All posts by damoyal

Domenico Berardi was born on the 1rst August 1994 in the deep South of Italy, precisely at Cariati Martina, near Cosenza. He started playing, like many other Italian kids, for a team near his hometown, Castello. He didn’t really stand out and was contemplating quitting football to focus on other things.

At the age of 15 he traveled to Modena to visit his brother. After he played a bit of calcetto, one of his brothers’ friends, impressed by his skills, contacted Luciano Carlino, scout for Sassuolo, to tell him to take a look at this kid. Berardi had an audition, passed it and become a Sassuolo player, in the Allievi category.

In 2010/2011 he played 3 games with Primavera, the under 21 team. In 2011/2012 season he played 18 games and scored 6 goals with Primavera, competing with players who were 3-4 years older than him.

Meanwhile, the main Sassuolo squad, led by Fulvio Pea, makes an incredible run in the Serie B: it was composed of 8 players brought for free from teams relegated from Serie B to Serie C, yet they were able to finish 3^rd. But Sassuolo lost the playoff semi-final by the hands of Sampdoria in two matches heavily conditioned by bad refereeing. It was the first time that the team who arrived 3^rd wasn’t able to be promoted.

Sassuolo owner Giorgio Squinzi , embittered and very disappointed, meditated selling the team to get out of Calcio world. He then decided not to quit, but he didn’t invest at all: the team for 2012/2013 is basically the same, besides from the leading scorer Gianluca Sansone who leaves for Torino, and the new coach, Eusebio Di Francesco. The loss of Sansone is simply replaced by the 23-year-old Leonardo Pavoletti who was previously loaned to Juve Stabia and Virtus Lanciano and by the promotion in the first team of Domenico Berardi, 18 years old.

Pavoletti makes a sudden impact: 5 goals in 3 matches. He is a classical first striker, physical and cynical. He continued the season with a more normal pace, ending with 11 goals. But the true talent emerged early and hails from Cariati Martina.

Extremely elegant, left-footed, charismatic. He regularly plays as right winger in Di Francesco’s 4-3-3 but he was used at times as second striker or a central advanced midfielder. He impresses for his technique, his shooting abilities also from set pieces and how he glides true defenders. But, mainly, for his leadership. And he is only 18.

Every sources agree that Berardi will be bought by Juve and left a year at Sassuolo or at least co-owned. I hope that’s the case. But in my opinion Berardi would have no problem playing for Juventus or any top teams in the next season: he’s ready.

I know I will probably get some twitter mockery for saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway because I truly believe Berardi is one of a kind. At the age Berardi has now, Arjen Robben played 28 games for Groningen (6 goals, 3 assists) and was acquired by PSV Eindhoven (33 matches, 12 goals, 6 assists). Robin Van Persie collected 10 appearances for Feyenoord and 23 the next season, scoring 8 times and assisting time. Lionel Messi still wasn’t a regular starter for Barcelona: 7 games with one goal in 2004/2005, 17 with 6 goals and 4 assists in 2005/2006 and then flourished in 2005/2006 with 14 goals.

Berardi in Serie B (not quite the stage the other performed of course) scored 11 goals in 37 games and assisted 6 times. He scored a goal every 212 minutes, I think that’s not bad at all for a man who prefers creating rather than finishing. I’m really eager to see what he can do in Serie A even though we will have to wait because he is suspended for three games after a scramble with Fiorillo in the last dramatic match of the regular season when a tense Sassuolo held on to the first place to a combative Livorno who wanted to avoided playoff. (If you are worried about his discipline let me say that he had only this red all season along with 5 yellows and I think the disqualification is way too harsh)

I hope Berardi lives up to expectation but I’m certain he won’t flop. The impact will be rough of course as the defenses are more tight in Serie A (but not more physical than Serie B which is filled with butchers), Sassuolo will have to fight against relegation and will struggle to maintain his splendid playing style. But Berardi has all the required mental and technical skill to succeeded. For the sake of Sassuolo, of Juventus (?), of the Italian NT and because I really don’t want to be remembered as the man who once compared Berardi to Messi, mistakenly.

The problem of the source is massive during the transfer market: so many newspapers and sites start talking about it and it’s not easy to distinguish the most reliable ones. The main tip: if a deal seems unrealizable for tag price and wage, it doesn’t matter how many times somebody mention it, it stays unrealizable. So before starting to believe and fantasize about a rumour, consider everything on the table: the seller, the buyer, the cost, the salary.

Another important tip: nobody is 100% reliable. There are good sources, but there is not the perfect source because the transfer market, as they say, is very fluid, strategy can change quickly, a deal can be closed or blow up in a hurry and sometimes the executives mislead the journalists.

In the last three-four years I followed Juventus and Italian transfer market intensively and I have developed a bit of experiences about sources. The best in the business in Italy is Gianluca Di Marzio: the Sky Sport journalist is the first to give pieces of information, the most careful and has a lot of connections with execs.

