Sydney FC have won the race to sign Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero, and according to the Italian star's Agent, the history between Liverpool and Juve meant that the Reds were never really in with a chance of signing the player.
In an interview earlier this afternoon, Claudio Pasqualin, Del Piero's Agent, confirmed that Liverpool had made enquiries, and revealed the reason why Del Piero rejected the Reds. He explained:
"He [Del Piero] said no to Liverpool out of remembrance and respect for the the Heysel tragedy."
Clearly, old wounds die hard for Del Piero, and given the level of antipathy that remains amongst some die-hard Juve fans towards Liverpool, it's no surprise that the striker decided not to upset the fanbase that has supported him for so many years.
Del Piero was asked about the Heysel disaster prior to Juve's 2005 Champions League game at Anfield. He said:
"I was 11yrs old at the time of the Heysel disaster. I was watching the game together with my parents at some friends. I remember that when my dad realised how serious the incidents were, he sent me and my friend out to play football in the yard. We went back in after the game ended. I realised what had happened some time later"
It would've been great to have a true legend of the game at Liverpool for a while, but I don't think any fans seriously believed that a 37-year old striker could've been the answer to the club's goalscoring problems.
Best of luck in Sydney, Alessandro!
Jaimie Kanwar
In an interview earlier this afternoon, Claudio Pasqualin, Del Piero's Agent, confirmed that Liverpool had made enquiries, and revealed the reason why Del Piero rejected the Reds. He explained:
"He [Del Piero] said no to Liverpool out of remembrance and respect for the the Heysel tragedy."
Clearly, old wounds die hard for Del Piero, and given the level of antipathy that remains amongst some die-hard Juve fans towards Liverpool, it's no surprise that the striker decided not to upset the fanbase that has supported him for so many years.
Del Piero was asked about the Heysel disaster prior to Juve's 2005 Champions League game at Anfield. He said:
"I was 11yrs old at the time of the Heysel disaster. I was watching the game together with my parents at some friends. I remember that when my dad realised how serious the incidents were, he sent me and my friend out to play football in the yard. We went back in after the game ended. I realised what had happened some time later"
It would've been great to have a true legend of the game at Liverpool for a while, but I don't think any fans seriously believed that a 37-year old striker could've been the answer to the club's goalscoring problems.
Best of luck in Sydney, Alessandro!
Jaimie Kanwar
Fair enough in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think that this is the genuine reason for Del Piero's choice, and that the agent wasn't making use of a football tragedy in order to deflect attention away from Del Piero finding the weather and money in Sydney far more favourable than the rain and lack of finances on Merseyside.
ReplyDeleteJaimie what happened in Heysel disaster?
ReplyDeleteI'm only 16 so I was quite young at the time.
You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heysel_Stadium_disaster
ReplyDeleteWe may not like it but it's valid reason
ReplyDeleteWow, surprised that I never heard about it before.
ReplyDeletePure class. It would have been nice to see the same from Harry Kewell when he went to Galatasary despite the leeds fans that got stabbed over there.
ReplyDeleteI wouldnt give up a life in Australia to spend a cold winter on Merseyside either. Mind you Landon Donovan comes here in the winter from California so some do.
ReplyDeleteTry this one David.
ReplyDeletehttp://bianconeri.tripod.com/heysel.html
Fair dues, I wouldn't pass up on the chance to live in Oz either, it's a bloody nightmare getting visas and all the rest.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, for footballing reasons, we should never have been looking at him in the first place. Maybe 10 years ago but, at 37 and coming to a new league, club & country, this would just have been a strain on the transfer budget.
I want to see this young German kid playing. Samid Yessil looks like a young Klose but with pace. I've watched a few videos of him on YouTube from the U17 tourney and he looks fearless going forward. Even from the bench, giving him (and Morgan) playing time will help his development.
On another note, the club not spending the money to land Dempsey just seems, to me, totally foolish and blinded by the fact that he is 29. RVP is 29, he cost Man Utd £24m with £250k/week in wages. Ibrahimovic is 30, cost £31m and is on 14m Euros a year.
These are just two examples of buying proven quality at the 'wrong' side of 28 but the clubs who bought these two know that they have bought proven match winners and goal scorers. RVP has 4 goals form 2 starts, Zlatan has 3 goals from 4 matches. LFC have 2 league goals from 3 matches and 5 conceded. Yes, we have been giving youth a chance and I'm glad to see it but we need more proven quality to bang goals in and/or help Suarez.
I think it's time FSG realised that LFC has a bigger fan base than the Red Sox and, as the previous owners found out, we have very loud voices and won't be taken for mugs.
