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Saturday 31 August 2013

Legends of Turin's finest ! (Series 5 Gianluca Zambrotta)

Gianluca Zambrotta was regarded as one of the best full backs of his time and it is hard to disagree. Zambrotta began his Serie A career at Bari where he instantly impressed being the first Bari player to play for the national side in 50 years so it came as no surprise when Juve came in for the defender and payed €15,493,707 in 1999 to get him in a black and white top. Zambrotta played 294 times for Juventus and was successful in doing so winning 2 Serie A's, 2 Supercoppa Italiana's and 1 UEFA Intertoto Cup. In 2006 Zambrotta's Juventus career came to an end as unlike Del Piero and Buffon, Zambrotta decided to leave Serie B bound Juventus after the Calciopoli scandal. Many of Europe's finest came in for the full back however he decide to end his Bianconeri career with a €14 million pound move to Barcelona.

Zambrotta did not only do well in his club career but also in his international career. As said before Zambrotta was the first Bari player to play for the national side in 50 years but it wasn't really till 2003 when Paolo Maldini retired from international football. Zambrotta's only success for Italy was in 2006 when Italy won the World Cup. Zambrotta was doubt going into the tournament with a thigh injury but he only missed the first game and when he returned he made a huge impact even scoring a goal against Ukraine. Unfortunately Zambrotta was two off of the 100 appearance mark for Italy but nevertheless the 98 appearances he made were all great.

Friday 30 August 2013

Juve News Today 30/08/13

Over the last few weeks Juve have been interested in Manchester United winger Nani but Juventus CEO Giuseppe Marotta has said that the deal is off as the Portugese player has agreed a new deal at Manchester United.

Sassuolo are now favourites to get Juventus youngster Luca Marrone. The 23 year old has sparked a lot of interest from all over Europe but now the Serie B champions are looking close to signing him.


Matri has joined Milan where he began his career for €11 million. This deal had been talked about for a while but was finally completed yesterday. In my opinion this is the wrong decision for Matri because if he was looking for first team football and he couldn't get that behind Tevez, Llorente, Quagliarella and Giovinco then how is he meant to get a game instead of Balotelli, El Sharaawy, Robinho and Niang.


Real Madrid have made an enquiry into French starlet Paul Pogba however Guiseppe Marotta has rejected the approach and said that he is not for sale. This is on the back of Pogba's agent saying that if Bale is worth £85 million then Pogba is worth twice that amount.


The draw for the Champions League group stages were held yesterday. Juventus were drawn in group B alongside Real Madrid, Galatasary and FC Copenhagen but the biggest positive out was finding out that Miss Switzerland Melanie Winiger is a Juventus fan.



Thursday 29 August 2013

Legends of Turin's Finest ( Series 4 Claudio Gentile)

Claudio Gentile was easily one of my favourite players of all time. He was a complete rock at the back and he was feared by almost everyone and if you were to look up "Man Marking" in the footballing dictionary there would be written simply "Claudio Gentile - 1982". Even though he had a great club career his whole career is known by his performances in the 1982 World Cup which was one of the greatest set of defensive performances ever and it was up against arguably the best ever players to set a foot on the pitch.

In 1973 Gentile made his move from Serie B club Varese to Juventus and instantly impressed in his first game against Ascoli in the Coppa Italia. Gentile made 414 senior appearances for Juventus in 11 years winning one UEFA Cup, one European Cup Winners Cup, two Coppa Italia's and six Serie A's. Despite all of this if you ask any fan who Claudio Gentile was they would not say about his time at Juventus but his performances in the 1982 World Cup. Gentile was given the toughest job of all ... man marking arguably the best player of all time Diego Maradona. Gentile kept Maradona in his pocket the whole game and didn't give Maradona a single chance by man marking him so well. Italy then went on to win the game and progress to the next round which was a surprise to everyone as Italy went into the game underdogs. Italy then went into the next game against Brazil underdogs and once again Gentile was given the hardest job of all, man marking Zico. Zico was terrified of Gentile and it showed when once again Gentile kept a World Class player in his pocket which helped them beat the favourites once again. These performances were regarded as one of the main reasons Italy won the 1982 World Cup and Gentile is now known as one of the most feared players of all time despite this Gentile was never given a red card in his career.

