Andrea Pirlo, the man who looks continually stoned, talked quite a bit about the state of Italian football. In fact, his soundbite is quoted at a whopping three sentences by ESPN, who didn’t exactly paint gli azzurri in a positive light. Words like “disastrous,” embarassing,” and “must drastically improve” pop out in the 3 paragraph, 2 sentence article. But perhaps the most damning indictment of all isn’t the journalist’s words, but the Milan player’s.

“We need to start playing football,” [Pirlo]said. “We have to learn how to play with the ball on the ground and make quick exchanges of play.

“Italian football’s problem is that we all have less quality: the players, the fans and the stadiums.”

None of which is really new, but at least the players realize that something’s gotta give.

His third sentence might be the most important. The stadiums that Italy have are often downright embarrassing and look ridiculous next to the stadiums seen in the Premiere League and the Bundesliga. The track that goes around most stadiums seems antiquated now that modern stadiums have seats right up against the edge of the pitch. The former is somewhat alienating, especially given that the latter stadiums really thrust players right into the midst of the action. The fan violence is another huge issue that harms the image of calcio maybe even more than calciopoli. And he does have a point that Italian players are not in abundance as they once were, especially fullbacks, although the youth sector is churning out some quality players.

As bad as the infrastructure may be, that’s a problem that has no quick solution. Being awarded the European Championship in 2016 would have helped, but until money gets pumped into the game, that’s going to be a problem for a while. The easier fix would be the way the team plays, as Pirlo points out early in his quote. The modern game is based around give-and-gos, one-twos that slice open slow and old defenses (Just ask the once infallible Cannavaro). For gli azzurri to be successful, one of two things must happen. One is adopt this style of play, which could take years and incredibly anger calcio purists. The second would be to adapt against it, to reinstate the traditional brick wall defenses of Italia past that prevent such play from being effective. Then, perhaps, the traditional Italian way of playing could still work in the modern age.

But either way, something has to change. Prandelli does seem to recognize this, as his Azzurri is rather more attacking that azzurris of past. The first step towards fixing a problem, at the least, is recognizing it, and it’s reassuring that Pirlo is in no delusions as to the state of the game.

Now it’s up to players like him to change it.

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As a side, I’ve finally figured out how to approve comments with links in them. So it may take a bit for me to approve them, as the system is set up in such a way that I really do have to approve each one individually, but feel free to post links.

Molinaro: ‘No thanks to Juve!’

“How in earth did I get a call-up for Italy?”

Christian Molinaro bitterly criticised Juventus for holding back his progress after receiving his Italy call-up under Cesare Prandelli.
The former Bianconeri full-back is now one of the key figures in Stuttgart and is among the new faces for the August 10 friendly against the Ivory Coast. “This call is a wonderful surprise. Did I expect it? I only ever focused on working hard,” he told Sky Italia television. “I always said that the only way to earn an international cap was to do well on the field. “I was not given the opportunity to do that in Italy. I am happy that I went to Germany, as I rediscovered my form here.”

Molinaro was forced to leave Turin in January after he was dropped by Ciro Ferrara and demanded first team football elsewhere. “I’ll be honest here, I never protest at the decisions of a Coach. Even last season, when after two years as a first-team player I ended up on the bench. It is right for a tactician to make his own choices. “The last two months of 2009 were not great. The time had come for a new experience. Germany was crucial for me to prove what I had done in my years at Juventus was not entirely worthless.”

Woooooooooooow. Here’s my response.

The Juventus Offside bitterly criticised Molinaro for being an ungrateful little bitch, in wake of Cesare Prandelli officially losing his mind and calling up the very one-dimensional left-back. The former Bianconeri full-back is now one of the key figures in Stuttgart and is among the new faces for the August 10 friendly against the Ivory Coast. The Juventus Offside commented- “This call-up is absolutely absurd. Did we expect it? Certainly not. One might as well hand Sissoko the Ballon d’Or. We’ve always said that Cristian Molinaro is a pretty awful left-back. Defensively, he is relatively assured but contributes less than Gianluigi Buffon to attack. We’re glad that Stuttgart took him on loan, and even happier that they signed him in full.”

