken the biggest hit this summer, losing Thiago Silva and the league's top-scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic to PSG. Sold for a combined €60 million it remains to be seen how Massimo Allegri reinvests in his playing squad, if sanctioned by Berlusconi. Milan have already brought in Ricardo Montolivo, excellent business on a free, Bakaye Traore and Columbian, Christian Zapata, from Villerreal. However, none of these signings look like exciting the Milan faithful, and fans will be looking for a star striker to replace the outgoing Ibrahimovic. Carlos Tevez and Van Persie look dead deals, so fans will hope that Pato can stay fit the coming season.

Udinese finished an impressive third last year, but after losing more key players, they will be relying on youngsters stepping up to the plate in 2012-2013. Giampaolo Pozzo's Udinese experiment reached English shores with his acquisition of Watford, adding to a portfolio that includes the Spanish side Granada, and the president has invested heavily in scouting at the Italian side. Two of the latest products from the scouting set-up, Isla and Asamoah, were sold this summer and the only star performer left is 34-year-old Antonio Di Natale. I think they'll struggle to make the Champions League in 2013.

Lazio finished fourth last season, and claimed Italy's first Europa League spot, after the league lost its fourth CL place via co-efficient. They did well to finish above fierce rivals Roma, who spent heavily, and Miroslav Klose adapted well to Italian football. They pipped Napoli to fourth by a single point, but you would expect Napoli to finish above them this season, without the added pressure of Champions League football. The departure of Ezequiel Lavezzi is a massive blow, but the Naples outfit have invested in youth and Chilean Eduardo Vargas will get his chance in the starting XI. Further reinforcements come in the shape of Valon Behrami and Alessandro Gamberini from Fiorentina, and bring real experience.

36-year-old Andrea Stramaccioni has been thrust into the deep-end with Internazionale, and the club seem unsure of how to overcome their Mourinho vacuum. The club have flopped since his departure for Madrid, and despite the core of that side still being around they have failed to threaten domestically, let alone continentally. Expensive flop, Diego Forlan, has been moved on, but the acquisitions this summer are relatively modest for a club that splashed a then world-record €48 million on Christian Vieri in 1999.

Handanovic has been brought in at goalkeeper, but with the experienced Julio Cesar already at the San Siro his addition seems superfluous. Matias Silvestre has signed on loan, and Rodrigio Palacio has come in, as has free-kick specialist, Freddy Guarin, after a loan move. Doubts remain over Wesley Sniejder's future, as do Chelsea target, Maicon. Inter seem stuck in a rut. Unwilling to splash the cash like their competitors, they need to move on an ageing squad but their rivals are moving away from them. Winning the inaugural Next Gen series indicates that there is some impressive young talent coming through the ranks but these teenagers are not ready to be thrust into Serie A action en masse.

The team to watch for me however, are Fiorentina. They finished a lowly 13th last season, in a year that will be remembered by armchair fans for then manager, Delio Rossi, attacking winger Adem Ljajic as he was substituted. Unsurprisingly the club dismissed Rossi, and bought in the relatively 'green' Vincenzo Montella. Nicknamed 'The Little Airplane' he had a fantastic playing career at Roma and after a caretaker role with the Rome side, he spent last year managing Catania. Montella steered the unfancied side to a 11th place finish, their highest finish in 10 years.

This led to Fiorentina making their move and the Viola have invested superbly this summer. The club lost the integral Ricardo Montolivo on a free, but have acted quickly to make dreams of a Champions League return a real possibility. Alberto Aquilani is a ready-made replacement for Montolivo, whilst the Chile international Matias Fernandez and Emilano Viviano have also come in. Fiorentina managed to raid relegated Villerreal for two of their most important players; Borja Valero and Gonzalo Rodriguez. Despite his failure to breakthrough at West Brom, Valero is one of the most coveted midfielders in Europe and the experienced Rodriguez is a superb replacement for Gamberini.

Gabriel Batistuta scored this for Fiorentina in a remarkable Champions League run in 1999-2000, but within two years the club were on the brink of bankruptcy, and had to be re-formed as Associazione Calcio Fiorentina e Florentia Viola in 2002, starting in the Serie C2. They have a history of giving young managers a chance, Roberto Mancini cut his teeth at Artemio Franchi, while current national team manager, Cesare Prandelli was manager for five years before taking the national post. Montella was a cult icon at Roma and I predict an impressive year for him and Fiorentina. 