Unfortunately, Di Marzio in the last period proved not to have great feeling with Juve’s mercato. The most reliable source for Juventus-related deals is without the shadow of a doubt Goal.com’s coloumnist Romeo Agresti: he’s very close to Juventus officials and, as he once said in a forum, he can be wrong about who arrives, but not about who doesn’t arrive. Just to give an example, he said from the beginning that Aguero would not join Juventus two years ago.

The site I visit the most is Tuttomercatoweb, owned by Michele Criscitiello (SportItalia journalist) where often also Di Marzio writes. It collects a lot of rumours from all newspapers and some exclusives. I like it because it talks a lot about the less known teams. I found it a good sources with an above average reliability. On the other hand, Criscitiello’s partner on SportItalia Alfredo Pedullà is not very reliable.

Tuttojuve.com is the great collector of Juve-related rumours. Its problem is that it shows all the rumours, including also the ones which are really bizarre. Not always the source is indicated in the title of the news so sometimes you waste your time reading a news that comes from a bad source.

The problem of newspapers is that they often think about their commercial side (they have to sell copies) rather than the precision of the information. Of course saying “Cavani alla Juve” is more impactful than “Benteke alla Juve”.

Tuttosport is sensationalistic and silly, writes names in bunches linking them to Juve just to say, when eventually one transfer indeed is completed, that they said it. Corriere dello Sport, which focus more on Roma and Lazio, do pretty much the same.

La Stampa is owned by the Agnelli family so it’s obvious it has great connection with Juventus, Max Nerozzi in particular, but they are not a sports newspaper and they don’t talk about mercato as often as the others.

Calciomercato.com, 4-4-2.com, and sportmediaset.it are dreadful sources. Caughtoffside.com is very UK-centered, Abola often proved to be not very good. Daily Mail and the Sun never looked reliable to me, same as Marca, AS and Bild but I’m not really an expert about foreign newspaper.

As told in Conte’s book “Testa, Cuore e Gambe”, c0 written with Antonio Di Rosa published by Rizzoli.

I started reading Conte’s autobiography last week, and wanted to share with you, some of the highlights from the chapters on Juve as I suspect it will never be translated into English. This is not a word for word translation of any of the passages, but rather a review of each chapter with some of my personal thoughts.

Part 1- Arriving at Juve as a player http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2358

Part 2- Lippi’s First Term at Juve http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2369

Part 3- Ancelotti and Lippi’s return http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2379

Part 4- Retiring from Juve and almost playing for Zeman http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2390

Part 5- Becoming a great coach http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2408

Part 6- Secco, Diego and Blanc http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2421

Part 7- Meeting Andrea Agnelli http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2432

Part 8- First Scudetto as Coach http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2493

The joy of winning the first scudetto as Juve coach is short lived due to the match fixing scandal. Conte handles his defense the same he handled playing and coaching, as a protagonist and with grinta. Conte reluctantly accepts a plea deal and has to watch Juve’s games away from the bench.

After winning the scudetto in Trieste, Conte realizes he desperately needs to rest to recharge his batteries. His soon to be wife Elisabetta organizes a weekend for the two of them in a fancy spa outside of Turin. Conte shuts off his cellphone and finally gets some real rest for 2 days. As he is getting ready to return to Turin on May 28th, he sees an incredible amount of text messages on his cell phone. At first he assumes these are from people contacting him to congratulate him for scudetto, but after checking one of them he realizes a long nightmare is about to begin (it would last 7 months). While Conte was at the spa, his house was searched and his Ipad, PC and older cell phone SIM cards were confiscated. He finally reaches his lawyer who informs him he has been accused of fixing two matches Novara-Siena and Albinoleffe-Siena from the 2010/11 season (interestingly Conte did not mention anything about them in the chapter about his time as Siena coach).

While Conte is devastated, he takes great comfort in fact both Marotta and Andrea Agnelli are firmly standing by him (the strong bond he has with these two men is very evident through out the book, so I doubt the fact there is a supposed strong difference of opinion on how Juve should be run between them). The name of the player who accused Conte of fixing the matches is never revealed in the chapter, but it’s obvious Conte finds the accusations absurd- especially when the player accuses Conte of telling the Siena players specifically that they were supposed to draw the match against Novara.

Conte is concerned since he has to deal with both the Italian penal system and the sporting justice, which Conte describes as very archaic and unfair. The biggest problem with the sporting justice is that the burden of proof is on the accused. Conte points out how difficult it is to prove that what someone else said about you is a lie. To add insult to injury, Conte starts reading in the Italian papers the names of his potential replacements as Juve coach (he doesn’t mention them in the book but I do remember Prandelli being one of them).