Molinaro was forced to leave Turin in January after he was dropped by Ciro Ferrara and demanded first team football elsewhere. “When we signed Grosso, it was clear that Molinaro was no longer first choice, indeed, Ciro Ferrara fielded De Ceglie ahead of CR28. In his first season at Juventus, he was a disaster. In his second, he improved, but it all regressed when benched. He was an absolute catastrophe in a few of games he actually played, like when he lost his man in stoppage time against Bologna, who scored to make it 1-1. Molinaro didn’t deserve all the playing time he got, and at age 27 can no longer be considered a “young” player. Ranieri foolishly gave him 80 games to prove himself, he failed, and now we cannot understand why he is annoyed.”

More ridiculous, the fact that Molinaro got called up? Or that he’s bitching about Juve’s role in all this?

In other news, Giovinco’s agent has said he has no beef with Juve and that “he will play a lot at Parma, and then return to Juventus.”

Looks like RAI designated today as the day they would be announcing changes in their broadcasting. First the announcement of no moviola, and now the change of commentator for Italian national team games. The national team has always had iconic commentators, like Nando Martinelli and Bruno Pizzul. For the past 6 years, the voice of the Nazionale for RAI has been Marco Civoli, who took charge in 2004 from Gianni Cerqueti. Civoli and analyst Sandro Mazzola commented Lippi’s first cycle and famously the victorious final on RAI, where Civoli exalted “Il cielo e Azzurro sopra Berlino!” (The sky is Azzurro over Berlin!). After then being Italy’s announcer for both the Donadoni years and then Lippi’s failed return (with Salvatore Bagni as the analyst), Civoli has stepped aside.

And so the new voice of the Azzurri for the next 2 years at least will be Bruno Gentili (pictured). Gentili has been a radio announcer since 1978, and has announced many Serie A games and even national team games on the radio. In 2007, Gentili called his last radio game and left the radio scene to join Raisport as the vice-director of sport. And now, with Civoli stepping aside, RAI has announced that from August 11th Bruno Gentili will officially be the voice of the national team. The only thing that hasn’t been made clear is whether the August 10th friendly will be his first game or since it says August 11th then Civoli will call his farewell game August 10th and then hand it over to Gentili for the qualifiers. We’ll see. In a new era for the national team, there is now also a new official commentator.

For those unfamiliar with Gentili, here is what he sounds like:

Italy Offside Twitter
Italy Offside Facebook Page

The Mario Balotelli-Manchester City transfer saga is really dragging on a bit now. It’s been rumored for days, if not weeks, that Balotelli is going to re-join his old coach Mancini, and some reports are claiming that he’s already signed for them (His agent denies this, though). All things considered, going to Man City could be a great move for Balotelli, given that he actually starts in the first XI and plays regularly.

Gli Azzurri could hugely benefit from a regularly playing Balotelli. We all know that the boy has two things in spades: talent and an attitude problem. Yet we’ve only seen both occasionally because he so rarely starts for Inter. On Man City, everyone would be able to find out just how consistent he is, and find out if he’s a tremendous striker or more of a super sub. Prandelli’s new meritocracy requires in form players who are actually playing, so this would only help his chances at the Azzurri. His disciplinary issues would also be more transparent; if he makes it through an entire Prem season without a red card, then surely his issues are a thing of the past. Playing in the physical Prem would toughen him up and give us another weapon up front.

Of course, this all assumes that Mancini plans to actually start him; admittedly, this argument inherently implies that Mancini will play him more than Benitez will, which is almost impossible to prove. But it does seem somewhat likely. Man City do have a lot of striking options, but I doubt Mancini would go after a former player with this much verve if he only wanted to let him sit on the bench. Besides, Bellamy doesn’t have the best of relationships with him, Santa Cruz is oft injured and looks to be on his way out, and Adebayor is inconsistent. Mancini plays a 4-3-3 at City, so Balotelli could be flanked by the likes of Tevez while Toure and De Jong shore up the midfield. It’s quite a stacked team, and should he be able to shine there, there’s really no reason why he shouldn’t be called up for us.