British bargains - lack of value in British players

With just a month left of the summer transfer window, clubs are once again spending over the odds for British footballers. Andy Carroll's transfer from Newcastle to Liverpool was the perfect illustration of how British nationality (English even better) can vastly inflate a players transfer value. Steven Fletcher is the latest player to have been afflicted with this British premium; reports today suggested Sunderland were prepared to bid £12 million for the Scotland international.

Fletcher is clearly a handy striker. A strike ratio of 0.35 goals per game is not to be sniffed at whilst playing for relegation skirting Wolverhampton, but the stats in no way indicate he is worth £12 million. Players with this kind of goal-to-game ratio will retail for almost half of the £12 million Wolves hope to wring out of the Mackems, if they play in Ligue 1 or the Eredivisie.

Of course Premier League experience also makes players more desirable, but it also incrementally increases their price in the market. Joe Allen is the subject of reported interest from Liverpool, and manager Brendan Rodgers doesn't seem put off by the Jordan Henderson experiment and is likely to bid £15 million for the Welsh youngster.

Allen impressed in Swansea's first season in the Premier League, but he was dwarfed in midfield by Gylfi Sigurdsson, who joined Spurs for half of Allen's potential fee. Both players are 22, but the performances of the Iceland international were clearly superior in the last six months of the season, but it is Allen who looks set for the big-money switch this summer.

Home-grown rules mean clubs are keen to bring in British players, but Newcastle have shown that with some through scouting there are some diamonds to be found over on the continent. Are scouts losing financial backing in tough economic circumstances or are club owners less prepared to take a risk on someone without experience of the English top-flight? It's unlikely we'll find out, but here is my alternative XI you could assemble for less than the cost of one Joe Allen.


Playing 4-5-1:

Robert Green (Free, QPR)


Joao Pereira (£3.5 million, Valencia), Hedwiges Maduro (Free, Sevilla), Lucio (Free, Juventus), Joan Capdevila (€350,000, Espanyol)

Tranquillo Barnetta (Free, Schalke), Ricardo Montolivo (Free, AC Milan), Michu (£1.8 million, Swansea) Rasmus Elm (£4.8 million, CSKA), Sotiris Ninis (Free, Parma)

Mladen Petric (Free, Fulham)

Total: £8,650,000

Zlatan Ibrahimovic appreciation

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is like Marmite. Some people love the enigmatic Swede. And some people are wrong.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the narcisstic thug/footballing god.

1. "It's true I don't know that much about Ligue 1, but Ligue 1 knows who I am."

2. "This has been a massive thing in the media, people chasing me in my home. This is not normal, I will chase them back."

3. “Then Guardiola started his philosopher thing. I was barely listening. Why would I? It was advanced bullshit about blood, sweat and tears, that kind of stuff.”

4. “It was the fault of David Trezeguet, who made me do one drink of vodka after another. I slept in the bathtub. Now I hold my vodka much better.”

5. “(Guardiola) was staring at me and I lost it. I thought ‘there is my enemy, scratching his bald head!’. I yelled to him: ‘You have no balls!’ and probably worse things than that.

“I added: ‘You are shitting yourself because of Jose Mourinho. You can go to hell!’ I was completely mad. I threw a box full of training gear across the room, it crashed to the floor and Pep said nothing, just put stuff back in the box. I’m not violent, but if I were Guardiola I would have been frightened.”

6. “An injured Zlatan is a pretty serious thing for any team.”

7. His response to being asked about the Pique picture (and gay rumours) "Come over to the crib with your sister, baby, and I'll show you who's gay!"

8. “First I went left, he did too. Then I went right, and he did too. Then I went left again, and he went to buy a hot dog.”

9. (Answer to criticism from John Carew that Zlatan’s moves are pointless.)  “What Carew does with a football, I can do with an orange.”

10. (After Sweden were eliminated from EURO 2012, but before his wonder goal) “I don’t five a shit who wins it, I’m going on holiday.”

11. “I was being too nice. I’ve done 325 kilometres an hour in my Porsche Turbo and left the cops eating my dust.”


12. (After being frozen out at Barca) “The Rosengard lads wanted to come down and smash the place up and of course that was nice of them, but it didn’t really seem right”

13. “I was the bicycle thief”

14. “Some idiot father in the team went round with a petition, ‘Zlatan must leave the club it said’. Ok I’d headbutted that dad’s son, but my manager tore it into pieces. He was a good bloke, Ake.”

15. (And finally here is one from Ibra’s agent Mino Raiola) “Now I think the people in Paris will have something else to see besides the Mona Lisa"

Golden era for Spain?

