After reading a bunch of italian articles, it seems to me that many people believe our immediate future is bleak at best. I've always tried to be an optimistic person, but is calcio dying? There's some new players coming up, but I'm not sure if they are the real deal. I thought after the debacle of the last World Cup we would recover and move forward. However, I'm feeling after this were in trouble and we may take awhile to rebuild our brand of calcio if ever. Serie a has been in decline for awhile, and most of the big teams apart from juve have mostly foreigners. I would relish the idea of playing a minimum of 2-3 Italians in every team for serie a, but it seems to me that italy is more worried about results for their club than the bigger picture which is italian soccer. I'd love to hear that I'm wrong
Read the TOP PROSPECTS thread I created. I think you'll see that there are many talented prospects coming through the ranks. It takes time in Italy to develop talent and hopefully with the way things are today (precisely today to be exact), more of an effort will be made to give this talent a chance. Serie A clubs need to realize that there is a lot of talent at home and start to stray away from their reliance on foreign talent. It starts at the small clubs and I'll be supporting clubs like Sassuolo to do well with the plethora of Italian talent that they have. Hopefully the FIGC has some power to enforce some restrictions on foreign talent (I'm unfamiliar with their jurisdiction) and the new regime and leaders recognize that something needs to be done.
Therein lies the problem. As Prandelli pointed out when he resigned there has been little support from domestic clubs in terms of focusing on domestic talent, which naturally will only make things more difficult for the NT as a result. It's really sad and needs to change.
I pray you're right my patriotic brother, I follow the progress of our youth extensively. The one thing that scares me is that 20 years after the debuts of many of our 2006 heroes we still haven't found the new nestas, canavaros, del pieros, tottis, buffons. We haven't truly had a new flag bearer of italian soccer in a while, and that pains me. As a nation we have to stop looking at our past, and expect it to just fix itself. We need to develop and restart from the ground up.
Well said. And I agree completely. It is worrying and it starts with the clubs. It's as if they have lost complete faith in their youth academies and developing prospects for the future. Perhaps its a financial reason, I do not know... I know Lazio is developing a state of the art youth academy, similar to Ajax and Barcelona. I hope many other Italian clubs follow suit and start taking things seriously. Our biggest issues are in defence at the moment. Otherwise, I'm not too concerned.
Euro 2012 looked like italy was on its way back and Juve, Napoli did good in CL in 2013 but then this year everything seemed to go to shit.
No one will care about the national team come the fall. As soon as the Serie A and the clubs are back playing in their full swing, we won't hear anything about how Italy lost to Costa Rica and Uruguay. The only way I foresee anyone complaining is if Italy fail to qualify for the Euros. Even though this tournament should teach the FIGC to not take anyone lightly, if they can not get out of this group, then maybe its time to worry. Italy, Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Malta...... From Wiki..... The top two of each group qualify and the highest ranked third-placed team from the groups directly qualify for the tournament, while the remainder enter the play-offs. As some groups contain six teams and some five, matches against the sixth-placed team in each group are not included in this ranking. As a result, a total of eight matches played by each team count toward the purpose of the third-placed ranking table
Have the financial problems of Serie A contributed to the lack of proper development of domestic youth players? Why don't rich clubs of Serie A like Juventus, Inter, and Milan care more about youth academies? Wouldn't it make sense in times like these to invest more in youth academies instead of buying expensive players? No reason why a big Italian club like Juventus can't have an academy like Barcelona's or Ajax.
Apparently Lazio is investing into a state of the art Youth Academy, similar to Barcelona and Ajax. I hope Juve, Roma and both Milan sides follow.
Good to see that at least one club is getting serious about this. The rest need to follow or else we're going to end up like England and Portugal. Solid sides that bark a lot but never bite.