It could also be a good move for Inter. No one wants young Italians to leave the peninsula, but if it aids in their progress than maybe it’s for the best. Besides, with a front-line that includes Milito, Eto’, Sneijder, and Pandev, all of whom started regularly last year, it’s hard to see where Balotelli would fit in. Perhaps Benitez plans to use him more than Mourinho did, but if that’s the case, why is this transfer saga still going on? Inter could earn a ton of money from this, and Balotelli would grow as a player. It seems like a win-win.

Balotelli could become the next Zola in the Prem- but only if he has the trust of his coach and regular playing time. It’s impossible to tell how Balotelli would do at Man City given that he’s not even a Citizen (yet, if ever), but it might just work.

On behalf of the Italy Offside, I’d like to congratulate Ronaldinho on his pregnancy. He looks about 4 months in. Can’t wait to see him walking around the pitches of Serie A come August. Also, I’m extremely happy that the World Cup is over. Why? Because now we can completely focus on Serie A again! I’m in full Serie A mode now and can’t wait for this upcoming season to get started.

Various Serie A news from the day:

- Happy Birthday Antonio Cassano! Fantantonio turns 28 today. It sucks that he wasted 3 years of his career and is now 28 years old and has won nothing. (OK so technically he did win the 2006-2007 La Liga title) Speaking of Cassano, funny new commercial with his fat alter ego.

-Inter’s pre-season ritiro started today and Rafa Benitez had a press conference. He talked about Inter’s objectives for the coming season, the lack of air conditioning in the press conference room, and how he forgot how to drive on the right side of the road. He also said he learned Italian when he played for Real Madrid’s youth team in the Viareggio tournament many years ago.

-Benitez said he wants to get to know Mario Balotelli and see him in training before deciding whether he needs to be sold or not. Click here for pictures of Balotelli’s vacation.

-Last thing about Inter, we don’t really know the futures of Beppe Baresi and Lele Oriali. Baresi was Mourinho’s assistant the past two seasons, but with Benitez bringing along Mauricio Pellegrino to be his assistant, Baresi’s future is unknown. Apparently Marco Branca and Massimo Moratti have conflicting ideas. When Branca was asked about Baresi he said “he will coach one of the youth teams” and when Moratti was asked about Baresi he said “Baresi will remain the assistant”. Oriali on the other hand doesn’t want to be the intermediary between the team and the front office so he will most likely close his rapport with his former club. Rumors are he may join the Manchester City staff with old friend Roberto Mancini.

-Parma showed up to pre-season ritiro today with 32 players. They better be careful that’s almost as many as Lazio! Sporting director Pietro Leonardi has some work to do and sell some players. 32 players is way too much for a club only playing in one competition next season (two if you count the Coppa Italia).

-Looks like Cagliari owner Massimo Cellino was watching Uruguay’s games during the World Cup. He’s interested in signing Penarol midfielder Egidio Arevalo, who had a good tournament.

-Lecce operated a trade today, getting 22 year old fullback Davide Brivio from Vicenza and sending French striker Alain Baclet in the other direction. Brivio is an Italy U-21 international.

-Genoa and Lazio are still fighting it out for Ghana and Portsmouth midfielder Kevin Prince-Boateng. Genoa is said to be the closer of the two clubs, as they have come to terms with the player but not with Portsmouth. On the other hand Lazio have come to terms with Portsmouth but not with the player.

-Lazio renewed Christian Brocchi’s contract today until 2012. The former Milan midfielder has been a stalwart in Lazio’s midfield since his arrival and got a much earned renewal.

