Cannavaro switch to Juve almost tied up: report

Sacchi delays £16m Cannavaro switch to Juve

Saturday 11th May 2002

Italy defender Fabio Cannavaro has urged Parma sports director Arrigo Sacchi to make up his mind on a player to sign as a makeweight in his £16 million transfer to champions Juventus. "I want Parma to choose quickly," said the 28-year-old.

Sacchi has agreed to release Cannavaro for £16 million after talks on Friday with Juventus directors Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo.

Cannavaro is set to sign a five-year deal at the Stadio dell Alpi worth £2.8 million a season, but the deal cannot go through until the two sides agree on which player will move in the other direction.

Sacchi has asked for midfielder Matteo Brighi, who has impressed this season with Bologna, but is owned by Juventus.

But Moggi was adamant that Brighi will not be going to the Ennio Tardini: "It's true we are interested in Fabio Cannavaro," he said. "It's true Parma have asked for Brighi - but we will not sell our young midfielder even if we are threatened with a pistol."

Juventus are reported to have offered Parma a choice of midfielders out of Alessio Tacchinardi and Enzo Maresca. Sacchi will meet Moggi again on Monday where the former Italy coach is expected to select his preferred player.

Cannavaro has urged a quick decision, saying: "I want Parma to choose quickly, because I absolutely want to know which team I will play for next season before I fly to Japan for the World Cup."

The 28-year-old Neapolitan almost left for Lazio last summer when the Rome club offered £16 million plus Paolo *****. Parma rebuffed the advances of Lazio, who went on to sign Holland defender Jaap Stam from Manchester United.

Cannavaro, who started his career at Napoli, admitted earlier this season that he would relish a move to Juventus. "Who would not want to wear the black-and-white jersey?" he asked.

"I would have no problems moving there. I have lots of friends there - Buffon, Ciro Ferrara. Juventus are Juventus. They are the club who have won the most trophies in Italy."

onefootball

So- for arguments sake; let's say we get Canna with money and Tach. or Enzo.

That means Thuram is gone, and it opens up a big question as to who will join in his place, unless Man.U or Real Madrid wants to at least match the world record suim we paid for him last season.

Tach. or Enzo ? Well. Tacchinardi is bound to be undervalued by selling him now, as he has had an awful season after two great ones, but seing that neither Tach. or Maresca has been that influential this season, I would rather keep Maresca who doubtlessly has more talent.
I doubt Tacchinardi will want to go to Parma though, as he has said that if he should one day leave Juve, there was only Milan for him, and since Ancelotti has expressed an interest...
Maresca just wants to play, and he will be on familiar terms with all the other Azzurrini at Parma, so if they agree on him the deal should go through no problem.
Moreover- Lippi has been adamant not to use Maresca in his true position anyway, so it might be better for both Juve, Maresca and Lippi to sell Enzo.

That said- I'd prefer it to be Tach. if one of these two, but better yet Baiocco, because I've always liked Tach.'s personality (and he's our third captain remember) .

Ciao.

Juventus ready to land Cannavaro next week

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juventus expect to sign Italian international defender Fabio Cannavaro from Parma AC next week.

Talks are underway for the Neopolitan to sign a four year contract next week in a $23 million move from Parma says Italy's ANSA news agency.

He may be paired with former Parma stalwart Lilian Thuram in defence for the Italian champions next season in front of Parma's former goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

However, Thuram is the subject of interest from Manchester United and his future at the Turin club is undecided.

Juve managing director Luciano Moggi is adding two players from his squad to the cash fee to be paid for Cannavaro with midfielder Enzo Maresca or Italian international Alessio Tacchinardi to join the Parma club although Milan tabled a bid for Taccinardi last week.

Memorable: Because it's clear that Thuram won't spend next season as right back, and because it's absolutely impossible to fit in Thuram, Cannavaro, Montero, Tudor, Iuliano and Ferrara ( maybe even Fresi) in the same squad.

Moreover- as far as Moggi is concerned- he actually commented (haven't heard it but La Stampa is a reliable source) on Thuram when he annouced that Miccoli had been signed, and he said that if Thuram would accept the right back he would stay. Sentence closed. I simply cannot imagine that happening, and Thuram is not the hardest player to sell I think...

When getting Cannavaro- I think Thuram MUST be sold, as having so many superstars in defence is stupid with regards to what we can actually improve. Getting Canna is reasonable only if it means we can't keep Thuram, and the only reason we won't be keeping Thuram is because he won't accept the right back.

Ciao.

Nyuka: What ? Thuram has time and time again said he wanted to play in centreal DEFENCE, but maybe that's what you ment ? He has never played as a midfielder in his professional carrier, so that wouldn't make any sence. If you say we should play him in central defence- OK, but why make CAnnavaro the second most expensive defender in history to put him in a place he never plays ? Cannavaro has played right back with the NT when Italy has gone all out defence. He doesn't contribute anything to offence as far as crosses goes, so what would be the point of that ? He is a marker primarily. Birindelli or Paramatti contributes more on the backs offensively. We're supposed to upgrade offence right ? Spending 21 million£ or something when we already have Tudor, Montero, Ferrara, Iuliano and Fresi... not to mention the possibility of giving Thuram what he wants... it's completely outthere.

Fresi has already been confirmed by both Moggi and Lippi. Getting Canna while keeping Thuram creates a situation with not 2 or 3 great central defenders, but 7 (SEVEN!!!!!), out of which 4 are fantastic and 3 very good. What's the sence in that, when we have one left back (who is injured) and one creative central midfielder ? It's getting absurd here.