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Juve News Today 28/08/13

Juventus could be about to make a move for 29 year old Dusan Basta who plays at Udinese. Reports understand Juve have made an enquiry into the player and could make an offer by the end of the window.

Fiorentina are set to pull out of the race for Luca Marrone as they know it will be a struggle to persuade Juve to let him leave.

Barcelona young talent Buenacasa has said that he wants to leave the Spanish giants with Juve monitoring the player. Buenacasa is a 17 year old striker who is said to be one of Barca's best young talents for years and has even been likened to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.


Another youngster Juve have set their sights on is young 18 year old defender Marc Oliver-Kempf. The promising young talent who currently plays for Frankfurt doesn't just have interest from Juventus but
also Borussia Dortmund.

Reports understand that Juventus are very interested in Manchester United winger Nani who hasn't had a lot of game time recently due to an injury. Manchester United have put a €13 million price tag on the player and Juve are considering an offer for the Portuguese.





Tuesday 27 August 2013

Legends of Turin's Finest (Series 3 Fabio Cannavaro)

Fabio Cannavaro was widely known as one of the best defenders of all time and easily the best defender of his generation. He didn't spend a huge amount of time at Juventus playing only 101 games in total but nevertheless he had an extremely fruitful club and International career. Fabio Cannavaro was known as the "Muro di Berlino" by Italian fans which translates to "The Berlin Wall". Unfortunately Cannavaro's career at Juventus is not renowned as one of the best parts of his career. He joined from Inter in 2004 on Deadline Day. He re united with his past teammates Lilian Thuram and Gianluigi Buffon who all played together at Parma. While at Juve Cannavaro won two Scudetto's however after the 2006 World Cup the titles were taken away for Match Fixing. Due to this Juventus were relegated to Serie B where much to the fans disappointment Cannavaro left for Madrid. However this was the last time Juventini were going to see Cannavaro play in the Black and White of Juventus as he rejoined three years later from Real Madrid. He started off well at Juventus and looked to be winning the fans over again until an Europa League tie against Fulham where he was sent off early in the second leg which led to Juve's departure in the competition. This was the beginning of his downfall and as the season went on it was becoming more and more evident that he was not the player he once was. After having the worst season in over a decade Juventus decided to not renew Cannavaro's contract.


Cannavaro is most known for his International career. He started his international career winning when he was part of the u21 team in which he won two consecutive European U21 Championships. He made his first appearance for the first team aged just 23 and impressed a lot in his early Italian career. However what he is most well known for is the 2006 World Cup. Cannavaro captained the side to their four World Cup win. Cannavaro did not miss a single minute of the competition along with Gianluigi Buffon and the team only let in two goals throughout the whole competition. Later that year Cannavaro received the Ballon D'or. Cannavaro also holds the record for most International appearances of 136.




Monday 26 August 2013

Juve News Today 26/08/13

Antonio Conte has said that he never wanted to sell Emanuele Giaccherini to Sunderland and the departure of him shows the difficulties that Italian football is having.


Reports are saying that the Bianconeri have rejected two bids of €25 million from Manchester United and Arsenal for Paul Pogba.

According to reports in Italy Juve and Everton are in talks over the possible transfer of Luca Marrone.


Juventus are thought to be showing Interest in Cagliari's midfield star Nainggolan.

Juventus are increasing their interest in Brazilian wonder kid Adryan who has received interest from some of Europe's top clubs this Summer.




Saturday 24 August 2013

Sampdoria vs Juventus Match Review !

The Bianconeri started their 2013/14 as they mean to go on ... winning. Juve's first game of the season was away to Sampdoria where the Bianconeri haven't been successful in their last five visits. Despite this Juve were favourites and put out a very strong team of Buffon, Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini, Asamoah, Pogba, Vidal, Pirlo, Lichtsteiner, Vucinic and Tevez.