-And one last Lazio note. Apparently midfielder Christian Manfredini got on the bus today to go to pre-season training and was told to get off! Manfredini obliged and it looks like he will be sold somewhere in the coming days. Isn’t that such a nice way to tell a player he doesn’t have a future at the club?

-A few days ago Fiorentina sporting director Pantaleo Corvino said he has signed a player with a last name ending in the letter C. That player is Celtic and Poland goalkeeper Artur Boruc, who didn’t leave with Celtic on their summer tour and was made an official Fiorentina player today (pending a medical). Boruc is said to have signed for close to 3 million euro and this raises the question whether they will be keeping Sebastien Frey or selling him to make some extra cash.

-New Chievo boss Stefano Pioli held a press conference today and said Chievo’s objective next season will be to play “beautiful calcio”. Let’s hope he’s telling the truth, because Chievo haven’t even been remotely interesting to watch since their first miracle season with Delneri back in 2001/2002.

-Palermo, after signing Polish international defender Kamil Glik, have signed another defender, Milan youth product Matteo Darmian. They have acquired him in a co-ownership deal and Darmian, last season at Padova on loan, will get his first taste of Serie A. This deal was made official today but was kind of official yesterday when Palermo listed him as one of the players departing for Palermo’s pre-season training camp. Oops.

-Simone Padoin, who I consider one of the most underrated players in Italy, was being followed by many clubs after Atalanta’s relegation but Padoin put a stop to those rumors today saying he is loyal to Bergamo and will stay with the Orobici to help them return to Serie A immediately.

-Number of moves Napoli has made on the transfer market so far: 0.

-Sampdoria is preparing for their Champions League filled season and they have announced they will make 3 more signings: a fullback, a winger, and a backup goalkeeper.

-There were rumors that Milan wanted the services of Genoa’s Greek international defender Sokratis Papa-how ever you spell it-opoulos. Today Milan director Ariedo Braida said that was all talk and won’t happen. Basically he’s saying: STOP BOTHERING US WE HAVE NO MONEY.

-Palermo want Liverpool’s Brazilian midfielder Lucas Pezzini and admitted they have made an official offer. Too bad Pezzini won’t be on the same team as Pazzini, that would have confused so many announcers.

-Kudos to Bologna’s new president Sergio Porcedda, who is already making moves to bring in reinforcements. He said that they will a top striker before the summer ends and already has deals in place to bring in defender Andrea Esposito and goalkeeper Cristiano Lupatelli.

-Everyday Bari manager Giampiero Ventura says the same thing to the press: “I would like Andrea Ranocchia back for the coming season. I also would like Giovinco, he would explode here.” I’ve seen this reported every day for at least the past 4 days. Let’s see how long it goes.

And finally, all over you see many “World Cup best XI’s”. Well, I’ll be different and post my “World Cup Worst XI”:

Buffon (Marchetti), Zambrotta-Cannavaro-Chiellini-Criscito, De Rossi-Montolivo, Pepe-Marchisio-Iaquinta, Gilardino.

BEST XI OF FOLLOWING THE ITALY OFFSIDE EVERY DAY:
Italy Offside Twitter
Italy Offside Facebook Page

If you had read any posts I made about the national team over the past 2 years, you could tell I wasn’t the biggest fan of Lippi’s ridiculous reign of terror. So once that reign of terror finally ended, I was pretty excited for Prandelli’s first press conference today. So excited that I got up at 9 am to watch the live feed on the Gazzetta dello Sport website. First things first, Prandelli will definitely have a better relationship with the press then Lippi did. No more arrogant answers, refusing to answer questions, or just giving the same on line response to every question asked. More on the press conference after the jump.

First, FIGC president Giancarlo Abete looks like a nervous wreck. I think he’s worried about tomorrow’s FIGC federal meeting where he will be questioned about Italy’s failures during his 2 year presidency and some directors may actually ask for his resignation.

