A few weeks ago, when it became official, we said our goodbyes to Trezegol, one of the best strikers to ever play football. Today, he said farewell to us.

“I will always be a Juventus fan,” Trezeguet told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Actually, the day in which Juve win the Scudetto, I will go to Turin and ask the Agnellis to create a shirt with the third star. And I will be the first to wear it. The two titles they took away from us were a sensational injustice. I think that. Those who love Juve think that. But I am convinced that some of the Inter players who I have spoken to also think that. Go and look back at the footage of those seasons. Go and look back at our goals. There weren’t any tricks. The only trick is that we were the strongest.

“The most beautiful victory in my 10 years in bianconero was the promotion from Serie B to Serie A. A fantastic life experience. The fans considered us heroes, because we chose to stay. [Sorta, but we'll give you a pass on this one!] We felt love, encouragement. And around us, we saw the kids who now are great players. I think of Chiellini, and of Marchisio. If someone thought they could kill Juventus by throwing us into Serie B, then they are completely wrong. That experience has only made the Juventus world bigger.

“The latest Juve starts again from zero. It’s a courageous decision. But you need courage to tell the Juventus fans that it will take a little time to get back to being the team to beat. As a friend of Juventus, I think that it would be wonderful to get back in the Champions League and focus on the Europa League this season. It would be a season worth 10 out of 10. The Scudetto is down to Inter and Milan. But let’s get back to my Juve. It’s wonderful to see Andrea Agnelli as President. I grew up under the legend of the Avvocato. When he came to the pitch we were all in awe. It was as if he had won 10 World Cups, 10 Champions Leagues and 10 Scudetti. Andrea must recreate the same magic with the youngsters.”

One word for him: Legend.

Look how his teammates celebrated that goal, Melo jumping up and down, Chiellini, Buffon, and Legro running up from defense…his teammates loved Trezeguet. Just as we do. All the best, Trez. See you at the stadio soon.

Credit to Johonna at the Inter Offside for the link

In addition to being a cheaper (in more than just salary) and far younger team, this team has gotten significantly taller in the mercato. Most of the like-for-like substitutions have been a direct upgrade- Giovinco for Martinez, Camoranesi for Krasic, Diego for Quagliarella, Cannavaro for Bonucci, etc. In fact, of our signings, only 3 are shorter than 6 feet (about 1.85m) and they are all only an inch or two off. From the post on Delneri’s vision for Juventus:

There are two things that a tactical 4-4-2 side can do, and certainly did under Ranieri and Capello, that Delneri will aim for [...] The second is a strength at scoring, and defending against set pieces. During Capello and Ranieri’s era, the tactical discipline meant we took advantage of many set pieces, at the same time it is hard to think of many we conceded

I’m a bit surprised to see Inter so low, but they have definitely shifted their game since the Mancini days. In 06-08, they were the tallest team in the league and exploited that well, scoring plenty up top. They were tall enough that they played a strange zone defense on defending set pieces. I don’t think it’s a coincidence Marotta signed a tall team. It might end up ugly, but after last year, I’ll take anything that gets us a W on the ‘ole chalkboard!

The fact that Amauri is making that much (as 2nd highest earner in the team) is absolutely ghastly, and Secco should be hung upside down and shot in the center of Turin. Players salary that surprised me the most was Krasic- I guess he really did want to play for Juventus.

CalcioMercato added up the numbers of last years salary list, and it turns out by offloading deadweight, Marotta saved 25mil off the wage bill in one summer. Not bad. Coulda added about 10mil to that number if he had sold Amauri, though…

I am delighted to announce the creation of the Juventus Offside podcast, possibly the first podcast in the English-language to focus on Juventus, and one of the few discussing Serie A in general. I’m joined by Serie A veterans Adam Digby and Marco Pantanella. In this first episode, we discuss the mercato, the defeat to Bari, and the Vinovo/injury situation. We’ll be generally making them Sunday afternoons/evenings after the game, to recap and discuss the week ahead. At some point, we’ll be getting it on iTunes but for now I’ll be posting episodes on here and over at our (perhaps temporary) free hosting site, and their RSS feed is located here.