Juve started the game extremely well and came close to going one up when Pirlo had a shot from long range tipped over the bar by Sampdoria keeper Da Costa. Minutes after this Sampdoria could have been rewarded a penalty when he was pulled down by Chiellini however the officials decided that the foul was committed outside of the box. Juventus then came extremely close to going ahead when Asamoah had an excellent diving header tipped over the bar acrobatically by Da Costa. The first half ended goalless but Juve's dominance was proven in the statistics at half time as Juve had six shots whereas Sampdoria didn't have a shot at all. Juve came out to the second half playing with the same tempo as the first which was fast and Sampdoria found it hard to keep up with them and the fast pace of Juve payed of and they finally got the goal that they deserved. Vidal played a brilliant ball through to Pogba who slotted the ball across the box to Tevez who scored on his Serie A debut. Sampdoria managed to score just minutes after from a free kick but the goal was disallowed as the scorer Costa was offside. The Bianconeri then managed to control the game and doing this they slowed the tempo down. Juve dominated the rest of the game and in the last few minutes the win was confirmed as Sampdoria's Castellini was sent off for a two footed challenge on Lichtsteiner.

I think that this 1-0 over Sampdoria was a great result for the Bianconeri and a great way to start the season. Every Juve player impressed and proved that Juve are the rightful favourites for the Scudetto. The result was made even sweeter as Milan failed to win at Verona where Luca Toni scored two goals to help them beat Juve's rivals 2-1. I think this win for Juventus is just a sighter of what to expect from the Bianconeri during the season and that is winning.

Juve's top 10 Legends ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT10YFMPDuo

We have decided to start a youtube channel and we have published our first ever video about Juventus' Top 10 Legends !!! Have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT10YFMPDuo and give us a like !!! FORZA JUVE !!!

Juventus 2013/14 Season Preview

The Bianconeri kick off their season today away to Sampdoria so I thought we should do a pre view to the upcoming season so I hope you enjoy ! FORZA JUVE !!!

Last Season

Last year was arguably less successful than the year before, out of the Coppa Italia in the semi-final, a very poor exit to the Champions League and ultimately the failure to go unbeaten but in the end the aim of the game is to win the league and they done that easily. With Antonio Conte sitting in the stands for the beginning of the season the team still managed to fly through the league and after beating Napoli they looked to be comfortable in the league. Despite a minor slip up mid way through Juve still managed to win the Scudetto extremely easily.

Transfer Market

Last year it was obvious that Juve desperately needed a striker and Conte didn't sit back and wait he got in quickly and pinched Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente. He also managed to bring in a defender in the form of Angelo Ogbonna from Torino. I have no doubt that the signings will strengthen the squad however I feel that the likes of Llorente and Tevez will find it hard to settle in straight away but I am sure that after a few weeks they will be able to settle in and perform well and make that difference. In the terms of players going out there hasn't been that much action but the speculation has been huge. The only real departure has been Giaccherini to Sunderland which in my opinion is a disappointing departure because he is a great little player. Other than that there has been only rumours about players leaving such as Vucinic, Matri and Quagliarella however none have left yet but remember there is still time left in the transfer window.

Pre Season

Juve had an extremely disappointing pre season, losing to Everton, LA Galaxy and Inter Milan in the International Champions Cup where the Bianconeri ended up finishing last. After this, many doubted Juventus to retain their Scudetto but Antonio Conte was sure this was not what to expect in the coming season and this was proved in the Supercoppa last Sunday. Juve proved all doubters wrong with a 4-0 demolition of Lazio which was certain to make Juventus favourites for the Serie A title again.

Objectives

It is not hard to see what Juventus' aim is next year. Obviously the Bainconeri are aiming to get their third successive Serie A title but I think Antonio Conte's main aim is to win the Champions League. Juve have been able to dominate in Italy since being promoted from Serie B but they have not been able to mark their authority in Europe and I am sure Antonio Conte wants to do this next year.