Malaga's best player, Cazorla, is expected to leave this summer

All two La Liga fixtures were announced last week, with the first El Clasico taking place on 7th October at Camp Nou before Madrid host Barcelona on March 3rd.

Real start as slight favourites to defend their title at 4/5 and Barcelona are virtually at odds on as well, they are available to win La Liga at 6/5

Then comes a band of three teams in the betting; Malaga, Valancia and Atletico Madrid. You’ll struggle to find odds under 100/1 on any other team winning La Liga in 2012-2013 with Atletico and Malaga both on 104/1, with Valencia further back at 123/1. (with Betfair)

However none of these teams looks closer to mounting a challenge to the top two; Malaga have transfer listed their best player in Santi Cazorla due to financial issues, Valencia sold their best player to Barca for the princely €13 million and Atletico have yet to beat Real Madrid this century.

Malaga were the subject of a multi-million euro takeover by Qatari investors and despite investing over €50 million into the club they could only finish fourth, 42 points behind winners Real. To exacerbate matters Santi Cazorla and Isco, widely regarded as their two best players, have both been transfer listed in a dispute that relates to unpaid wages.

Valencia lost converted left-winger Jordi Alba for just €13 million, which looks like daylight robbery if United end up paying as much for Leighton Baines, and despite adding Fernando Gago and Sergio Canales in midfield they look short in attack. Roberto Soldado is one of only two recognised strikers in their squad and he was a cast-off from Real Madrid B (Castilla).

Bilbao under Bielsa are the purists favourite, with Guardiola apparently suggesting the Argentinian's name to the Barcelona board when he decided to step down, and are likely to be plundered this summer. The only other contender (baring a Levante miracle like last season) are Madrids working-class neighbours Atletico. If they can keep Falcao and adequately replace the outgoing Diego, then they look a great price to finish ‘best-of-the-rest’ at 7/2. 

International success for Spain has increased the gap between the top two and the rest of la Liga, and most football fans in Spain also support one of the two super-clubs as well as their local side.

The two giants are first and second favourites to lift the Champions League at Wembley next year, and with television revenue not negotiated evenly by all the clubs this financial imbalance shows little sign of abating.


Barcelona and Madrid negotiate their own TV rights separately from the rest of La Liga, so clubs with existing popularity and appeal can essentially charge whatever they like. There is no instant financial reward for pushing and finishing higher up the table like the PL. Without changes to this process Spanish football could soon turn into a tiki-taka monopoly.


EURO 2008 Final - Spanish starting XI (six club teams represented)

Casillas (Madrid)

Ramos (Madrid), Marchena (Valencia), Puyol (Barca), Capdevila (Villereal)

Iniesta (Barca), Xavi (Barca), Senna (Villereal), Fabregas (Arsenal), Silva (Valencia)

Torres (Liverpool)

EURO 2012 Final - Spanish starting XI (three club teams represented)

Casillas (Madrid)

Arbeloa (Madrid), Pique (Barcelona), Ramos (Madrid), Alba (Barca)

Iniesta (Barca), Xavi (Barca), Alonso (Madrid), Busquets (Barca), Fabregas (Barca), Silva (Man City)

The Spanish team that started the Euro 2012 final featured just one player outside of the Barcelona and Real Madrid elite (Man City's Silva), indicating just how much the two giants now dominate Spanish football domestically.

Pescara to Paris, for Marco Verratti

Perhaps the biggest disappointment to come out after Italy's excellent showing at Euro 2012 is the news that talented young playmaker, Marco Verratti, has quit Serie A for the nouveau-wealth at Paris Saint German.

Verratti has already been lazily billed as the next Andrea Pirlo, after the Juventus midfielder reminded the English media he was quite good this summer, and after dominating Serie B with his home-town club Pescara last season, he departed to join PSG for a fee of €13 million. 


That the 19-year-old will not compete in the top league in Italy has caused some contention in Italy. After declaring his admiration for Pirlo and the less than subtle admiring glances from the Old Lady, it was widely assumed that the young midfielder would inevitably join Juve, whether this summer or the next.


The Pescara chairman has gone as far as to criticise Juventus and Napoli for not following up their interest in the hottest young talent in Italian football and being prepared to match the offer from Qatari funded PSG.


"Evidently, they lacked the will [to complete a deal], because if one seriously wants an important player, €1m should not make a difference," said Daniele Sebastiani. He was also keen for an Italian side to complete the transfer as it would have seen Verratti stay with Pescara for their year in Serie A.


