The Juventus Revolution: Why the Bianconeri will take Europe by storm in 09/10
The transfer window hasn’t even started yet, and some of the most anticipated signings have already been finalised.
Kaka will be unveiled for Real Madrid next Thursday in a sensational move. Cristiano Ronaldo announced that the UCL final in Rome would be his last match for Man U, before going to Real Madrid. Bayern Munich signed Mario Gomez from Stuttgart. Genoa shocked most Inter fans when they managed to sign Quaresma on a dual ownership deal from Inter.
But one club has, more than any other, made the richest of billionaires count their bills and the most talented of footballers practice even more, raising the eyes of many the onlooker: Juventus.
In little over a month, the Old Lady re-signed ex-defender Fabio Cannavaro from Real Madrid on a free, and finalized the long-awaited signing of Diego from Werder Bremen for an estimated £21 million.
But it’s not over yet.
Shortly after sacking underperforming coach Claudio Ranieri, the team, under the guidance of caretaker manager Ciro Ferrara, thrashed Siena 3-0 away from home. And, with more money in Juve President Cobolli Gigli’s pockets yet to be spent, Juventus look set to rise from the ashes of the not so far away Calciopoli, and once again become one of the strongest teams in Europe, and the world. Except this time, there will be no bribing involved.
This is not to say that it will be easy: of course it won’t. A new Galacticos, masterminded by Florentino Perez and Manuel Pellegrini and spearheaded by Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, will definitely not be easy to overcome. A narrowly defeated Bayern Munich, with the likes of Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose, and Franck Ribery, and managed by Louis van Gaal, will not be easy.
A rejuvenated Chelsea, under the helm of Carlo Ancelotti and overhauled by Abramovich’s millions, will not be easy. A new, all-conquering Inter chock-full of talented Portuguese recruits and headed by their compatriot, Jose Mourinho, will not be easy. A Kaka-less, but nonetheless menacing, Milan coached by van Basten will not be easy. Arsenal are very, very dangerous with Arshavin; Liverpool have shown what they are capable of; and Barcelona are Barcelona.
Manchester United will find it hard to replace Cristiano Ronaldo, and may well find themselves in the same position of AC Milan. Along with a plethora of more talented teams, among these Wolfsburg, Bordeaux, and AZ Alkmaar, the new, and improved Juve will rise.
Now to the transfer targets. There are always the usual suspects: Diego Lugano, some Valencia player, etc. But there are some tantalizing prospects. Stuttgart’s Serdar Tasci has already penned a deal with Juventus, but will be arriving at the end of the 2009/10 season, and will therefore only play in 2010/11.
Napoli’s Marek Hamsik, eager to escape the clutches of a Europe-less Neapolitan team, has a clause in his contract and may well sign for Juve; negotiations have already commenced. Napoli teammate Ezequiel Lavezzi is in a similar position. Although long-time target Quagliarella was snapped up by Napoli, Partizan’s promising left back Ivan Obradovic has been strongly linked to the Turin club.
Lilian Thuram, perhaps influenced by Fabio Cannavaro, has also hinted he might be considering going out of retirement to rejoin Juve and reunite with the Old Guard: Buffon, Cannavaro, Camoranesi, Del Piero, Trezeguet, and Nedved. Goran Pandev is also a target, but Lazio want big money and Milan are also reportedly in the chase. And of course there is the manager: Antonio Conte, ex-Juve player and director, currently manager of promoted Serie B side Bari, has agreed to become manager. Conte could well be Juve’s Guardiola, as he guided an underachieving Bari team to historic promotion.
An already strong Juve team will be joined by several world-class players, and Europe is trembling, a prelude to the white-and-black-striped earthquake that is about to come. As the famed rapper Kanye West once said, Juventus will come back harder, better, faster, stronger.
Football News 24/7
This is the most well-written article about football I have read in a long, long time. Having said that though, I don’t think Juve will be world beaters. They may win Serie A, but at the very top many things come down to luck (i.e. Iniesta’s injury-time goal at Stamford Bridge). Wolfsburg, Bordeaux, and even possibly AZ could all put a dent in things for the CL knockout stage regulars, albeit with a bit of luck. Whilst Juventus will be much stronger next year, I don’t see them exceding the level of play displayed this season by Barcelona.
May 29th, 2009 @ 10:15I am intrigued to find out your sources of Ronaldo saying the game in Rome will be his last! And the Kaka story??
Are your aiming for a career as a tabloid journalism per chance?? I would think so on the evidence of taking pure speculation and rumour as fact!
May 29th, 2009 @ 11:11@Justin, thanks for the praise, I appreciate it. I know that it will be very, very hard, but I have faith in my team.
@EdManet, I found most of my info on http://www.calciomercato.com, who themselves gather information from several sources; newspapers, blogs, tabloids, and teams. The one about Kaka was also on Spoiler.net, I have read about the Cristiano Ronaldo news in several blogs and newspapers. And no, I do not plan on a career in tabloid journalism. I will be starting high school next year, and I actually plan to become a journalist, regardless of which topic.