Expected Starting Team (Without Injuries)

GK : Buffon
CB : Chiellini
CB : Barzagli
CB : Bonucci
RM : Lichtsteiner
CM : Pirlo
CM : Marchisio
CM : Vidal
LM : Asamoah
ST : Tevez
ST : Vucinic

Expectations for next Season

It was pretty obvious that Juve needed a striker. Well that problem was solved with the purchase of Llorente and Tevez and now I feel Juve can challenge not only for the Serie A title but also the Champions League. I expect Juve to finally complete the double which they still haven't done since the promotion from Serie B. The only thing I think that Juve can work on is their bench as I feel there is no real game changers on the bench and if the team is cursed with a series of terrible injuries then the World Class team can easily become a merely average team. Even if they do not add to their squad anymore I think that they will breeze through the league again with their main rivals Napoli losing their main man Cavani.

Friday 23 August 2013

FOLLOW OUR NEW TWITTER ACCOUNT @BIANCONERINEWZ

Follow our new Juventus Twitter account @BianconeriNewz ! We will be tweeting all sorts from Facts and photo edits to Blog Updates and Latest news. This is a must follow for any Juventus fan and we hope that this Twitter page can become a success and help all Juventini around the world ! FORZA JUVE !!!

https://twitter.com/bianconerinewz

News Today 23/08/13

Paolo De Ceglie who has been linked with a move to Sunderland has decided to turn down the offer despite being able to link up with former Juventino Emanuele Giaccherini who joined Sunderland earlier in the Summer.

Wolfsburg are thinking about making an offer for Juve centre forward Mirko Vucinic after he could face a lot of time sitting on the bench next season.


Despite interest from Arsenal, Juventus have said that Paul Pogba will not be available to buy and they have praised the youngster a lot.

According to reports in Italy, Juve are very close to agreeing a new contract with Arturo Vidal who has attracted a lot of interest  this summer.


Roma have joined the race to sign want away Juve striker Alessandro Matri to replace Pablo Osvaldo who joined Southampton earlier this week but Matri also has admirers in the form of Napoli.





The legends of Turin's Finest (Series 2 Dino Zoff)

Dino Zoff was one of the best goalkeepers the World has ever seen and in my opinion he was the best ever goalkeeper to play for both Juventus and Italy. Zoff holds many, many records and none other than the oldest player to win the World Cup (40) and longest time not conceding a goal in International football (1142 minutes).

Zoff started his career at Udinese. It was here everyone got a first glimpse of the quality of Zoff when he made his Serie A debut at only 19 years of age. He immediately impressed and found himself in a few more transfers down his career but without a doubt his most important transfer came in 1972 when he joined Juve after spending 5 years at Napoli. Zoff stayed at Juve till the end of his career in 1982/83 and not only that he didn't miss a single Serie A game while playing in the Black and White of Juventus. While at Juve he won his fair share of six Serie A title and even an UEFA Cup in 1977. He didn't just find success in Juventus and also had a great time playing with the national squad. He lifted the 1982 World Cup and defended the Italian goal 112 times which makes him the third highest appeared player just behind Paolo Maldini and Fabio Cannavaro.

Zoff was easily one of the greatest Goalkeepers of all time and his sportsmanship, his whole character and his ability to protect the goal was definitely something to admire and I am sure he will be remembered for a long time to come and I am also pretty sure that his record of 1142 minutes will not be broken anytime soon.

Thursday 22 August 2013

The legends of Turin's finest (Series 1 Gianluigi Buffon)

This will be a new and exciting series about the Legends that have passed through the Turin club. This series was decided by our viewers on Google + who voted for this series. We hope you enjoy this series which will be quite a long one and to start of this series we will talk about none other than our current Capitano and legend Gianluigi Buffon.