Conte decides to handle his defense, the same way he has handled coaching Juve- as a protagonist. He keeps asking his lawyers “What else can we do?” and vows to attend all the court hearings. Since the accuser claimed Conte told the Siena players they were supposed to draw the match against Novara, the defense team decides the best thing to do is to get the testimony of the other 20 players who were in the locker room that day. Most of them actually say Conte gave them an emotional speech to motivate them to win the match.

Prior to the first court hearing on July 13th, Conte goes on vacation to Ibiza and starts his second summer ritiro as Juve coach. When Conte arrives to court, he is shocked to see how antiquated the technology they use is (Conte mentions it took him forever to give his deposition). On July 26th the first sentence arrives, Conte will be charged with failing to report the match fixing rather then being part of the fraud. His lawyers tell him this is good news since it would come with a much lighter sentence, but Conte is angry as he feels he is 100% innocent.

When the trial begins on August 1st, Conte’s lawyers pressure him to take a plea bargain deal and to put his principles aside. Conte reluctantly agrees to do so, because he does realize it will be better for Juve to end the uncertainty on his status. At first it appears Conte will have a 3 month suspension with a heavy fine, but this changes later when prosecutor asks for up to 15 months (trust me Italy is a great place to visit but you do not want to be accused of a crime there).

Conte finally gets back to talking about football (I can assure you I do not enjoy reading and writing about court proceedings) when he describes going to China for the Super Cup match against Napoli. Conte goes back to court for the appeal of his sentence, and while he is acquitted of all wrong doing for the Novara-Siena game his sentence is not halved (honestly when I read these paragraphs I can see why Conte has often said he would like to coach abroad someday). Finally the TNAS (the highest court for sporting matters in Italy) cuts Conte’s sentence from 10 to 4 months, while still allowing Conte to coach the team during practices.

Conte mentions how being suspended on match day, may have been a blessing in disguise as he is even more focused during practices on making the team’s movements and schemes automatic to the players (I personally think Conte’s impact on match day from the bench has always been wildly overrated, and this is not a knock on his overall ability as a coach). Conte will end up watching 22 games from the “Sky Box” in stadiums but is beyond grateful the team makes it through the Champions League group stage so he can make his European debut as coach on Feburary 12th in Glasgow.

NEXT UP- some final reflections on Conte’s book.

  This past Thursday May 22nd was the 3 year anniversary of series finale of “Lost“- one of the few TV events that was a big deal worldwide despite not being sports related or a war. “Lost” can be summarized like Del Piero’s career at Juve- a very strong and surprising start, followed by an incredible ride only to finish with a very disappointing and puzzling ending. While “Lost” had a very strong ensemble cast with many unforgettable characters (my favorite were Sayid and Desmond), the two main protagonists were Jack Sheppard and John Locke. Jack, a doctor who became the de facto leader of the Castaways, was the typical “man of science”- someone that used logic and data to resolve the mysteries of the Island, while John Locke was the “man of faith”, someone who used intuition, gut feeling and blind faith to answer the same question. Their two approaches made me think of the countless debates I have had on Twitter on Stevan Jovetic (this is a Juve article, and I realize many of my beloved readers don’t care about “Lost” so I will save some more thoughts on the TV for the bottom of the column).

 Many seem to believe that I don’t like Jovetic, and that I would actually root against him should he join Juve just to prove that I was right about him. I can say that way more than Jovetic, what bothers me are the arguments used by his defenders. I view myself as the “man of science”, someone who uses facts and objectivity to make predictions and form my opinions (not just on Jovetic), while I feel that most of Jovetic’s defenders are “men of faith”- and that made me wonder, how much do stats really matter? I believe that while they clearly don’t give the full picture, if there is enough data to prove a point then I tend to believe the point is valid. Let’s look at some of the data on Jovetic compared to other players and the typical defense given by the “men of faith”:

•  In 5 Serie A seasons, Jovetic only played over more than 30 games once (he missed the entire 2010-11 season due to a knee surgery). Jack Shepard would say this proves he is injury prone, especially considering Jovetic missed games due to muscular injuries unrelated to the knee surgery. John Locke would point to the fact he played the most games in Italy this past season as a sign he is becoming more durable, and that Juve’s medical staff and Conte’s training methods would ensure he stays healthy (many of Jovetic’s defenders use Pirlo as an example of this). I do think this last argument has some validity since, other than a rough stretch in January, Juve players have remained healthy this season. But using Pirlo as an example is flawed- considering he had 5 seasons playing over 30 games at Milan prior to arriving to Juve, he has not been anywhere near as injury prone as Jovetic. But considering John Locke was in a wheelchair in “the real world” but could walk on the Island- it’s certainly possible Jovetic can stay healthy should he join Juve.

