Prandelli is like Santa (or a Stalker): He’s Always Watching

September 21st, 2010 | by: Julian |

All calcio players out there, take note. No matter what team you play for, no matter how small or how big, Cesare is watching.

Gli Azzurri is famous from having players from the larger teams in Italy. Historically speaking, many of our World Cup winning squads have been proliferated with Juventus players, for example. But Cesare believes in a meritocracy, and he says he’ll call up any players who deserve it- including those from Cesena:

The squad who have impressed me most is Massimo Ficcadenti’s Cesena, and in particular Giaccherini. Cesena are playing very well. They have changed very little but have managed to maintain their equilibrium. Eto’o or Giaccherini? They are two different players, but Giaccherini is one of great interest. We are monitoring a lot of players in order to see if they have the required ability.

Cesena have had a fairytale run this far. They sit top of the table after having tied Roma and defeated Milan and Lecce. Considering that most pundits pegged them as relegation candidates, leading the pack is a huge success for them. However, this is quite common early in the season. World Cup players are still getting into form and came back from holidays later than non World Cup players, which means that the smaller teams (those without internationals) have had more time to train and get into top gear. Once the big teams hit top form, these early season fairytale stories often deflate. For example, look at the case of Hull City a few years ago in the Premiere League. On the other hand, though, Chievo led the table in 2001/2002 for six weeks an ended the season in fifth. So who knows what’ll end up happening to Cesena.

Either way, it’s great to see Prandelli monitoring players to see if they have “the required ability”. Giaccherini has hugely impressed, as has the rest of Cesena, and fully merits at least a call up. I’d love to know what the interviewer’s question was that made Prandelli compare him to Eto, though, and what exactly that interviewer was thinking. Giaccherini might be impressive but nowhere near at Eto’s level. He’s already 25 and has yet to receive an international cap at any level (he was uncapped at the youth level), so it’s probably safe to say that he’s not quite as good as the only man in history to win back to back trebles.

But he’s probably impressive enough for Prandelli to give him a shout.

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Mo_dudes

Cesare Prandelli has underlined his commitment to playing three up front in Italy's upcoming internationals, as per his confession to football-italia, now why not select Giaccherini the man has impressed so far with Cesena, I have seen his game against Milan the man got potential. Bravo Cesare for watching the talents that come out of small clubs, I can see you are proving a point that Italian football has got talents and youngsters can do something valuable to gli azzurri, unlike Lippi who could not even name the 20 Serie A teams when asked in mid of 2009/2010 season, which explains why Italy had the worst world cup appearance in in the history of WC. Anyways, he is gone and thanks god to that, I would very much like to see Giovinco take a shot in at least one of the upcoming two games for euro qualifiers.
agiamba

Genoa, Udinese, Fiorentina, Cagliari, Bari, and Sampdoria all had players called up to WC.
rdj8

If Prandelli was watching so close..giovinco would be top on his list..
MM9

I am about 2 years new to following football closely, so I do not yet catch a lot of intricacies of the players when I watch them.

Having said that, can someone give me an honest, no bullshit assessment of why a guy like Giovinco is not receiving attention from the national team?

I think he looks great when I watch Parma, and it seems that MANY other people feel the same way. Is his game severely deficient in one particular area? Does he lack on defense? Locker room issues? I don't mean to hi-jack the topic, but I'd love to hear from some more knowledgeable fans.

Thanks in advance
FrancescoItalyOffside

Giovinco is still an unfulfilled promise of Italian calcio. He exploded onto the Italy U-21 scene and then when he was promoted to Juve's first team he never had enough playing time to prove his worth. First Ranieri, then Ferrara, then Zaccheroni never gave the kid a chance. Finally at Parma he has a chance to play all the time and prove he has what it takes to be world class. Critics say he is way too small to ever be great, but he has such sublime technical ability that he can overcome his physical stature limitations.

Giovinco will be a Nazionale player by season's end, mark my words.
Fuck Gilardino

lol but they didn't play really cept taht faggot gilardino
Comrade88

Julian, could you approve my comment and add me to the whitelist?
Tonyu

Not so sure you watched the world cup,

Criscito (Genoa) played all 3 games

Montolivo (Fior) played all 3 games

Marchetti (Cagliari) played all 3 games

Pepe (Udinese, at least at the time) played all 3 games

Di Natale (Udinese) played all 3 games

Not to mention, Pazzini, Quagliarella and Maggio all got in there aswell
http://italy.worldcupblog.org Julian

Done, Comrade.