I have family in Turin, I was surprised to think he would ever come given his ties to Juve and the feelings towards the club from there. Even if his personal feelings aren't that strong the fan backlash would be extreme.
ReplyDeleteJamie, is it true that BR in his infinite wisdon rejected the Owen move..?
ReplyDeleteAnd as for Pierro, i knew it was a non starter, yet another nice little smokescreen for the fans...
Deary me...the games people play..eh.?
Yes, it's true Rodgers rejected Owen, but even if he wanted to sign him, FSG would not have allowed it. And who can blame them? Owen represents the antithesis of the club's transfer strategy: old, injury prone short-term fix, who would cost a lot of money, with no guarantee of any positive return.
ReplyDeleteI can't see any credible argument for signing Owen. Care to advance one?
fair play to del piero it would have been great to have a world class player at anfield even better if was ten years younger lol the fact that we have been linked to him is flabbergasting i say bring back king kenny and before you start kanwar idont mean as manager i mean as a player he would fit the bill perfectly out of contract but a great player we could see if your favorite barnes wants a game aswell we can all forget there [no offence to 2 great players]passed it but no contracts happy days infact we can all think of some great players out of contract the pity is they are out of a contract for a reason so we have what we have till january by which time am afraid champions league quailification will have to be forgotten about 4 another season
ReplyDeleteWell, lets see how he does at Stoke when he IS played, shall we.....
ReplyDeleteThat right there is my defence of him in a nutshell, might not have been the answer to our goalscoring issues.....for the long run obviously....but his linking up with Gerrard again would have definietly provided a welcome boost to the side short term and with plenty of Top club exp... surely it would have been worth a punt....afterall not really a lot to lose have we..?
Quite an arrogant move on BR's part if you ask me, though im sure you'd disagree.
Anyway, i don't know why i mentioned Gerrard needing a boost to you, being one of his most ardent critics....
has Doni gone back to Brazil why is he not in the 25 man squad, very little said about him.
ReplyDeletemight of well as brought fowler, back... he,s better than owen and del peiro is far too old for the prem...too slow... i think he took the easy option...lower level football....
ReplyDeleteDont know why anyone would want Del Piero when we could have Robbie Fowler who is the same age. i'm surprised not more being made of this......he came back before when we needed the extra bodies and i'm sure he can do a fine job at mentoring Adam Morgan ! he'd probably come at not too expensive either and certainly boost the fans seeing him warming up at a match !!! !! !
ReplyDeleteYou don't think anyone seriously considered del Piero? So who has made him the offer?
ReplyDeleteThat's not what I said. I said 'I don't think any fans seriously believed he would be the answer to LFC's goalscoring problems'.
ReplyDeleteWon the race.....Come on, Jaimie. Liverpool Football club has denied making an approach. The owners refuse to sanction the purchase of a 29 year old who is proven in the Premier League, but 'enter the race' for a 37 year old.I know whom I believe.
ReplyDeleteEmile Heskey is still in the chip shop window
ReplyDeleteand an Evertonian told me Jose Baxter too
SIX MILLION SPENT LAST JANUARY WOULD OF SOLVED THIS PROBLEM AND IT WAS NOT DONE, AND WHO'S FAULT WAS THAT 'KING KENNY'
ReplyDeleteJelavic
The King says he is no better than what we already have.
Enough said his goalscoring record speaks for itself and he doesnt have a partner like Suarez either to play with.
I agree with the Jelavic comment but please don't disrespect Dalglish, he has done far too much for our club in his lifetime to deserve such derision.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, he would have done a job for us. I'm Scottish and live close to Glasgow, I have mates from both sides of the Old Firm and they all told me that he was quality. They were all equally shocked when we didn't get him.
Unspecified family issues.
ReplyDeleteYep, but im sure if he (Jelavic) had come here and had Suarez to play off.... he probably would have flopped....
ReplyDeleteLucky for him he chose the right Club to go to, and i don't see anything wrong in Kenny standing up for his players....i recall Roy getting slaughtered by the fans for suggesting that maybe we needed to lower our expectations re the squad etc....look at us now eh? Roy was a visionary....lol and we didn't even know it! :)
Can't blame Kenny for where we are at, the transfer window was open all summer long after Kenny was sacked...so i guess the Club or should i say FSG/BR are accountable or at least should be....
Can't blame him at all for this. Fair enough, he knows where his loyalties lie. If things were reversed (in that the tragedy had befallen us), we'd be disappointed if our player joined them.
ReplyDeleteWould have been an honour to see him pull on a red shirt.
