[X-Offender]

Hmh. This Allegri response gives us the direct answer: Montolivo is our new creativity man, and I don't think we're planning on anyone else.

Yeah, I never expected us to sign anyone else in the first place. But, like William said, if Montolivo will be our main creative force, then we also need someone to back him up. Definitely not Muntari, but either Aquilani or Merkel. One of the two must stay at all cost!

Pirlo said he had to change position on the pitch, so he said no thanks. that means Allegri wanted to use him... in a different position. not entirely surprising given that he uses Urby as an AM...

I hear he's trying Abbiati as CB.

[Zed.D]

Pirlo in a position other than DLM is not that hard to imagine. the guy didn't even bother to give it a shot. "they wanted me to change my position so I said "no thanks" and chose Juventus". too much selfishness, not enough loyalty.

This post has been edited by Zed.D: May 13 2012, 01:47 PM

[X-Offender]

He did play as LCM against Brescia and Bologna last season, two of our best games overall. But I guess, at 32 and considering his physique and style of play, he preferred his beloved CDM position.

[Jack Sparrow]

Andrea Pirlo's peerless pass-mastery could lift even the Trentside fog

Juventus's pageant with Notts County and the title–winning form of their regista epitomise a fine moment for the Old Lady


The first time I saw Andrea Pirlo was on a cold and fog-shrouded November evening in Monza in 2000, when he was a member of the Italy Under-21 team sent out to confront Howard Wilkinson's England selection. Only 11 minutes had been played when the referee abandoned the match but since that night Pirlo's quality has illuminated every ground on which he has played, and none more so than Juventus's new stadium, where he and his team-mates celebrated the Serie A championship on Sunday.

A byword for graceful creativity, Pirlo has been the most influential midfield player in Europe this season, bar none. Last summer he left Milan, his home for 10 glittering years in which, mostly under Carlo Ancelotti, he won two European Cups, two Uefa Super Cups, one Fifa Club World Cup and two Italian league titles, and where he had intended to finish his career. But Massimiliano Allegri, Ancelotti's latest successor, wanted to install a different sort of influence in the position Pirlo had made his own, at the base of midfield: someone more physical, more aggressive, such as Mark van Bommel or Massimo Ambrosini.

A one-year extension was the best Milan could offer when Pirlo's contract expired. The player reckoned that, at 32, three more years would be about right. Milan declined his suggestion and probably no greater misjudgment has been made since Real Madrid sold Claude Makélélé to make room for David Beckham. Once it became known that Pirlo was on the market, Juventus snapped him up. Their new coach, Antonio Conte, himself a former international midfield player of great distinction, saw Pirlo as the foundation of the side he was building to go with the club's new home.

Last September the stadium was inaugurated with a stylish gala. Following the speeches and the presentation of great figures associated with the club's history, from Giampiero Boniperti to Edgar Davids, a game took place between Conte's new team and Notts County, the current representatives of the club who, back in 1903, sent Juventus a set of the black and white striped shirts in which they have played ever since.

When you think of all the famous clubs who would have happily accepted such an invitation, the Barcelonas and Manchester Uniteds and Bayern Munichs, this was a gesture of great historical sensitivity on the part of Andrea Agnelli, Juve's 36-year-old president, the fourth member of his family to hold the post. It came in response to a tentative call from Jim Rodwell, Notts's chief executive, wanting to ask Juventus to help mark this year's 150th anniversary of the world's oldest professional football club. Certainly, Agnelli responded, but why don't you join our celebrations first?

And so it came to pass that the players and officials of a club in the third tier of the English game found themselves on a private jet and in a five-star hotel, all at the expense of hosts for whom their ancestors had done a small favour more than a century earlier. For that, as much as for anything else, I reckon Juventus fully deserve their success in recapturing the Serie A title, the reward for a deed of outstanding dignity and generosity.

Others will conclude that Juve's success in remaining unbeaten throughout the entire league season was more to do with the quality of Pirlo's passing. As he did for year after year in Milan's colours, the newcomer made himself constantly available to his team-mates, always there to receive the ball and move it on in the most relevant direction. He was compass and metronome rolled into one, and he did not get injured or suspended.

As the very promising Conte showed the extent of his tactical imagination by shuffling his team's formation from an initial 4-2-4 to 4-1-4-1, then to 4-2-3-1, and finally to an alternation between 4-3-3 and 3-5-2, Pirlo remained the keystone, utterly reliable and seemingly ageless. Only the colour of the stripes had changed.

Pirlo began his career as a classic No10, an attacking midfielder in the mould of Gianni Rivera or the young Roberto Baggio. The role did not quite suit him and it was while he was on loan from Internazionale, his first big club, back to Brescia, where he had started out, that the veteran coach Carlo Mazzone identified a new, deeper position from which he could direct the play. He became what Italians call a regista. Not having a word for it, we borrow a term from American football: the quarterback. Xabi Alonso and Paul Scholes are pretty good exponents but no one in recent times has come close to Pirlo's calm mastery and next month he will be a key figure in Cesare Prandelli's Italy at the Euro 2012 finals.