Now to Prandelli – The former Fiorentina boss was very calm and collected as always and answered every question to the best of his ability. Of course, one of the first questions asked was “CASSANO AND BALOTELLI?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!” (not exactly like that but that was the general idea) and Prandelli said he didn’t want to give out specific names at the press conference because it wouldn’t be right but he said his national team will have players of high quality and that high quality players still exist in Italy, contrary to what is being tossed around in the press. When asked about Cassano’s personality, he said he sees a matured Cassano and that now that he is married he is even more serene.

Second, he said that the national team will practice a philosophy Marcello Lippi never practiced once in two years: La Meritocrazia (Meritocracy) meaning that only those players that deserve to be on the national team will be called up, no matter if you are playing with Inter, Milan, Juve, Parma, Bari, Catania, or even Pizzighettone. Ok, maybe not Pizzighettone. Lippi used this philosophy once, and it was for that experimental friendly vs. Northern Ireland back in June of 2009.

Third, Buffon will be the new Nazionale captain as expected, and he hinted that De Rossi may be the temporary captain until he returns.

And some other notes:

-Even though its’ a 4 year contract, Prandelli stated he isn’t even thinking about the 2014 World Cup and is completely focused on the first Euro 2012 qualifiers coming up in September.

-Prandelli stated his goal is to create a team over the next 2 years that can qualify for Euro 2012 and get to the final tournament with the capacity to win it.

-When asked if he would like the national team to play a friendly match in Florence, he said it’s not up to him but it’s a great idea.

-Prandelli’s first game in charge will be a friendly on August 10th in London vs. the Ivory Coast.

-Regarding foreign born players, Prandelli said that if they have an Italian passport and are playing really well then there is no reason why they can’t be called up.

Those were pretty much the main points, everything else is nothing really notable.

I’m excited for the new Prandelli era national team, and I’m interested (as I’m sure everyone is) to see what this team looks like come August and September. Prandelli has the hard task of renewing the faith and pride in the national team of Italian fans everywhere. I’m confident he can do it.

In bocca al lupo Cesare!

‘Going to the mattresses’ is a phrase made famous by “The Godfather” films. Simply put, it means to prepare for battle. In the world of football transfers, ‘going to the envelopes’ refers to the process of a blind auction between two teams, a procedure that involves a lot of strategy and can potentially result in a huge windfall for only one side. This Friday, if Juventus and Genoa can’t come to an agreement over the value of Italy’s left-back Domenico Criscito, both clubs will take part in this unique transfer practice.

Known in Italy as “compartecipazione”, and also found in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, it is the idea of sharing a player’s registration rights with another team. The minimum time period for a co-ownership deal is two years, and in those two years, a player’s value can increase, or decrease, based on performance so there’s certainly some risk involved. Now in the event the two teams cannot come to an agreement in the renewal or finalisation of the co-ownership deal by an annual deadline, the two parties enter into a blind auction.

Here’s where the strategy comes into play. Both teams must then write down what they’re willing to pay for the second half of the player’s registration rights in an envelope, and the largest bid from either team is then allowed to purchase the player at the specified highest bid. Keep in mind that it’s an auction with no reserve. So literally, a player could be sold for peanuts. Hence, there are dozens of scenarios that can be played out here so we’ll be paying close attention to the results come Saturday or Sunday. Especially since the Azzurri have crashed out of the WC so soon. Fucking Lippi. No Cassano/Miccoli, no party.

In Juventus’ case however, Domenico Criscito’s co-ownership agreement is set to expire alongside Raffaele Palladino’s, also co-owned by Genoa, David Lanzafame’s, co-owned by Parma, Michele Paolucci’s, co-owned by Siena, Marcel Zalayeta’s, co-owned by Napoli, as well as Juventus and Inter transfer target Leonardo Bonucci’s, co-owned by Bari and Genoa. The official deadline is Friday June 25th 2010. Needless to say it’ll be interesting to see what happens here after the dust settles. Who gets who, and for how much.

IERI… OGGI… DOMANI… SEMPRE JUVE!!!