• Jovetic is often refereed to as a “seconda punta” by his defenders, therefore an ideal compliment to Llorente (and Higuain should he arrive) and an upgrade over Vucinic. But the stats do not back this up, his highest assist total in a season was 7 way back in 2009/10. The John Locke argument is that he never had particularly good partners, and there is a lot of truth to that, considering the best attacker he played with was Gilardino who had 15 goals in 2009/10 season- not coincidentally the same season where Jovetic had his most assist. Jack Shepard would however, point to Giovinco having 11 assists last season playing for Parma with Amauri and Vucinic having 14 assists in the last two seasons at Juve with a rotating cast of strikers Juve fans tend to despise. Jack’s best argument would be that Ljajic, Jovetic’s teammate at Fiorentina this season, had 8 assists (1 more than Jovetic had in any season in his career) while only playing 1687 minutes. I have heard a few people say that we should discount Ljajic’s numbers because this has been his only good season, and that he is motivated by fact he is looking for a new contract. I can maybe buy first part of this argument, but hard for me to understand why Ljajic (whose contract expires in 2014 and not this summer) would be more motivated than Jovetic, who had an agreement with Fiorentina to be able to leave this summer. You would think Jovetic was as motivated to do well this season, as the “Lost” castaways were to get off the Island once they saw the smoke monster for first time. While I don’t disagree on fact Jovetic is a great player, I’m not sure he is the classic “seconda punta” many seem to believe he is.

• I think most of us can agree Juve needs a goal scorer (although I do think in Conte’s system we may never see someone score 20 goals a season) and I think you can make a very good argument Jovetic is not as much of a seconda punta as many seem to believe. This next stat will be as shocking as the “flash forward” we saw in Lost when Jack told Kate “we need to go back to the Island”- Iaquinta has a better goal average at Juve (30 goals in 86 games) than Jovetic does at Fiorentina (35 in 116 games). Iaquinta played for some of the worst Juves of last 15 years, so I’m not sure we can say he was in a much better situation than Jovetic has been at Fiorentina (especially this season Jovetic had a very supporting cast). The other stat that will probably surprise you, is fact that last season at Parma, Giovinco had a higher goal (15) and assists (11) than Jovetic had in any season (his highest goal total was 14 in 2011/12 and 7 assists in 2009/10). Jack Shepard would just point to these two facts and let Locke say under his breath “well Juve wants to buy him anyway” (which is true). While this is harder to measure, safe to say Jovetic did not play particularly well (and I’m being generous) in the season stretch run when Fiorentina was battling for a Champions League spot. John Locke would say Conte would certainly be able to motivate Jovetic to play better.

I realize these numbers are as meaningful as the combination Hurley used to win the lottery only to those who are skeptical on Jovetic, and mean little to those who think he is the second coming of Roberto Baggio- to be fair you can find numbers and data to back up many opposing points of view (allthough I do believe in prepondarance of evidence). I also must admit it’s easy to be a “man of science” with players you don’t like and be a “man of faith” with those you like (I certainly fall in this camp with Isla).

The final “man of science” versus “man of faith” debate we can have on Jovetic is if Juve would actually be able to buy him. Clearly John Locke is winning this argument, for months I have said I really did not see Fiorentina selling their best player to their bitter rival. There have been many signs recently this is not the case, the quotes by Fiorentina president Della Valle and John Elkann clearly prove this may happen. I can assure you, I will be just as happy to have been proven wrong that Jovetic is the right choice for Juve,  should he brings us a Champions League, as I was when I stated there was no way Fiorentina would sell him to Juve. Remember at the end of “Lost“, Jack Shepard had become a man of faith and John Locke was proven right, I hope this happens again.

Follow me on Twitter @DavidAmoyal (this column would not have been possible without my endless Jovetic debates with @terrenceKC so thank you to him)

For those who care about Lost. Here are some thoughts on what went wrong

There are two main factors that justify the subpar ending of “Lost“: 1) they didn’t know how long show would last when they wrote 1st season 2) too many people had figured out what the planned ending was halfway through Season 3.

1) Lost was a very expensive show especially for a network like ABC. Unlike cable stations like HBO, networks often pull the plug on shows very rapidly if the ratings are poor. The writers and producers on Lost (who changed as frequently as the strikers in Conte’s lineup in the first two seasons) weren’t sure the show would even last more than 1 season. Had that been the case, the final episode was going to be a confrontation between the Smoke Monster and the Losties (so Jacob wouldn’t even have come into play at all). Because the ratings were excellent, they instead decided to stretch it out and essentially make up the mythology (Jacob, Men in Black, the numbers etc) as they went along. Needless to say, it caused for some story lines (Walt especially) to be choppy or down right abandoned, and after awhile, you could tell they were basically just throwing story lines against the wall to see what would stick (kind of how Allegri made his lineup selections for Milan last season). Unlike “The Wire“, “The Shield“  or “Six Feet Under” (probably had best series finale ever) the planned ending of “Lost” changed a few times.