Gigi who is our current captain is renowned as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time and it is not hard to see why. The guy is an unbelievable shot stopper and well all round goalkeeper but what tops it off is his personality. He is known in the world of football as a genuine great guy and it is not hard to see why when you see these pictures ...

Buffon holds some incredible records as well. He has been named the Serie A goalkeeper of the year a record nine times, he is the only goalkeeper to win the UEFA club footballer of the year and the list goes on and on but for me the best award he has received has to be Goalkeeper of the 21st century.

Buffon began his career at Parma where he impressed many many football fans, critics and professionals and it didn't come as a surprise when a big team like Juventus came in for him and they were forced to pay big, extremely big. In fact they payed 100 million Lire of in todays money €51,645,690. This hefty price tag didn't frighten him and he didn't disappoint. Since that day in 2001 Gigi has won four Serie A titles, one Serie B title and four Supercoppa Italiana's. He has also had a fruitful International career winning the UEFA Under-21 European Championships but that is just in the shadow of the medal he won at the 2006 World Cup where he was the main Goalkeeper in the World Cup winning squad.


I hope you enjoyed our first series, please tell us your thoughts and be sure to join us soon for our next series of Legends ! FORZA JUVE !!!













Tuesday 20 August 2013

Juve News Today 20/08/13

Juve's young promising talent Fausto Rossi looks to given a loan chance next year with Cagliari, Sevilla, Villareal and Levante all interested as it looks like the midfield positions in the Juventus squad are packed out.

According to reports in Italy Napoli winger Juan Zuniga has said that he is happy at Napoli but likes the interest from the Bianconeri.


Walter Mazzari is very interested in bringing Mauricio Isla to Inter with reports saying that Inter will offer €7.5 million.


Reports in England suggest that Napoli are trying to bring Alessandro Matri to the club for €12 million with the player looking for first team opportunities.


Fabio Quagliarella looks finally set to be leaving Turin because he has reportedly agreed a deal with West Ham United.



Monday 19 August 2013

Juventus vs Lazio Supercoppa Review !!!

Last night Juventus found themselves playing the Coppa Italia winners Lazio in the Supercoppa Italiana. After a big build up to the game and even some controversy Juventus still showed that they were the ones to beat even after a terrible pre season. Juventus went out to win and pledged a strong team however Mirko Vucinic was preferred to new signing Fernando Llorente.

The game began very tense but fast and each team had their fair share of chances with Andre Dias and Mirko Vucinic coming incredibly close to opening the scoring within the first ten minutes. The first goal of the game however was almost by luck. Claudio Marchisio had to be taken off in the 21st minute and his replacement Paul Pogba scored in the 23rd. Despite the goal the tensity of the game didn't ease and it would of taken a brave man to guess that the next goal would be from a counter attack. Juve cleared a corner which fell to Lichtsteiner who ran into Lazio's box to square the ball across to Giorgio Chiellini who slotted the ball into an almost empty net. This then opened the game up for just four minutes but the mark of a good team is being able to take advantage of that and Juventus did just that. Lichtsteiner made a blistering run down the middle played a little one two with Vucinic and he found himself one on one where he put the ball into the bottom right hand corner. And just seconds after that Pogba had his efforts denied by Marchetti but Pogba didn't give up and he set up Carlos Tevez for his first competitive goal for the Bianconeri. This four minute period of the game completely finished Lazio and from there on it was plain sailing for the Turin team and Juventus confirmed their second successive Supercoppa through a 4-0 win over Lazio.

This game for me was rather disappointing as the result and great performance by the Juventus players was overshadowed by the disgusting racist chants aimed at Paul Pogba, Angelo Ogbonna and Kwadwo Asamoah who were abused every time they touched the ball. Despite this when it came to the football even the racist chants couldn't disguise the fact that Juventus demolished Lazio. Juve had a poor pre season and many were doubting us for the Serie A title again but I am 110% sure that now everybody is regarding Juventus as the title favourites. Every player put in their fair share and not one player could be faulted but my Man of the Match had to be Stephan Lichtsteiner. He was and incredible threat whenever he picked up the ball but not just that he was able to defend extremely well. I can now not wait for the new Serie A season to begin ! FORZA JUVE !!!