May 29th, 2009 @ 13:17Forza Juve!
May 29th, 2009 @ 13:23I would love to know your sources about Kaka and Ronaldo. This is just temporarily more transfer sensationalism.
May 29th, 2009 @ 13:52I would still argue that your sources are not completely water tight. You pick up any newspaper, read any internet blog you will get very little in the form of fact. Christiano Ronaldo has infact been quoted as saying:
May 29th, 2009 @ 14:40“My future now is the national squad, so that we can win, so that we can be in a good position in our qualifying group. About clubs, I do not want to talk about that, I want to rest, go on holiday, I am very tired”.
Kaka, has said all along that his next preferred move would be to England with either Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea IF Ancelotti is confirmed as manager. And given that Kaka has just been announced as the new AC Milan club captain, it appears even less likely!!
I will also question the rumours of Van Basten taking over AC Milan given his failures at Ajax this season I cannot see him being trusted with making AC Milan Serie A & European contenders.
I think it will be a couple of years until Italian clubs are serious contenders in Europe given that most of Italy’s top clubs’ squads are made up of aging players. I would be so bold as to suggest that next years European competitions will be dominated by English and Spanish clubs once again.
In terms of transfers, I forsee the blockbuster of the summer involving Ribery, but until I see any news on a RELIABLE news source (BBC, Sky, Yahoo, Reuters) I will be inclined to
@GT, most of the transfer news you pointed to are still rumors. Quagliarella is still with Udinese. Ronaldo and Kaka still haven’t signed anything, and are still avoiding answering those questions. Quaresma is being followed by Genoa, but still hasn’t signed. Tasci’s agent has denied any link to Juventus. Ancelotti’s transfer to Chelsea is still in the works, and the current number 1 contender for the AC Milan hotseat is Brazil’s Leonardo (if Ancelotti leaves). Thuram retired due to a heart condition, and so it’s practically impossible for him to come back to football. Finally, Conte still hasn’t signed anything with Juve. As it stands right now, The Juve manager position will be open starting with the end of the current season.
I see that you would like to be a reporter. It’s important that you separate your facts from your rumors. And keep in mind that half of the transfer news is just speculation.
May 29th, 2009 @ 14:48“Kaka will be unveiled for Real Madrid next Thursday in a sensational move. Cristiano Ronaldo announced that the UCL final in Rome would be his last match for Man U, before going to Real Madrid,” got any proof of this? Nope. Thought not. You are full of shit in that sense. However I hope that Juve can win the scudetto next season and do better in the champions league.
May 29th, 2009 @ 15:53GT, I hate to do this, since I agree that your article is well written. However, there is a difference between news and rumors. I read the articles in question from The Spoiler that you cite as your sources for claiming that “Kaka will be unveiled for Real Madrid next Thursday in a sensational move. Cristiano Ronaldo announced that the UCL final in Rome would be his last match for Man U, before going to Real Madrid.” You are completely misquoting and misusing these sources and passing off unsubstantiated rumors as verified news stories.
The Kaka story on the The Spoiler merely states that the “Spanish football radio show El Larguero (”The Crossbar”) have claimed that Kaka will be unveiled at the Bernebeu next Thursday, with Los Blancos paying AC Milan €65m for the privilege.” You overstate the veracity of this rumor by saying that it’s a done deal when it isn’t. Sure, it could turn out that a deal is already done and Kaka will be unveiled next Thursday, but you need more proof besides a radio show saying it’s going to happen. Especially for something as volatile as the transfer market. Look at it this way, when Man City were after Kaka, there were all kinds of rumors floating around about how the deal was finalized. Look what happened there.
As for Ronaldo, I have no idea how you extrapolated “Ronaldo has announced that the UCL final in Rome would be his last match for Man U…” from any of the available sources. In fact, he specifically declined to comment on his status, saying that he was going to focus on playing for Portugal in the summer. You could say something like “Ronaldo pointedly declined to pledge his allegiance to Manchester United” or “Ronaldo refused to rule out a transfer to Real Madrid in the summertime,” both of which would be accurate. But to say that he came out and announced that he was done with Man Utd when he did nothing of the sort is wildly inaccurate.
May 29th, 2009 @ 18:08It’s a shame that when Ronaldo says he’s at United next season or when Kaka says that he wont leave Milan, no one takes notice. But the moment someone else makes up a story, everyone jumps on it.
May 29th, 2009 @ 19:59See, what happen now Juventus are under Ciro Ferrara as the new manager, and the rumours so far are Juventus will sign F.Melo & Andre Santos. But, I hope they will sign also Santacroce, Eboue(free agent), and G.Rossi (if Trezeguet leaves) and also take back Mario Kirev (on load to Grasshopper). Don’t forget, so far Juventus already sold Mellberg (to Panathinaikos) and Marchionni (to Fiorentina), and need to off-load Poulsen, Almiron, Knezevic, Chimenti, Grygera, and Molinaro immidiately.
July 7th, 2009 @ 05:42