The problem is that Serie A clubs have become addicted to the "quick fix" of foreign players. When foreigners 1st started coming into Serie A in the early 80's, only 2 were allowed per team and only the best were signed: Krol, Platini, Zico, Falcao, etc. As the league allowed 3 then more, the high level of foreigners was maintained with a majority of teams still remaining Italian. Think of the great Milan teams of the late 80's with the 3 Dutch masters or Inter with the German contingent or Napoli with Careca, Alemao and Maradona. The Italian players who were brought on these teams got lots of playing time and their technical abilities improved by playing with these stars. Once the 90s rolled in and these limits were dropped, Serie A teams remained top dogs in Europe and were still able to sign top talent. The Italian players who were still being developed as momentum of the 80s receded, were enough to create another generation of great Italian footballers that carried Italy to the 2006 WC victory. Unfortunately, that situation has waned and the momentum of player development has subsided. This problem is compounded with the continued addiction of foreign player acquisition as the quickest means to Serie A success even while the league has fallen way behind the top Euro leagues financially. So we are no longer developing Italian talent at the club level at the same time that the level of foreigners has dropped dramatically. Look at a club like Milan who just a couple of years ago had Thiago Silva starting. He left for PSG and has been replaced by crappy foreigners (Mexes). They had players like Constant starting who are mediocre at best. I find it hard to believe that there are no Italian youngsters in the Milan system that are able to fill in these spots at least as adequately as these overpriced has beens. Likewise at Napoli, Mazzarri insisted 3 years ago on spending 12 million (if memory serves me correct) for Miguel Britos who is a second tier Uruguayan who has no place at any team with CL aspirations and has been awful on the field. I can not believe that there isn't a single young Italian defender who would have played better (and been much cheaper) for Napoli. Look at Juve who have continued to stockpile Italian players (Quagliarella, Giovinco, Matri last year) only to have them languish on the bench for the crime of not scoring in 3 games. Meanwhile, Llorente is brought in and is given 3 months of putrid play to finally find his feet and have a great 2nd half. This double-standard of accepting sub-optimal performance by foreigners while punishing the least below average performance by Italians has to have a demoralizing effect on the younger players around the country as they press harder and put more pressure on themselves because they know any slip ups will mean the bench. Young players need to be nurtured and allowed to develop. For all of the issues, we better pray that Verratti continues his development at PSG, that Immobile has success at Dormund, that Insigne continues growing at Napoli and that Berrardi isn't snatched up by a top club only to ride his butt on the bench.
Apparently Berardi is staying at Sassuolo for another year, which I'm very pleased to hear as thaat's the ideal place for him to continue to grow and see regular starting minutes. As great as Juve is at developing talent at the youth level, they've never really been very kind to said talent when it comes to incorporating them into their starting 11.
The English have much same problem as ours. But at least their league is one of the best in Europe. The German managed to rise from the ashes of 2004/06 failure until now a constant force in International tournament. Tomas Muller, still only 24, despite not being an out and out forward, scores more than Balotelli did for his national team. I would say follow their model, take on positive side.
The FIGC is really the one that has to do something. You can't really blame clubs since they act in their own interest. Even the government should help by offering tax breaks for young Italians who play. I think in Germany, they all got together and instituted plans - of course Germans are more able to work together in this regard, where as Italy, it's quite a bit harder to do.
Totally agree. Most recent example is Giovinco. In his first stint with Juve he was a bench player not getting many minutes. He gets loaned to Parma and becomes a starter and star of the team, even finding his way back on to the NT. Now back at Juve he's on the bench again. He should have gone to Lazio this year when they wanted him.
try telling the big clubs that they have to limit their foreign players they might not be on board because they're trying to win now and they mostly believe these stranieri will provide them with that now dont forget euro qualification and progressing deep into europe means big $$$ for clubs
The point is that this is a 90s mentality with current financial reality. These clubs are not finding success at Euro level and Italian clubs are losing competitive ground because they aren't able to acquire the best foreigners and have to settle for 2nd rate guys. How many of the top WC stars are playing in Serie A? How many of the up and coming stars are signing with Serie A clubs? These teams have mismanaged their way into losing a CL spot and things don't look any brighter for the near-term future. They are shooting themselves in the foot and would be much better off competitively and financially if they developed their own young, homegrown talent. It's just not as easy as simply buying guys from other countries. And it will take investment and patience. On 2nd thought, we're screwed!
German clubs never developed the addiction to foreign players that has set in at Serie A and EPL. For many years, the top German players left the Budesliga, whose teams had no choice but to develop their young players. German clubs have developed a different culture than Italian clubs and that's what's brought the two national teams to such divergent roads.