The Yellow Submarine Sunk Our Battleship

2 mill? Seriously?

Where the fuck were you on that one Zampa and Sab.. We could have at least shelled out 3-4 mill

"Why aren’t they stepping forward and bashing Gio on a very pedestrian preseason like they are Melo????" What are you talking about? Giovinco has been great this preseason, Melo hasn't.

"Where are all the people who were against signing Diego because it would block Seba from the lineup???? Why aren’t they stepping forward and bashing Gio on a very pedestrian preseason like they are Melo????"

because Gio is having a pretty good preseason if im not wrong....and if you wanna tell me that Melo is worth the money that was spent on him...u got to be kidding!!!!

and against this Italian prejudice, u dont hear ppl talking against Trezeguet do u? even though he has had a shitty preseason, he's not Italian either, no....its because he's been loyal, he's loved and respected.....and the same goes to Zanetti..

a reliable but average player. If he wasn't Italian half the fuss would be made.

It's pretty awesome how Melo is a piece of shit and sucks before he even plays an official game.

Where are all the people who were against signing Diego because it would block Seba from the lineup???? Why aren't they stepping forward and bashing Gio on a very pedestrian preseason like they are Melo????

Because it's the preseason and they'd be retarded to label him solely on the preseason.....or just because he's an Italian.

zanetti's a nothing player at this point, no legs, no lateral movement, he's a stationary player who is hardly pirlo or xavi passing it about. roma won the scudetto with a midfield of workers, emerson, tomassi, lima, assuncao, and zanetti barely featured. the point is, diego is a genius. nobody in italy thinks anything of zanetti, rightfully so.

iaquinta, del piero, giovinco, marchisio, chiellini, cannavaro, de ceglie, legrotaille, buffon, molinaro etc ... camo counts as well ... less italian?

Melo is an overrated piece of shit. This squad is get progressively more overrated and less Italian. Unbelievable.

Shame Zanetti was sold but I'm not gonna be too disappointed. The guy was solid and reliable when fit, but has been injured way too long. I say selling 3-4 second string/injury prone players for 10mil and then getting one quality player is not such a stupid move.

And Melo will prove to be worth every euro (i hope), now that Sissoko won't feature until after the African Cup. Just wait until he gets back to his best form and he will silence all his critics.

Blows my mind too, KJ. Godfuckingdamnit, Secco.

Seriously, I would have much rather sold Zanetti to you, he would have replaced Liverani easily. And for 2mil, unbelievable.

So Fio rapes you on Melo and you give away Zanetti on top..blows my mind

2 mill? Seriously?

Where the fuck were you on that one Zampa and Sab.. We could have at least shelled out 3-4 mill

Secco is trying his best to keep the scudetto out of Turin

can't believe you guys sold zanetti. i know he's getting up there in years but ....really? always seemed pretty solid out there.

We shouldn't forget Zanetti was earning about 2.3M per year (according to Alessio's post a few weeks ago). So if we sold him for 2M, we have saved 4.3M this season.

I also agree he was one of our best midfielders (when fit), but we needed to get rid of one(some?) of them, and since Ciro have faith in Tiago and Poulsen doesn't want to leave, well Zanetti was the next one in the list.

I didn't want him to be sold either, but I do understand the logic. And for Zanetti, it's a chance to end his career with the club he started it with. So he's probably happy with that chance (he's even taking a significant pay reduction).

All I can say is that it was nice having him here. I was pleasantly surprised with the impact he had, as I expected him to be a flop.

im not complaining about the amount and im pretty sure the 2 million weren't the reason he was sold...but we shouldnt have sold him to begin with.....with Sissoko out for another month (at least), Zanetti should be starting before Tiago and Poulsen....and if this is a move to reduce players.....they just sold the wrong player

And how much do you expect to call for a 32 year-old, who's in his final year of contract, huh?

you wonder why i slate seccos name. hes an idiot plain and simple

and talk about finding a perfect replacement for Melo....Fiorentina and it's fans must love Secco

i just realized something crazy....
Theoretically: Marchionni + Zanetti + 18-19 million = Melo

WTF is going on inside Secco's head??? does he just wake up one morning and decide to fuck around.....

A positive side of Giovinco's weak physical weakness is that he gets us alot of freekicks and we are very dangerous off of set pieces.

But I don't see that as his biggest problem. He needs to learn how to better position himself because as a trequartista he needs to get alot of the ball. He has to start running into open space so players can pass it to him rather than staying up with the strikers. It really is a good thing that we got Diego cause right now Giovinco is not ready to be a starter, he still has alot to learn.

weight training could add to his speed. look at the build of olympic sprinters. what it could take away from is his endurance. i feel like football hasn't figured out the benefit of weight training for strength. not that i think players should strive for american football body types, but i think the olympic lifts could be used to add more explosiveness and field presence. on a similar note, i think milan's onyewu could pose problems for physically weak strikers.

if zanetti really did get sold to us, the juve vs fiore matches are going to be especially juicy this year.