(Download/listen here on ZShare)
(Download on MediaFire)

Criticism is always welcome, whether here in the comments section or you can email us at juveshow [at] gmail (dot) com. We’re looking for feedback, thoughts, suggestions, anything, including a new name for the podcast. We’ll be putting it as a separate podcast, whoever suggests the winning idea will get a free plug from us and a big thank you. We’ll also be soliciting questions and thoughts for debate (again, email us at juveshow [at] gmail (dot) com), and in the future, may feature some additional hosts/guests via Skype call-in.

Hope you all enjoy it, and let us know what’s on your mind.

Since the next couple of days will be kind of slow around the club news circuit, I feel like nows a good time to talk about some of the thoughts that I’ve amassed recently about our beloved club. It’ll just be a quick little chat between friends to help this Juventus fan sleep at night. Most of all, I encourage your feedback as my girlfriend often says that sharing your feelings with others is somewhat therapeutic.

Juventus, I fucking hate your guts sometimes. Everyone do yourself a favour between now and the last game of the season. Do not search for Juventus videos on Youtube and surf through twenty pages of content on La Grande Storia della Juventus, or La Vecchia Signora, because that will only make you infuriated with what’s happening to our team. Gone are the iconic members of football’s high society, as they’re replaced with mediocrity; players, coaches, and management alike.

The reality, one that I’m sure many of you are aware, is that we’re more than just a few pieces of the puzzle away from the glory days. We’re about 8-9 men short by my calculations which is mind-boggling considering the shit-load of resources we’ve spent over the last four years. We need to focus on building the team’s spine once again, and Chiellini can be the rock we can build our revival on.

‘And I say to thee. Thou art Giorgio, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ Matthew 16:18, sort of.

Marotta, for my money, was going good until the Diego deal. From now on, he’s got an uphill battle to win back my good graces after the costly Fabio loan, and the move for the Serie A unproven Armand Traore. However, he did manage to secure a capable partner for Chiellini in Bonucci, as well as a potential homerun for our midfield in Aquilani. Now if the Aquaman gamble pays-off, we’ll have finally made a solid start in our re-construction.

From top to bottom, the Serie A is the world’s most competitive football league, and for that I am truly proud to be a fan of Italian calcio today. But the taste in my mouth left after Calciopoli has yet to be purified, and thus, my overwhelming sense of anger looms. It’s agonizing at times being a Bianconeri fan because that bar was set so high decades ago. Not to mention just how tough it is to play for Juventus today as the jersey can weigh so much.

The truth is though; I will stand by my club even when it seems that there is no hope in sight because I’m sure that when we taste that success again, it’ll taste that much sweeter. I guess that’s the difference between a fan and a supporter.

IERI… OGGI… DOMANI… SEMPRE JUVE!!!

And how the hell do I stay?

Italy and Juve’s history and futures are inextricably linked, it seems. When Juventus wins, Italy wins. When Juventus concede record amount of goals and lose every game, so does Italy. Evidently, Pepe’s strange inclusion into the Nazionale, under 2 coaches now, meant he had to come to Juventus. And now, both Juventus and Italy are stuck with him playing just terrible, as he did today against Estonia, of all teams.

My conclusion on Pepe is this- Italy is so desperate for a naturally wide player, that he has gone from Palermo bench player to Juventus and Italy regular. Apparently no coach has ever tried to convert him into a fullback (as many young wingers in Italy are) and thus, he is the only “mature-age” winger we have. Seems Italy and Juve may have been a bit hasty in getting rid of a creative winger this summer…

Twenty-one years ago today, Italy and Juventus’ talismanic defender, Gaetano Scirea, was killed in a road accident while on a scouting mission for the club in Poland. To this day, Scirea is one of only five players in European football history who have won every international trophy possible in club football, and one of only nine players who have won all three major UEFA club competitions.

On the anniversary of Scirea’s passing last year, Aaron wrote a fitting tribute that I want to share with you again today. Enjoy.

It should not be surprising that the greatest defender in the world, comes from the land of the greatest defense, Italy. And thus, the greatest defender naturally would come from the dominant team, our beloved Vecchia Signora.