2) Lost became incredibly popular at a time where fan blogs/podcasts/message boards/Twitter exploded. While the show runners, were smart in marketing the show using these new tools, they also often tried to appease what fans were saying and, more importantly, were surprised at how quickly fans had figured out the future plot lines (Claire being Jack’s brother being just one example). I strongly believe the writers intended the big reveal at the end of the show to be fact all of the characters had died in the plane crash, and that the Island was some sort of purgatory. However, many fans had figured this midway through Season 2 out and posted it on many websites. The sideways flashbacks of the last season, used somewhat the “they are all dead” idea, but in a way that was very confusing and poorly delivered. Another big problem was fact that while the writers were incredible at character developments, they weren’t particularly good at answering the questions regarding the mysteries of the Island (again because they were making them up as they went along). But I won’t lie, just thinking of that last scene where Vincent, Walt’s dog, lays down next to a dying Jack brings tears to my eyes. Just like the Jovetic debate, emotion can be more important than rational thought.

Anyone who loves “Lost” and other great TV shows should read Alan Seppinwall’s book “The Revolution was Televised” which helped me write this article.

As told in Conte’s book “Testa, Cuore e Gambe”, c0 written with Antonio Di Rosa published by Rizzoli.

I started reading Conte’s autobiography last week, and wanted to share with you, some of the highlights from the chapters on Juve as I suspect it will never be translated into English. This is not a word for word translation of any of the passages, but rather a review of each chapter with some of my personal thoughts.

Part 1- Arriving at Juve as a player http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2358

Part 2- Lippi’s First Term at Juve http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2369

Part 3- Ancelotti and Lippi’s return http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2379

Part 4- Retiring from Juve and almost playing for Zeman http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2390

Part 5- Becoming a great coach http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2408

Part 6- Secco, Diego and Blanc http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2421

  After coming close to joining Juve after the Ranieri years, Conte finds himself jobless and still dreaming of returning to his former club. Prior to getting a job interview with Andrea Agnelli, Conte would have to go through 4 tumoultous months at Atalanta and a succesful season at Siena.

    At the beginning of 2009-10 season, Conte finds himself without a team. He had previously turned down an offer from Atalanta since he believed he was going to be Bari’s coach in Serie A, but that did not go according to plan- Conte mentioned that was a very important lesson for him (which explains why he has never fully committed to being Juve’s Ferguson in interviews). Ironically after Atalanta lost to Bari 4-1, they called him asking him to take over for coach Gregucci (who had replaced Del Neri who had accepted the Sampdoria job where he would work with Marotta). Conte agrees as long as he is given full control of the team as well as just a 1 year deal, this would give him the freedom to leave the following summer (this has been a constant in Conte’s career, and I believe we will continue to see this in his relationship with Juve).

Conte is hired and he brings along his athletic coach Ventrone, the team gets off to a strong start with 9 points in first 5 games. The honeymoon abruptly ends when Conte subs fan idol Doni against Siena (which ironically would be Conte’s next team) and the two have a blow up in the locker room. The president of the club clearly sides with the player, which really upsets Conte (remember he was furious when Secco let Diego dictate Juve’s formation). Things settle down temporarily until a bad loss against Napoli (ironically Quagliarella and Pazienza, who would both be on Conte’s first Juve, scored the winning goals) the fans, still upset over the Doni incident, want a meeting with Conte which he accepts. He is called “gobbo di merda” and “stronzo Juventino” by the ultras because of his past at Juve (which would be a great omen for Conte’s future)- the argument is so bad that Conte decides to resign, by doing so he forfeits the rest of his salary for the season.

Conte takes the coaching job at Siena, which was offered once again from his friend Perinetti. Conte develops strong ties to the city and he gets them right back to Serie A while having the best offense and defense. In the meantime, Juve continues to struggle, the ultras disappointed in Del Neri, even start chanting Conte’s name during games. The club is linked to Villa Boas, Mazzarri, Spalletti and Hiddink which worries Conte since they are all more established coaches than he is. His friend Silvio Baldini (former Empoli coach) suggests he finds a way to speak to Andrea Agnelli, since Baldini believes the two of them would be able to form an immediate connection. Conte reaches out to an unnamed (in the book) friend who knows Andrea Agnelli well, he is told he believes Juve will keep Del Neri but that he would set up the meeting anyway.

 The meeting happens at Andrea Agnelli’s house. Conte decides to wear jeans instead of a more formal suit, and he takes it as a great sign that Andrea Agnelli decided to do the same (Conte described seeing a much younger Andrea Agnelli at Juve’s training ground with his father Umberto when he was still playing for Juve in the Ancelotti chapter). Conte is immediately impressed at how well Andrea Agnelli’s daughter speaks English (Agnelli’s wife is English), and once again tells himself he needs to learn the language (remember the Van Gaal episode ?).