Verratti was unveiled on the same day as the Zlatan-show rolled into Paris, and his own press conference was reduced to an aperitif before the Swede's 48 minute première. Leonardo was eager to point out that PSG had concluded their summer strengthening (a point undermined by Ibrahimovic in his first 48 minutes at the club) but the additions this summer fall into a different bracket compared to 2011.


Last summer Paris strengthened from within their domestic league. Jeremy Menez, Blaise Matuidi, Kevin Gameiro were recruited to bolster the squad, before the continental experience of Alex, Thiago Motta and Maxwell came in during January. 


The expenditure this summer has truly caught the eye though. Thiago Silva, Lavezzi, Ibrahimovic and Verratti (as well as all playing in Italy) are players who would interest the elite sides in world football. Owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi stated during the Ibra unveiling that the Champions League was their stated target, completely forgoing any mention of winning the domestic title. How the 19-year-old Italian fits into this grand vision is less than clear.


The departure of Pescara boss Zdenek Zenan  this summer, probably accelerated the sale of Verratti, as did match-fixing claims against the club, subsequently punished with a two-point penalty. Zenan, a figure of cult status in Italian football returned to Roma (again), and he is renowned for his attacking sides and building young outfits who like to play football.


Verratti came in for all of the 2011-2012 season and dovetailed beautifully with loan-signing Lorenzo Insigne, the pair contributing 20 goals in Pescara's promotion to Serie A. Zenan is a huge advocate of a 4-3-3 formation and on his appointment at Pescara immediately assigned Verratti to the deep-lying defensive midfielder role, finally bought to mainstream attention with Pirlo's exploits in Ukraine and Poland.


Deploying your most technical and ball-playing midfielder in defensive midfield might not seem conducive with attacking football, but with the other two central midfielders closing down higher up the pitch the DM is afforded more time on the ball to dictate the game and play the killer pass. 


Pescara won Serie B and many fans as they blasted home 90 goals en route to the title in 2012 and Verratti was the player who caught the eye. Only five foot five, the midfielder has enormous passing capabilities, and for his height is extremely strong on the ball. Coupled with the ability to trick his way past opposition players, it's easy to see why Cesare Prandelli thought highly enough to include the Pescora player in his initial 30-man squad for Euro 2012.


Verratti didn't make the final 23, but given the competition in the Italian midfield; De Rossi, Montolivo, new team-mate Motta and Pirlo, there is no shame in not making it into that squad at just 19. 


Competition for places could well be a big problem for Verratti at the Parc des Princes. Although he would face fiercer competition at the Bianconeri of Juventus, who have further bolstered their midfield with Isla and Asamoah from Udinese, dislodging €39.8 million signing Javier Pastore appears an even bigger challenge for the 19-year-old.


After arriving for a club-record fee expectations were going to be high, and despite 13 goals in his first year in Ligue 1, the Argentinian has struggled to win over fans and the media. He has struggled to fit into Carlo Ancelotti's 4-3-3 formation and has often found himself out on the wing, rather than in the centre of the pitch, where both Pastore and Verratti want to play.


PSG will keep spending money to improve their squad, meaning competition for a place in Ancelotti's midfield three wil be incredibly fierce. At 19, the last thing the Pescora native wants to do is halt his development by sitting on the bench.


Paris might seem like a step forward, but unless Verratti can make an impression on Ancelotti, and convince the Italian to mould the team around him, he may find he struggles to adapt. Verratti is clearly a huge talent, but he needs refining and that could have been served with one attempt at keeping hometown club Pescara in Serie A.

Watch Verratti in action for Pescara last season, he's the small chap putting all the passes in for the strikers to fluff.

Euro 2012 review

I did say that Spain weren't boring...

Spain made history on Sunday after winning three successive major international competitions and Andreas Iniesta was justifiably bullish in asserting that it was "something that cannot be repeated".

He may well be right and it will take some set of players to eclipse the current squad of Spanish players who have all peaked gloriously in the last four to five years. Other teams will adapt and try to copycat the tiki-taka style, with competition likely to increase among the top football nations making another three tournament run an incredible ask.

Italy did not play badly in Sunday's showpiece event. They created several good chances versus the strongest nation in world football, more than most teams have mustered at Euro 2012, but the standards set by Spain in the final were staggeringly good.

Spain well and truly dismissed the laughable claim that they are a boring side after some breathtaking football that saw them ease to a 4-0 victory. Saving their best performance of the Euro's for the final, the Spanish produced one of the best team performances to ever grace an international tournament and they extended their shut-out in knock-out games to nine games.

