Stop Press: At Least One Serie A Player NOT Going to Man City
By: Martha | August 7th, 2007
In what is among the most shocking stories of the past two weeks, it’s being reported that Juve’s Giorgio Chiellini will not be moving to Manchester City the summer. I know the temptation is to assume this is a desperate lie cooked up by the FIGC to fight the impression that all of Serie A has been caught in Thaksin Shinawatra’s tractor beam of cash, but it actually seems to be true: Despite the major problems Chiellini got himself into with the gaffer earlier this summer, Claudio Ranieri says the defender is staying, and insists he knew it would turn out this way all along. Or, as only the Tinkerman could put it, “I would have been surprised had Chiellini decided to leave, but I am not surprised that he will stay.” Wax on, wax off.
In addition to apparently failing to land Chiellini, it looks as if things also might have just fallen apart in the Mark Bresciano deal, this despite the fact that the Australian press reported last night that it had been finalized. The deal was to be a four-year one worth about €45,000/week to the Australian, and would have brought Palermo about £5.4 million in transfer fees, but it seems to have collapsed due to Man City’s gradual payment plan.
Man, I be Bresciano wishes he’d have know that before he started telling the press that Serie A was just too easy for him. Ok, he didn’t use exactly those words, but his implication was clear: “I want this move to freshen me up a bit — I need a new challenge. I was beginning to lose a little bit of my edge in Italy. It was time for a change.” Ooops. And you could totally tell the league was beneath him by all those Man of the Match awards he was winning, and the way he helped stabilize the team when they were melting down last winter. Oh, wait. Yeah, I bet he’ll have no problems at all smoothing this one over.
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Comments
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Man City are now unable to offer 5.4M£ up front? Hahaha, I guess Sinawatra had to reserve some money to stave off those corruption charges in Thailand and buy off the PL suits so they won’t re-investigate his suitability for club ownership.
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Netherlands
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Yeah, and they’ve suddenly put three players up for sale, too — maybe the last truck full of money bags didn’t make it to Mancester after all.
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United States -
Bresciano has always struck me as thinking he iis much better than he actually is. I hope he’s forced to ride the pine for Palermo most of the year. See if he can conquer sitting on the bench and trying not to bitch about it since Serie A is so easy for him.
Btw, you got your wish on someone to be the subject of my rants this season. The signing of this Szetela kid has me STEAMING.
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United States -
Yeah, I can see the smoke coming out of your ears all the way over here. (I was hoping the target wouldn’t be an American, though, that’s like shooting fish in a barrel.)
But please explain why you’re so pissed. Is it the principle of signing an American, or do you actually think he sucks, and will never be useful to loan out and eventually sell for profit?
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Basically, he sucks comparatively. I’m currently ranting for tomorrow’s post where I’ll explain my beef.
But quite simply, it’s embarrassing for a team of Roma’s stature to be signing players like him when you look at the other teams after him. This has taken the club a step back in a lot of people’s eyes. Many of the message boards are glad to see an American play but otherwise say this is a dark day as a Roma fan if he ever sees even a minute of time in the Roma kit. He’s simply not nearly good enough.
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Szetela to Serie A? Roma? Did I miss something?
While I’m not sure how he fits in with the club, I think this is pretty cool. Serie A could use a few ‘Yanks’. chris, I think you’ll just have to get over it this time, since you’ve already has enough personal vendettas as it is…
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It’s all over the US soccer blogs today, RT — here’s one of the reports; I think Ives Galarcep broke it this morning.
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He doesn’t fit in, he’ll just be loaned out immediately and probably never see a minute in the shirt.
And Serie A couldn’t use a few Yanks. EPL and the Bundesliga could. The physical nature would suit them much better. They aren’t going to adapt adequately to the technicality and ability of Serie A or La Liga.
And pretty much the only personal vendetta I have is with Inter. The rest I just hit out at for fun.
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Oh, and Lazio. Can’t forget them.
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Ahhhh Mark Bresciano. To think i got so upset yesterday about all this rubbish. Now i wish that it had of gone through, if only so i could laugh at him and his shit team.
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Chris, if you’re not careful, you’re going to hate as many teams as I support.
And I hear you, Kayannie. At this point he’s just looking like an ass, isn’t he? I bet training today was a million laughs. (Boy do I wish Corini was still there.)
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Chris – Did you watch the u-20 WC?
I’ll agree that maybe this won’t work out in terms of Szetela getting minutes as a first team player at Roma, especially considering the strength of their midfield, which is formidable.