"If we need 2mil, tell Del Piero to take a serious penalty"

Spot-on Alessio! U deserve a Grammy for that exquisite display of wit.
The only sense I can make of the whole C.Zanetti fiasco is that he's going to be a free agent next season n the club did't want to pass up on the opportunity to make some $$$ off him. When fit he's ordinarilly one of our better midfielders, he passes well (long/short) and has a mean shot as well.I would've said keep him, BUT if there is an offer from Fiorentina and Zanetti wants the move then I wish him well.
Melo is CLASS and he will come good. I remember Gigi dropping a couple of clangers in his first coupple of games as well as Nedved not kicking into life until the winter after we bought him,hopefully we won't have to wait that long for Melo.
The one thing that bothers me though is how pedestrian we look without Diego. I was hoping Giovinco would seize the opportunity of the Brazilian's injury to lay down the marker, but he's been largely underwheming. The footballing brain is undoubtedly there, but the ease with which he is shrugged off the ball is worrisome and my fear is that putting him on a weight training regime to bulk him up could strip him of his speed.
If he could add the on-ball tenacity of similar little men like Messi,Xavi,Rooney and even Alex...then world would be his oyster.

I'm hard on Melo the same reason I was hard on Poulsen last summer. Decent player, (though we paid correctly for Poulsen) but he just plain isn't what we need. Zanetti is the only person on our team who can really string together passes, it is Scudetto suicide to sell him.

I'd much rather sell Poulsen over Zanetti, Nnahoj. I'm indifferent on selling Poulsen, he never really got a fair shake at the club but if we can get a decent deal, yeah, do it.

I can also see the reasoning on selling Zanetti however I think we are going to find it hard to win the scudetto if we don't have him, but, if he wants to leave then he should go. I also think we should give Melo a chance, he is not D'Agostino but oh well, we will see how he does after a few more matches with us. Last I am wondering what you think about Giovinco, I still think he is too "light" to play in Serie A, he gets pushed around easily and hasn't really impressed me. I didn't see the game against Villarreal but against Aston Villa he showed some good moves but nothing that can hurt the opposition, let me know what you think of him!. Thanks

"Sell Zanetti and Mellberg while keeping crap like Poulsen and Zebina on the books?"

I thought you wanted to keep Poulsen, Ale?

Maybe because Poulsen is so adamant on staying, and we needed to sell, then's that why someone had to take the fall. And at 32, with injury concerns and only one more year on his contract, selling him at this point isn't a terrible move. I didn't want him to go, but I could understand the logic.

P.S. Can we lay off Melo for now? The guy started training after most of the squad and is still not fit. Jeez, let's give him at least a month into the season before we start calling him useless!

If we need 2mil, tell Del Piero to take a serious penalty.

I don't think it has anything to do with the Azzurri, Jorid, when he was one of the best midfielders 07-08, he said his experience with the Azzurri was over and wasn't interested in going to the Euros.

I have no idea what point Secco sees in trimming the squad of the better players.

If this does come to fruition this is another fucking boneheaded move. Sell Zanetti and Mellberg while keeping crap like Poulsen and Zebina on the books? Come on, god.

so we are keeping Poulsen, Tiago and we are selling Zanetti for 2M

Ale and Holymann, unfortunately it's not and Cristiano Zanetti is going to sign tomorrow for La Fiorenzuola. I'm sure he would much rather play for Juve than for Fiore, however I think he knows that playtime is far from secure at Juve and he wants to play regularly and try to sneak in Lippi's '10 WC squad? Secco your a retard.

@ JC "just curious, did martin caceres play well?"

In the 45 minutes that Caceres played, I am convinced he should be our starting RB.

I believe (and hope) that Zanetti-to-Fiorentina story is 100% bullshit. When healthy, he is our 2nd best midfielder after Camoranesi.

I wouldnt worry bout that too much Jorid.....just cause Fiorentina are interested that doesnt mean he's getting sold, and i highly doubt that he wants to leave either

fuck...i can't believe we might sell Zanetti :@ the guy us so underrated and he can really control the tempo of a match

Melo proved again why he is an overrated player.How did Vilareal kept finding space between him and the defense?He is so slow too,Zanetti deserves to be in his place but just because he cost us 25 mil then he is starting :@

R.I.P Daniel Jarque, very sad. Just as we all started to think that Secco was learning a BIT, he confirms his idiocy with this:

http://www.calciomercato.com/i...

Poulsen and the "rejuvenated player in the 3-man mid" put together are not as good as a healthy Zanetti on a good day. Frustrating.

just curious, did martin caceres play well?

Yeah its not right a 26 ear old FOOTBALL player dying of heart problems. May he rest in peace :(

its just sad to hear about athletes passing away from heart problems....

yeah, RIP to Jarque
my prayer to his family
really sad news

Has anyone heard the news on Daniel Jarque, very very sad.

for me the manner of the defeat was more worrisome than the defeat itself. diego's form and fitness will be absolutely crucial to our fortunes, without him we r a less daunting prospect.