The basis of the knock-out stages is to avoid losing, and Spain have now gone 900 minutes without conceding a goal in the latter stages of 2008, 2010 and this year in Poland and Ukraine. Sergio Ramos was a colossus in defence and allowed Xavi and Iniesta to slice open the normally reliable Italian defence.

Spain's win was a joy to behold and the only downside of watching the game was the sight of Andrea Pirlo distraught after the final whistle. For some reason the sight of the Juventus man in tears had more of an effect on me than seeing Stevie G and co sprawled on the floor after England's exit. Worrying times for an England fan, but few would begrudge Pirlo a place in this Spain squad that were again the dominant side at a major tournament.

After the shocking team of the tournament from Garth Crooks (who still gets paid by the BBC), which included Gerrard and Glen Johnson, here is my best XI from Euro 2012.

4-2-3-1

Casillas

Srna, Ramos, Pepe, Alba

Pirlo, Busquets

Moutinho, Xavi, Iniesta

Cassano

Euro 2012 final and player of the tournament

Spain aim to make history on Sunday as they look to become the first side to win three consecutive international tournaments, but they will be up against a side who frustrated them in a 1-1 draw on day three of Euro 2012.

West Germany reached three consecutive finals in the 70’s, but you sense if Spain win tonight, they will go down as the greatest palette of players to ever play for a national side. This Spain side is not the all conquering side of Euro 2008 though. The efforts of the last four years seem to be catching up with the team (especially the Barcelona players) and their performance against Portugal was one of their least convincing in recent tournaments.

Their passing accuracy was down at (just) 75% against Portugal and Spain look like a long-distance runner desperately trying to make the finishing line. Performances have not yet peaked, but if Spain manage to grind out a 1-0 win it will have been a virtuoso lesson in monopolising possession and dominating games.

I didn’t think I’d say this two months ago after he blazed a penalty into the Allianz Arena to hand Bayern a spot in the Champions League final, but Sergio Ramos has arguably been the standout performer for Spain. Returning to centre-back the 26-year-old has covered for Carlos Puyol with all the gusto and passion that we are used to from the Barcelona captain. Neither player is the most technically proficient, but they will attack the ball and are incredibly committed defenders.

The Panenka penalty that Ramos coolly despatched past Rui Patricio, was sublime and suggested that the defender has spent the last two months practising penalties (or at least watching Pirlo). Spain don’t have a striker, and other than Busquets none of their midfielders has really impressed in Poland and Ukraine. Ramos has been part of a Spain side that has conceded just one goal and has made some superb individual contributions leading the way from the more established Pique.

UEFA and FIFA seem to have an instinctive predisposition to look away from defenders when awarding their player of the tournament, but if any defender deserves the accolade it is Ramos, who in the space of three weeks has matured incredibly, from the young man who already holds the red-card record at Madrid, into an international standard centre back.

In contrast to the burnt out Spanish, Italy look to be finding form at the right time and have produced two sensational displays in the quarters and semi-final. The Juventus inspired defence has been resolute and Andrea Pirlo, flanked excellently by two midfield dynamos De Rossi and Marchisio, has been the best midfielder at the tournament.

Pirlo, Buffon, Barzagli and De Rossi are the only survivors from the World Cup winning squad from 2006 and their play at Euro 2012 has arguably been more expansive then Spain’s. They dominated their two knockout games in midfield and with Cassano and Balotelli on-song up front they will thoroughly challenge the Spanish procession. Spain will need to disrupt the midfield axis that shields Pirlo or his passing ability will pick holes in the Spanish backline.

Andrea Pirlo has embarrassingly only been heralded by a mainstream audience at the age of 33, and the former Inter and AC Milan man has vindicated Prandelli’s decision to base the Italian team around him. Pirlo is one of the most gifted midfielders in European football and the level of his appraisal after the England match indicates the dismissive arrogance of the English media. The lack of European coverage in England and obsessive admiration of Pirlo after the quarter final and semi-final confirms that until a player delivers against England they are immediately dismissed.

Pundits are bemoaning the absence of an ‘English’ Pirlo after now having it thrust in front of them, but the reality is that Pirlo has been winning titles and World Cups for years previously without this level of deification.

Spain beat the Italians 4-2 on penalties in a gripping quarter final at Euro 2008, in what proved a watershed moment for the Spanish national team. Despite playing excellently in previous tournaments they had come un-stuck and choked in the knockout phases and their gritty elimination of the Italian's paved the way for their first major title since 1964 and the start of their current run. Should La Roja win tomorrow it will be a fitting and appropriate opponent for Spain, as they return full circle to the Italians, looking to make history as the greatest assembly of players in football history.