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Would Gilardino really suit Juventus?
The January transfer window is up and running with Serie A appearing to be ahead of other leagues for early deals.
Sampdoria forward Antonio Cassano has joined AC Milan, meaning Ronaldinho is all set to leave, and Genoa’s Italy defender Andrea Ranocchia has headed to Inter Milan.
The other Italian giants Juventus are keen on a new striker given Amauri’s form and fitness problems and Alessandro Del Piero’s advancing years.
Media reports have continually linked the Turin club with Fiorentina’s Alberto Gilardino, despite both clubs playing the speculation down.
Juve seem to just be trying to collect every Italy striker they can. They already have Vincenzo Iaquinta (the latest of their players to suffer an injury) and Fabio Quagliarella, who arrived from Napoli in the close season after Juve’s bid for Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale broke down.
Lugi Del Neri’s side pondered a bid for Cassano but decided against it but have longed been linked with Samp’s Giampaolo Pazzini.
I know Juventus were close to appointing now Italy boss Cesare Prandelli when he was at Fiorentina but trying to copy his entire strike force is going a bit far, especially as Gilardino is so similar to Quagliarella and may be past his best.
UPDATE: Controversial Champions League gives way to Predictions League!
Well the fight for fourth spot in the Premier League looks like being one of the most intriguing battles in Europe as we near the latter stages of the season. Tottenham and Aston Villa won but Manchester City drew 0-0 with Liverpool in a drab game to leave it all as close as an Olympic downhill.
The Bundesliga and La Liga get more exciting thanks to Bayer Leverkusen and Cristiano Ronaldo while Inter’s lead being cut to five points has made Serie A less clear cut.
The same can not be said for our predictions league where leader Paul Radford was again joint-top scorer with 13 (full five points for Arsenal 2-0 Sunderland and Fulham 2-1 Birmingham) to streak 18 clear. But let’s not give up.
Remember one of the best manager cliches – it’s a marathon not a sprint!
Updated Reuters Soccer blog panel scores: Paul Radford 242, Patrick Johnston 224, Mitch Phillips 216, Neil Maidment 204, Mark Meadows 180, Simon Evans 176, Kevin Fylan 167, Mike Collett 159, Julien Pretot 151 , Asia Sports Desk 142, Martyn Herman 133, Miles Evans 108, Sonia Oxley 99 —————————————————
THURSDAY’S ORIGINAL POST: So what do you make of Wednesday’s Champions League controversies?
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No Great Escape for Liverpool
Liverpool hopes of one more great Champions League escape were dashed on Tuesday night, as Fiorentina sealed their place alongside Olympique Lyon with a 1-0 win over the French side, leaving the English team’s 1-0 success against Debrecen irrelevant.
Liverpool, of course, only have themselves to blame for leaving their fate in the hands of a team that had already secured their own qualification.
There will doubtless be a lot more criticism of Rafa Benitez, his transfer dealings and the perceived failures of man management, but the analysis of exactly why Liverpool failed to progress can wait for another post.
For now, consider one question: Might this result actually work in Liverpool’s long-term favour?
The club could certainly have done with the revenue from a run to the semi-finals or beyond but, with the best will in the world, did this season’s team ever really look capable of making it as far as Madrid?
With a squad that (everyone has said) is inferior to last year’s, maybe it will prove in their interests that they no longer have to juggle Champions League and Premier League campaigns. They can now have a leisurely tilt at the Europa League — if they make it to the final it will be an enjoyable run, if they don’t … well, who really cares? — and concentrate on doing something about that dreadful domestic form.
The priority, as always, must be to secure qualification for the group stage of next year’s Champions League. That 19th league title looks as elusive as ever but a top-four finish may have just become a more realistic possibility.
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By Jove! Jovetic gives Liverpool a hair-raising fright
He looks a bit like Screech from that U.S show “Saved by the Bell”, but there is nothing clumsy about Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic.
With a glorious crop of shaggy hair, the Montenegro striker destroyed Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday with two first-half goals that probably even shocked the Florence faithful.
The 19-year-old was thrown in at the deep-end with Alberto Gilardino suspended but responded in stunning fashion. Can anyone remember Liverpool being so overrun for 45 minutes?
If he wasn’t already, Jovetic will definitely be on the big clubs’ radars now.
The famous win for Fiorentina, fourth in Serie A last year, came at just the right time for the club. Things had been difficult with their president resigning last week while poor Adrian Mutu is still fighting against his enormous fine following his sacking by Chelsea.
It was also a glimmer of hope for the embattled Italian game after two years of flops in the Champions League.
It wasn’t just a ‘fright’ that he gave Liverpool – it was more like a lesson in clinical finishing and a defeat for them. Perhaps Rafa should turn his attention to him and snap him up, considering the lack of finishers in the team now.
from Left field:
Soccer trumps rugby in Florence
It had long been decided that Italy's rugby team would host world champions South Africa in Florence on Saturday Nov. 21.
Then soccer got in the way. Fiorentina, who use Florence's only big stadium the Stadio Franchi, were due to play Parma at home on the 22nd but when they were drawn to play at home on Tuesday Nov. 24 against Olympique Lyon in the Champions League, the Parma game was moved to the 21st.
Suddenly there was a big problem and now the rugby match will take place in Udine instead despite tickets already having gone on sale.
Is this a case of soccer taking undue precedence over rugby or is it just a tale of ineptitude?
Even if Fiorentina's game against Parma had been kept on the Sunday, that still would have meant two soccer matches and a rugby game on the same already-weathered pitch within four days.
Places such as England don't have these problems because there are generally separate stadiums for rugby and soccer.
Vukcevic takes his shirt off, lets the side down
Has there ever been a more stupid and pointless sending off than Simon Vukcevic’s dismissal for Sporting against Fiorentina in the Champions League play-off round on Tuesday night?
The 23-year-old Montenegro striker, booked for getting involved in a petty squabble with an opponent after 12 minutes, then scored after 58 minutes to put Sporting level at 1-1 after Fiorentina had taken an early lead.
Its impossible to know what went through his head next. Running back with his team mates he took off his shirt in celebration and despite putting it back on a few seconds later was shown a second yellow card and then a red by Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai who gave him a look as if to say, “Sorry mate, rules are rules.”
Not only did that leave Sporting with 10 men for over half-an-hour it also means the Montenegro international will be banned for next week’s second leg in Italy, and that arguably could cost them the tie which is up for grabs after the sides battled to a 2-2 draw in Lisbon.
I have never ever understood why players take their shirts off to celebrate a goal. I think its disrespectful to the shirt, your team mates, to your fans and the club that pays your wages.
It’s an utterly pointless gesture and when the authorities decided a few years ago it was a bookable offence, most players saw sense and stopped doing it.
What made it even more ridiculous was that Vukcevic looked surprised when he was red carded. You ought to read the rules, mate.
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Replaying games because of a single incident is obviously unworkable in the real world.
What is needed in football is more widespread use of technology during matches themselves, as in rugby and tennis.
Arsene knows
Agree with your statement that they need a top-class striker. Right now, Italy have some good ones, but none in the Ibrahimovic, Villa, Drogba class.
It says more about the state of the club that they can no longer attract those types of players (making them force a sale or move to Juve) as they did 5, 10+ years ago.
A new stadium and a scudetto is a good start.