And so on Wednesday, four days before their team conclude a highly successful season with an appearance in the Coppa Italia final against Napoli, Agnelli and his fellow directors will open their new club museum, located in the Juventus Stadium (which really deserves a more resonant name). Among their guests will be Ray Trew, Notts County's owner, who rescued the club from their latest flirtation with oblivion two years ago, and Jim Rodwell. With their own anniversary functions already under way, the pair will be hoping to bring back news of a return fixture with the new champions of Italy before the start of next season. Imagine it: Andrea Pirlo at Meadow Lane. Just as long as the Trentside fog holds off …

God F2ckin dammit...he's like that ex-girlfriend who you had a nasty breakup with, but can't quite forget. Damn you Andy P! You broke my heart you sonnofabitch! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Zed.D]

Pirlo: 'Italy are like Juventus'
By Football Italia staff

Andrea Pirlo is confident Italy can shine at Euro 2012 by taking inspiration from Juventus. “At Milan they thought I was finished, but here I am...”

The midfielder’s contract with the Rossoneri was allowed to expire a year ago and he revitalised his career by becoming decisive for Scudetto winners Juventus.

“At Milan they thought I was finished, but here I am...” smiled Pirlo in a press conference on international duty with Italy.

“I don’t know if I will continue my Azzurri career until the 2014 World Cup. We’ll see if I am still useful and will still be called up.”

Cesare Prandelli has pledged that Pirlo will have a crucial role in the European Championships next month.

“Our objective is to go all the way in this competition. We are not among the favourites and we know that, but I am convinced Italy can finish in the top four.

“Spain are the reigning World and European Champions, so clearly they are the favourites. Then there are great sides like Holland, Germany and France.

“Italy have great inner strength. This side resembles Juventus and can go far, as we have everything we need to go far.

“We enjoy playing our football together, have quality and hunger, so those are our strengths. We aim to reach at least the semi-finals, because we are Italy and we can do it.

“Am I crucial? There are many strong players here and it’s not always true that the one with the most touches during a game is the most important. In any case, I am happy to take my share of the responsibility.

“I have no problem changing position on the field, as I’ve always happily adapted both at club and international level. ("I had to change position on the pitch. So I said ‘no thanks’ to Milan and chose Juventus"). We’re used to playing in various systems, so Coach Prandelli will decide.”

Unfuckinbelievable. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[Fillipo Simone]

Way to go. He needs a few more of these, and he'll be crossed off from my list forever.

[Rossoneri7]

Way to go. He needs a few more of these, and he'll be crossed off from my list forever.

Can we have a player dump? and dump this guy right in?

[William405]

It's really sad,he was one of my favorite players.

[kurtsimonw]

Quickly becoming one of my least liked players in football.

[han2503]

Yep, looks like Conte rubbed all over him. You'd have never expected such an attitude from Pirlo. I guess he really has crossed over to the dark side.

He should remember that he made his name at Milan and won everything there is to win in football while being a Milan player.

[Fillipo Simone]

Conte? I wouldn't blame Conte. It's a personal choice. All Conte has ever done was...to give a little push.

[acid911]

V For Vendetta. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif) More like P For Vendetta, in this case. Personal vendetta. Always dragging Milan name into all his interviews, I wonder when will this stop, it's been an year really.

[kurtsimonw]

All Conte has ever done was...to give a little push.

Joker?

[drucurl]

Yep, looks like Conte rubbed all over him. You'd have never expected such an attitude from Pirlo. I guess he really has crossed over to the dark side.

He should remember that he made his name at Milan and won everything there is to win in football while being a Milan player.

YOU might have never expected this from him but I always knew this to be his true nature (post 2008). He's the most self serving insulated pr!ck I've seen. Kind of like iBra but with less ability and determination.

I EXPECTED a guy who forced me to endure match after match of his flippant uncaring attitude and his nonchalant approach to our defense. I have seen and lost count of the sheer number of attackers that would blow past him repeatedly without even the scarcest pretense of an effort on his part.

The problem is that when Seedorf played poorly the whole of the ever so gracious San Siro would roundly boo him. Whenever Pirlo put on one of his USUAL nonchalant displays it was just seen as his arrogant unaffected genius at work...plus he was a white italian like them so....you know they went easy on him (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The double standards still ringout so clearly today with the midget fairy $h!t not even wishing our beloved Nesta well on his journey. It takes nothing out of his new found juventusness for him to send well wishes for him. But class is ONE thing I will never accuse this cross dressing scum factory of.
(IMG:http://files.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_1475/14753305/file/sky-tv-miracles-pirlo-small-30322.jpg)
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Fillipo Simone]

Joker?

YES! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)