But, considering that they signed him on a free transfer, if Roma thinks he had a chance to develop, and HE WAS FREE, why the hell not? And would you feel better about his footballing prospects considering that both of his parents are Polish immigrants to the USA? Would you be so salty if he played for Poland and not the USA in the recent U-20 WC?
I say give the kid a chance and if he develops well enough to become a squad player or they can sell him along to a smaller Serie A club in 2 years for 2 or 3 million Euros, it is a good bit of business for the club. I understand wanting Roma to focus on signing big name players that befit their status as one of the top clubs in Italy, but you need to be smart as well, considering that Roma does not have and will not ever have as much money as Juve, Inter and Milan.
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tmc, the U-20 tournament is an invalid argument. One of the first rules in scouting (it was the second one I’ve been told after ‘trust your instincts’) is you do not base anyone on one tournament. If it follows the pattern, then fine. If not, throw it out.
Obviously signing someone on a free is fine with me, but at the expense of whom? Maybe he’ll be loaned out immediately, but he is currently between 10-12th on the CM depth chart, including Primavera players who are much better than him already, yet 3-4 years younger (Marsili, Palermo, Corvia, etc). If he stays it’s a poor poor move to say the least. If he’s loaned out for a few years? Fine by me.
Plus, he’s played in an inferior league where the style is completely different then Serie A. At least the Swiss leagues play in a Euro style, rather than the physical rumble tumble of the EPL and MLS. And if you’d noticed, I did the same thing with Adrian Pit (so you’ll see that nationality plays no part in this), but at least he was being linked to Fiorentina and Juve – not Ascoli, ‘Boro and Siena like Szetela. It’s an embarrassment to Roma fans to be lumped in with those clubs going after a potential target. And I’m not in the minority here. In fact, the majority of Roma fans from the boards and such feel this is a dark day for the club – even if they are glad to see an American at Roma. (If it is in fact Roma and not Lazio)
And Roma will have the money of Juve, Inter, Milan, etc. eventually when the club is sold, widely thought to be within 5-10 years. It’s too much of a gold mine for a smart entrepreneur not to realize this. The reason it wasn’t sold years ago was due to debts. Now those are cleared up and it’s a viable investment.
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Well if it is going to be 5-10 years before Roma is sold and turned around it is still wise to focus on making wise business dealings. I’m in agreement that Roma should have more financial clout then they currently do and hope for all the Roma and Serie A supporters that things get moving in that direction sooner rater than later.
Like I said earlier, I’m far from convinced Szetela will ever make it at Roma. And I’m not clear why this would be so upsetting to you or other Roma fans. This is a free transfer on a guy who will be loaned out or play in the Primavera team (if he can earn a place in the Primavera team). I could see being upset if Roma announced his signing as a big deal or held him out as someone to be counted on this season.
Smaller clubs will always be linked with guys available for free transfers, since this is how they fill out their teams. Szetela and his agent were smart to sign him to a deal that would expire after he featured in the U-20 WC, thus giving him lots of options to explore in European Football (especially consider his access to a Polish passport).
I bring up the U-20 WC because I think it is a more valuable evaluator of young American talent than MLS is, for some of the reasons you alluded to. It is a physical league, and Szetela has only recently cemented a first team place in the MLS backwater that is the Columbus Crew. The U-20 WC is a more open game, and the games were closely refereed and considerably less physical than a typical MLS game (except that US-Austria game, that was quite ugly). For the US team at that tournament, Szetela was solid as a holding midfielder, a decent distributor of the ball, good in the air, and showed an ability to get forward. I thought it was enough to say that he has a chance of playing in Europe. The kid is not a goon like some MLS defensive midfielders.
Basically it is a big deal to American soccer media (limited as it is) and American soccer fans because this makes 2 young kids with Serie A clubs. This is rare and for fans of the USMNT, an opportunity to see some players develop that could help the squad advance past the current stagnation point of certain qualification for the WC out of CONCACAF and advancing past the group stage once every 3-4 World Cups if a team blatantly overlooks the US (Colombia and Portugal come to mind). That’s all.
The sky isn’t falling and this doesn’t automatically make Roma a small club (I’m exaggerating, but I think you understand).
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Yeah, I pretty much agree with tmc. Outside the US, it’s just not a big enough deal to warrant a ‘rant’. Most who follow calcio will hardly notice this signing, so there’s no way it can be anything negatively symbolic for Roma. And he is only 20, so it’s not impossible to think he might actually develop into a solid player. Nothing to lose, really.
And chris, the general differences in style with Americans and Serie A are precisely why I do want Yanks in Italy, especially younger ones like Szetela. Maybe they’ll flop, but I won’t automatically preclude them from success before they get there.
Posted from
United States
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