OK- if we revert to a 3 man defence- it will be a much more agreeable scenario, but (even including Lippi's likely fancy of playing Tudor in midfield ) it would give us a second defensive lineup consisting of- Ferrara___Fresi___Iuliano ..... :eekani: . It's simply weird, and would in my opinion be the 4th or 5th strongest in serie A counting our first selection (Juve1, Lazio, Roma,Inter, Juve2).
Contrast that with our midfield without Nedved and Davids.... even looking at central defenders ought to be a crime, and especially so if Lippi plans to play with 4 defenders again, because then only 2 can play every game.

We had the best defence in Italy without Thuram (two years running), and when he joined he took the right back position Tudor had been played in. Neither liked it very much, but the result was the same- still the best defence. Goalwise it didn't mean much either, as our results defensively has been pretty much the same for the last 3 seasons. All that's changed was DP getting back to scoring ways and Trez being a huge upgrade on Pippo.
Buying Canna will improve every side, but considering that we could get Doni and Mutu for about the same money.... what would be more useful ?

I simply don't get those who think we can get Canna and keep Thuram. Last year we bought very expensive players. Do you guys think we can get another season with 4 major purchases ? I don't, and the reason is that we're not about to sell big players. Our investments were funded by Zizou's world record sale + Pippo and Kova leaving. Who do you want to sell to finance big moves this time around ?
Juventus is a rich club, and we can afford to invest, especially after seing how the club has clewerly tied up Chimenti and Fresi as free agents. We might even do the same with Poborsky, and our first offensive signing Miccoli was a 3million£ bargain. But we can't go on buying central defenders all the time, as it's stupid seing that we already have by far the strongest central defence selection IN THE WORLD... for clubfootball that is.

Time to assess what the squad really needs, and I truly hope Moggi is just playing mindgames with all of us.

Last thing- I think Brighi is considered a starter next season, which explains alot with regards to central midfield. I just hope it won't prohibit us from getting at least ONE creative force threatening for goal from midfield, because Brighi is a fine, complete player and a massive talent, but a big creator or scorer he isn't.

Ciao.

Thuram will leave 100% now!!

the only way we would know if Thuram was staying is if Montero was going to Parma in that deal to get Cannavaro. but since its midfielders who they want, Thuram will be at Man U next season.

I really want to keep Maresca, i believe he will be starting in the next WC for Italy. Tacchinardi should go, as his time is over at juve and we have great young players like Brighi, Maresca and Baiocco who is really a top player.

With Thuram going to Man U, its possible that we might ask for only cash. With that cash, we might buy a player like Doni, or other players who could strengthen our midfield.

Veron could be possible, as we could lure players like Fiore and Liverani from Lazio cuz they want Veron very much.

Another thing we must remember is that Juve just won the scudetto, which means that we would get a lot of money. We spent big on players before this season, but we sold big as well, so its not like we are in need of cash.

players like Doni, Mutu, Ze Maria who were also guarenteed juve players next season shouldnt be a major problem to buy.

Mutu and doni will cost a lot between them, but we shouldn't have any problems at all finding the cash.

Milan lead in Cannavaro chase Monday 13 May, 2002

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tug of war between Juventus and Milan for Fabio Cannavaro seems to have swung into the Rossoneri’s favour.

Reports over the weekend had suggested that the Bianconeri had virtually wrapped up the deal for the Parma stopper.

However, fresh information implies that Milan President Silvio Berlusconi has personally contacted Parma technical director Arrigo Sacchi for the stopper in the hope that their close friendship could be favourable.

The San Siro giants are set to offer cash and midfielder Massimo Donati in a deal reportedly worth around £33m.

The latter, an established Under-21 international, is ideal for the Gialloblu who are looking to base the future of their club on youth development.

This latest twist could see Juventus up their offer for Cannavaro after their recent failure in trying to land Alessandro Nesta.

The Delle Alpi side made another approach for the Lazio defender yesterday but it seems that the capital club have no intention of selling their captain.


------------------------------------------------------------

I guess we'll just have to wait and see

It's just one thing about this whole Cannavaro scenario that I havn't gotten the answer to.

If Canna comes then Thuram goes right? But there are still no logical reasons to why.
Someone said that Thuram would leave because he didn't want to play rightback. But that doesn't make sence if he is to be replaced with Cannavaro. If the rumours would have been J.Zanetti or someone like that, then it would make sence. But now it's like this: Since the centraldefender Thuram doesn't want to play rightback, we are going to buy a new centraldefender.
This just sounds stupid. Play Nesta as rightback for a long time and he would complain too.

So the only reason as I see it is that either Lippi isn't very fond of Thuram, or Thuram doesn't like it in Juve.

Anyway, for Juve this deal essentially just means Thuram is replaced by Canna. And talantwise I'd say they are the same. Not playingwise though, so maybe that could be a reason too?

So once again; why is Thuram leaving? Because he played bad, because he and the coach doesn't get along, or because of a tactical reason?

enola has a point. why would we sell thuram because he dosent play right back and buy another centre back.

i think Lippi is going to play a 3 man defence like the old days when we won everything under his first spell as coach.

Thuram still didnt want to play that, he wanted his 4 man defence and he wanted to play in the centre.

Well, if thats the case, Cannavaro is younger and he is just as good if not better than thuram.

i just hope that if we decide to play the same as this season, we play Zenoni at right back. He is a young top player and it would be good if he starts all the the time.

this could explain the rumours of ze maria joining us at the later stage of last season.