Sunday 18 August 2013

Photo Gallery 2006 Campioni Del Mondo Special (Series 10)

Unfortunately this is our last series in our very enjoyable and successful Photo Gallery Series. In this series we will have edits of the memorable year of 2006 when Italy became Campioni Del Mondo for the fourth time. I hope you like the edits and feel free to use them as they are all done by me. A comment to tell us what you have enjoyed about our Photo Galleries would be nice, Thank You !!!




I hope you have enjoyed our series of Photo edits and in case you have missed a series here is a collage of all of our past nine series !!!


Thank you very much for making this series a very enjoyable and successful experience. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have !!!

Juve News Today ! 18/08/13

Newcastle United have joined the race for £6 million pound rated Alessandro Matri who looks set to be leaving Turin this Summer.


Paolo Di Canio is interested in adding another Juventus player to his Sunderland squad in the form of Paolo De Ceglie.

Aleksander Kolarov looks to be getting closer to a move to Juventus where he will re unite with his old team mate Carlos Tevez.

Alessandro Del Piero has said that Juventus are ready to win the Champions League.


The transfer of Mauricio Isla to Inter Milan is starting to gather pace as the player has said that he wants more playing time but he will not get that at Juventus.




Saturday 17 August 2013

Team expectations for next year ! (Sampdoria)

Last year Sampdoria didn't do too bad finishing fourteenth and finishing 10 points ahead of the relegation zone. They will surely boast about being the only team last year to beat Juventus twice. They came into the league after being promoted from Serie B and were seen as one of the favourites to go down but that opinion soon changed once they beat AC Milan on the opening day of the season. They found consistency hard at the beginning as they went 5 games un beaten and then they lost 7 in a row but nevertheless they managed to secure Serie A status rather easily.

They have lost some key players in the Summer through Poli, Estigarribia and none other than their talisman last year Icardi. Icardi will be a real miss for Sampdoria but they haven't sat back and weeped over their loss but instead replaced him with another promising talent in the form of Manolo Gabbiadini. Sampdoria own 50 percent of the player with Juventus but will play with Sampdoria next year and in my opinion he will be able to fill the boots of Icardi. Gabbiadini proved himself in the recent Under 21 euro's. I think that Gabbiadini however will not be the only youngster to make the difference next year and if Sampdoria can keep Pedro Obiang from the leaving to go to a bigger club then I am sure Sampdoria will not face any problem staying in the Serie A next year.

Expected finish = 12th - 15th

Supercoppa Preview !!!

On Sunday evening Juventus will take on Lazio in the Supercoppa which will be both sides first real competetive football since last season. The Bianconeri will go into this game strong favourites after finishing six places ahead of Lazio  in the league last year and to put that into perspective the closest team to Juve last year was Napoli yet they were still nine points off of the mighty Juventus. You are probably thinking that Juve have this in the bag but I am sure this will not be an easy game. Juventus have had some terrible form leading into this game, finishing last in the International Champions Cup and they also found it hard to play against Lazio last year and that explains the quite poor results against them last year. All in all this game looks set to be a good one and one that will be hard to predict.

Since the last time these two met Juventus have made some big changes in the likes of Carlos Tevez, Fernando Llorente and Angelo Ogbonna. Going into the game Juventus have a full strength 27 man squad without no real injury worries and Antonio Conte has said that he is confident going into the game. Meanwhile Lazio boss Vladimir Petkovic has also said that he is confident the Roman team can come out on top even if they are the underdogs. Going into the game Lazio have the better form as they ended their pre season well with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace but the records are all in Juventus' favour. The last time Juve played in the Supercoppa was this time last year and they smashed their closest title rivals Napoli 4-2 however Lazio have not won this competition in 13 years.

                                                   Expected result = Juventus 2 Lazio 1