At first, Conte believes the meeting will not lead to a job offer as Agnelli asks him if he would take some of Juve’s players to his current club Siena (I would imagine he was referring to Motta, Lanzafame, Ekdal types). But Agnelli starts being more engaged once Conte tells him the current Juve is playing like a “provinciale” and that opponents no longer fear facing the Old Lady. Conte tells him that when he was a player at Lecce, he remembered being scared when playing against Juve and that is missing to today’s club.  Conte stresses that Juve players must have pride in wearing the club’s jersey and that for Juve to return to prominence they need to empower and relaunch the old guard (I found this ironic considering what happened to Del Piero). Conte tells Agnelli that if he gives him the job, he will make sure Juve attacks and defends as a team the way Barcelona does, and that the players will have hunger to win games. Agnelli is very impressed and tells him, Conte will have to meet with Marotta to go further in the process.

Conte leaves the meeting hopeful, but after what happened with Secco, he vows to not get excited until he signs the contract. Marotta’s call never comes (maybe this is why he can’t land top strikers?) and Juve gives Del Neri another chance until a tough loss against Parma. Conte finally meets with Marotta and Paratici and he is optimistic despite fact he thinks Villa Boas is the front runner. Juve would not hire Villa Boas because they weren’t willing to pay his exit clause (I bet this is why Juve is supposedly looking to add one in Conte’s next contract and why Conte doesn’t want one) and Marotta eventually called Conte to offer him the job he had always dreamed of. Siena graciously agrees to let Conte go without any compensation (he had one year left on the deal with them) and Conte signs a two year deal with Juve. Rather than being given formal bonuses Conte asks that Andrea Agnelli be the one to decide the bonus at end of the season. After signing the contract with Juve, Conte decides to go pet the Champions League cup he won as player 17 years ago to the day I am writing this article.

Next- Winning the first of hopefully many scudetti at Juve

As told in Conte’s book “Testa, Cuore e Gambe”, c0 written with Antonio Di Rosa published by Rizzoli.

I started reading Conte’s autobiography last week, and wanted to share with you, some of the highlights from the chapters on Juve as I suspect it will never be translated into English. This is not a word for word translation of any of the passages, but rather a review of each chapter with some of my personal thoughts.

Part 1- Arriving at Juve as a player http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2358

Part 2- Lippi’s First Term at Juve http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2369

Part 3- Ancelotti and Lippi’s return http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2379

Part 4- Retiring from Juve and almost playing for Zeman http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2390

Part 5- Becoming a great coach http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2408

    In life sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, also the timing of when things happen is a key component to finding success rather than failure in a given situation. While we can’t know for sure, I suspect Conte wouldn’t have become Juve’s next great coach had he arrived in the summer of 2009 rather than in 2011. The chapter on almost joining Juve while Secco was still the  DS of the club, gives us great insight in the types of players Conte looks for.

In March of 2009, Conte’s Bari is well on it’s way to returning to Serie A while using the famed 4 2 4 formation. Juve, on the other hand, is somewhat struggling under then coach Ranieri (I had to chuckle when I read Tevez calling him one of the world’s best manager when asked about joining Monaco this weekend). Secco contacts Conte to ask him what he would do if he were to become Juve’s coach, they set up a meeting in Milan to discuss it in person. Conte explains that he wants a team that attacks and defends together (if you remember Conte was inspired by Lippi asking his forward trio of Vialli/Ravanelli/Del Piero to help out their teammates defensively), and the two agree to remain in the touch before the summer mercato starts.

Secco called Conte out of the blue to ask his opinion on Werder Bremen trequartista Diego, who was valued at 25 million euro at the time. Conte tells him that considering Juve already had Amauri, Trezeguet, Del Piero and Iaquinta (who back then was playing very well) he did not think spending a small fortune on Diego was a wise idea. Conte explains that to make his formation work at Juve he would need great wingers- he suggests Robben and Walcott to Secco instead of Diego. Quick tangent-I give a lo of credit to Conte for adapting his formation to Juve’s personnel since becoming the club’s coach. We know from previous chapters, Van Gaal (a self described dominant and arrogant coach) was his role model, so I find it interesting Conte was willing to change his trademark formation to suit the needs of club. Once Vidal and Pirlo were acquired, Conte set aside the 4 2 4 and built his team on the centre midfielders. Once Bonucci, Chiellini, Barzagli developed great chemistry he installed the 3 CB defense and finally once Pogba exploded on the scene he switched once again to a 3 5 1 1. It will be very interesting to see what he does next season formation wise, but I do suspect Conte will continue to adapt his formation to strenght of club rather than other way around.

After Juve continued to struggle under Ranieri, Secco leaked to the press the fact the club was close to signing Diego, as a way to placate the fans. Secco called Conte in early May to tell him the deal for Diego was done (proving once again that many deals are sealed well before transfer period “officially” opens). Conte tells him he envisions using Diego in as either one of the central strikers in 4 2 4 or as a “trequartista” in a 4 2 3 1.

Finally on May 18th Ranieri is sacked as Juve’s coach, Conte’s former teammate Ciro Ferrara (judging by the book they were never particularly close) is named the interim coach- he was previously overseeing Juve’s youth teams. Conte is still however the front runner for the job the following season. The final hurdle for getting the is a meeting with then team president Jean Claude Blanc (who at least deserves a lot of credit for his efforts building Juve Stadium) which lasts 5 hours. Conte once again stresses how important it is for him to have strong wing players (I’m sure he did not envision facing Bayern Munich with the likes of Peluso and Padoin), strikers willing to help out the team defensively, and finally a strong athletic coach coach (remember Ventrone was the one who got him his first job at Siena on De Canio’s staff so I wonder if he was trying to return the favor). Shortly after the meeting ended, Secco tells Conte his return to Juve as coach is essentially a done deal. A few weeks later, Bari is mathematically promoted to Serie A but the rumors of Conte’s departure are the talk of the town.

Just as Conte is starting to plan his move back to Turin, Secco calls him to tell him there is a problem. Diego only wants to play in a 4 3 1 2 and isn’t thrilled to hear of Conte’s plans to go with a different formation. Conte is furios (remember how upset he was when Moggi did not live up to his promises?) and tells Secco he will never succed if he changes his plans based on what one players wants. Shortly after this conversation, Juve removes the “interim” tag from Ferrara’s title and he is named coach for the following season. Quick tangent- I strongly believe “the Diego incident” was the best thing that happened to Conte as a coach. Juve was in a much worse situation in 2009, Marotta/Paratici had yet to arrive so the team didn’t have Vidal, Pirlo, Bonucci, Barzagli, Lichtsteiner on the roster yet. While Conte would have likely done better than Ferrara/Zaccheroni/DelNeri he was much better off gaining more experience as coach, and arriving when Juve had a much better roster. While Diego was a disappointment at Juve, he did have a strong impact on the past two scudetti after all.

On top of not getting the Juve job, Conte would also have to leave Bari when the club did not want to bring him the players he requested for the new season in Serie A. Conte had agreed to general terms on a new 1 year extension (the club wanted to offer him a two year deal) with Bari, but when it came time to sign the real contract, the owner told him buying the players necessary to use in the 4 2 4 would be too expensive. Conte would decide to join Atalanta instead on a matter of principle. This episode leads me to believe the recent meetings between Conte and Juve’s top brass (Andrea Agnelli, Marotta, Nedved, Paratici) gave me him enough guarantees Juve’s roster will be up to his standards.

Next Up- Atalanta and returning to Juve

As told in Conte’s book “Testa, Cuore e Gambe”, c0 written with Antonio Di Rosa published by Rizzoli.

I started reading Conte’s autobiography last week, and wanted to share with you, some of the highlights from the chapters on Juve as I suspect it will never be translated into English. This is not a word for word translation of any of the passages, but rather a review of each chapter with some of my personal thoughts.

Part 1- Arriving at Juve as a player http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2358

Part 2- Lippi’s First Term at Juve http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2369

Part 3- Ancelotti and Lippi’s return http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2379

Part 4- Retiring from Juve and almost playing for Zeman http://www.juvefc.com/blog/?p=2390

In the first two chapters on his life after retiring as a player, Conte gives us great insight on how he became the coach he is today. He describes Louis Van Gaal as his main role model, shares some insight in the experiences that made him a “my way or the high way” type of man, and explains why he keeps saying “we are professionals” when asked if he would ever coach a Serie A team other than Juve.

 Right after retiring as a player, Conte signs up for the coach course at Coverciano. Less than a month later, he is offered to be the “vice allenatore” (the role Alessio currently has at Juve) for Siena’s coach DeCanio, by DS Perinetti who will play a big role in Conte’s career. In the book Conte, reveals that it was athletic coach Ventrone who suggested Conte’s name to Siena’s brass. Ventrone was on Lippi’s staff when Conte was a player, and the two had remained in touch. Since joining Juve, Conte has tried to return the favor to Ventrone by attempting to facilitate his return to Turin, something Juve’s brass (has wisely in my opinion) has vetoed at least twice. Conte at first turns down the offer, as he does not seem himself as an effective “number 2″. Conte describes receiving a phone call from Moggi a few days later, Luciano tells him he is crazy for turning down Siena’s offer (Moggi was also dumbfounded when Conte turned down a 3 year contract from Juve which we covered in part 3 of these reviews), to which Conte replied “You didn’t keep your promise with Juve’s Primavera job (which Moggi had supposedly promised Conte) and now you are telling me what to do?”. Conte however would agree to join Siena after meeting with coach De Canio who would turn out to be a big Juve fan. Conte was upfront with DeCanio, by telling him he would leave Siena if he was offered a coaching job elsewhere (Conte describes it as “patti chiari, amicizia lunga”- which translates to ”clear terms make long friendships” which applies to his time as Juve coach as well in my opinion).

At Siena, Conte got to work with Ventrone as well as former Juve players Tudor and Legrottaglie. The team would manage to avoid relegation in Serie A that season, clinching the “salvezza” mathematically ironically in a match they lost 3-0 to Juve. However all of Siena’s coaching staff, including Conte, was fired in the same summer that the Calciopoli scandal occurred. Conte would land on his feet by agreeing to become the coach of Arezzo in Serie B for the 2006-07 season.

Arezzo started the season with a 6 point deduction in a Serie B that featured top teams like Juventus, Napoli and Genoa so there was a lot of pressure on Conte to start well. Instead he struggled in his first 9 matches as a coach- after 4 draws and 5 losses he was fired from the job. Conte decided to improve his coaching knowledge by taking a trip to Holland. He visited the Ajax youth teams and became obsessed with Dutch coaching legend Louis Van Gaal (Conte recently complimented him for his work at Bayern Munich) who at the time was coaching AZ Alkmaar. In the book, Conte states that he was inspired by Van Gaal describing himself as “dominant and arrogant” two character traits that have often been often used for Conte as well (although there is no doubt Conte has toned down his arrogance in 2013). Conte describes attending two of Van Gaal’s coaching sessions- one of which was closed to the public. He was caught by a security guard (whom Conte describes as a mean version of Ronald Koeman) and was told in English to leave the training session. Conte mentions how this episode gave him motivation to learn English as he was barely able to understand what he was being told.

 In March of 2007, Conte is asked to return to Arezzo as coach. Before accepting the offer, Conte makes it very clear to DS Pieroni that he wants more power on how the team is run (this certainly sounds familiar to all Juventini).  Maybe going to Holland really helped, as he was able to collect 24 points in the last 10 matches, mainly by using the 4 2 4 formation he was supposed to bring to Juve. Ironically, Juve would mathematically win promotion to Serie A by defeating Arezzo (Conte describes complimenting his former teammate Deschamps for his work as Juve’s coach after the match), but would also relegate Arezzo by losing to La Spezia a few weeks later (Arezzo would have also avoided relegation without the 6 point deduction). Conte almost joined Sorrento in Serie C (Italy’s third division) for the following season but decided to wait for an opportunity in Serie B. He travelled to see numerous training sessions of other clubs at the beginning of the season, including Atalanta’s which had Del Neri as the manager at the time.

During the 2007 season, Conte’s friend Perinetti had become the DS at Bari. Conte would often ask him about the coaching job there, but Perinetti had strong reservations on hiring someone from Lecce as Bari coach since the there is a strong rivalry between the two cities. Conte was upset over this, since he strongly believes that if you are a professional these things shouldn’t matter (he often says this when asked about potentially coaching a Serie A team other than Juve as well). Ironically, Bari’s coach would resign after losing 4-0 to Lecce,  and Conte was immediately offered the job. At the time, Bari had less than 1,000 paying customers at many of their home games, but after Conte improved the team’s result and quality of play the team had close to 15,000 spectators. Bari would finish the season with a comfortable mid table placement, by then Conte had become the idol of the Bari fan base. Conte very much appreciated how during the summer, Perinetti planned all of the summer transfers with him. Sounds familiar right?

Next Up- The final stops before returning to Juve.

Surely hiring Ciro Ferrara and not confirming Giuseppe Iachini who got the team promoted from Serie B with an incredible final comeback wasn’t a nice action. Sampdoria’s management gambled with an young coach and the start was good: 11 points in 5 games which deluded the environment. Then the great decline: 7 consecutive losses, 2 wins, a draw, two more losses and the inevitable sacking of the former Juventino.

The choice of Delio Rossi has been wise as only an experienced and talented coach could manage to make the team resurrect. It is not easy for a team to fight against relegation after they started the season with higher ambitions (see Palermo and Genoa) but Delio managed to bring the right mentality.

Surely, the 2-1 victory at the Juventus Stadium highlights Sampdoria’s season. Delio Rossi adopted a solid 3-5-2, defensively guided by a re-energized Angelo Palombo who never played in the first part of the season after the disappointing stint at Inter. Palombo, originally a MF, plays in the center of the defense, following a trend that is developing in Italy thanks to Conte.

Icardi has been a huge part of Sampdoria’s season with 9 goals, almost all decisive, but he has not scored in the last 10 games, basically since his €13 move to Inter was completed. Sansone and Eder scored some very important goals, while Maxi Lopez has been a bust. Sampdoria limped in the last couple of months: 3 points in the last 10 matches, but they secured a 2013/14 Serie A spot with a great winter push (1 loss in 9 games, 18 points).

Their greatest strength is the midfield: Obiang provides energy and toughness, Krsticic and Poli have great feet and are good organizers. Also their original 3-men defense (Gastaldello-Palombo-Costa) is well combined and complete. Krsticic and Costa’s injuries contributed to their recent downslide, along with Icardi’s lack of scoring.

As it is a meaningless game for them, we could expect some turnover, with Rodriguez, Castellini, Mustafi and Poulsen probably starting and Palombo advancing to the midfield.