Whilst it is likely uncomfortable for some Liverpool fans to accept this (especially given the unfair distortion of events at Heysel and its subsequent use to try and discredit Liverpool fans by rewriting history and making us the worst, most violent thuggish criminals in football's whole existence) the club haven't done enough over the years to try and take their share of the blame and to try and repair (even if it would likely prove futile) relations between the clubs and, more importantly, their fans.
It is a terrible incident and though we never want to think about, for a variety of reasons, we must always remember and remember that hate begets hate, violence begets violence.
R.I.P.
Heysel's 39
YNWA
EPL brings them all here!
ReplyDeleteIm going out on a limb but hes talking crap and i am not buying it ...hes not coming to liverpool because 1) did we want him 2) it was all about money .......
ReplyDeletegranted hes not italian but juventus where happy to sell us poulson and buy rush off us plus aqua man was being touted there while playing for us ......if the moneys there they are going ...the one thing i know about 90% of footballers is all they care about is money and themselves
ReplyDelete2 million is what stoke are paying thats more than a punt for a croc whos past it
ReplyDeleteDel Piero's decision is based on his misguided belief that Liverpool fans were solely responsible for Heysel!! WRONG WRONG WRONG!! As Oscar Wilde once said: "The truth is never pure and rarely simple". The seeds of this disaster lay the year before in Rome, when scumbag Roma fans attacked dozens of Liverpool fans with knives wounding many of them while scumbag Italian police stood by and watched. Then UEFA chose a stadium which although it had hosted the final a few times was literally falling to bits, to add insult to injury UEFA then failed to police the ground properly on the outside. The police preferring to be on the inside (probably so they could watch the game without doing much work). Fans were able to walk through holes in fences to get into the ground in some parts of the stadium. Also a so-called neutral section of the ground next to the Liverpool section was no properly policed and the so-called neutrals sold many of their tickets to Italian fans. Liverpool FC and the Liverpool ECHO highlighted potential problems to UEFA in the days leading up to Europe's most prestigious game but were fobbed off as UEFA usually does!! UEFA don't like anyone pissing on their chips apparently!! Therefore the scene was set for a horrible disaster. Some scumbag Liverpool fans accommodated next to a section of Italian fans separated by ONE policeman (who was shitting himself - look at the tape if you don't believe me) and a chicken wire fence (I kid you not). Anyway, the LFC fans decided to throw missiles at the Juve fans or it might even have been the other way round, no-one if really sure who started it!! Before long it was getting hostile and finally in the end a few dozen Liverpool fans charged at the Italians tearing through the chicken wire like to was wool. This made the Italians rush away against an UNSUPPORTED wall. Needless to say this collapsed and caused the deaths of the 39 Juve fans. Obviously, Liverpool fans were reviled the world over and even had the same effect initially at Hillsborough (they are animals it must have been their fault). The real MAIN culprits though were UEFA and the administrators of the game and venue. Yes, it was inexcusable for some scumbag LFC fans to charge and cause the panic (the majority in fact, were identified and not even from Liverpool) BUT and its massive BUT the blame largely lie with the people who picked the venue and controlled the crowds, just as at Hillsborough when things go wrong the people organising the game immediately blame the "rabble" and not the fact that they cannot organise an event and keep people safe! They are happy to back slap themselves when things go right like at the Miracle of Istanbul but when things go wrong they point their fingers at the crowd!!
ReplyDeleteWell, we'll see if your right won't we...
ReplyDeleteDel Piero's agent endears the departing superstar to the die hards of he club, therefore cementing his legacy forever, by spinning a complete BS yarn.
ReplyDeleteFSG would NEVER have sanctioned a move for a 37 year old. Come on people, get a grip.
hell be better of being a big fish in a big pond at sydney than at liverpool where he will be a tad pole , and believe me when people say he is coming here to australia for the weather sydneys weather aint all its cracked up to be ,
ReplyDeleteits funny at the time during that period english clubs were dominating european cup competitions and low and behold we get banned for what 10 years , and english footballl suffered from it , and we then saw a sudden influx of foreighn players head to italian football but in the end they suffered because teams went broke lol
ReplyDeleteAs an Australian Id give it up in a heartbeat to wlak out onto Anfield every week. Even if it was just to sit there freezing my butt off on the bench most of the time!
ReplyDeleteI agree its a class act but I also think that Harry Kewell had a valid point as well when he moved to Galatasary. Sometimes we need to move on from the tragic events of the past and come together learning from our mistakes. For example Australia, New Zealand & Turkey share a special bond after the events at Gallipolli after the events in WW2. Things have been forgotten and every year Australians, Kiwis & Turks come together in rememberance of what happened. Im certainly not saying that what Del Piero has done is wrong, far from it and I comend him for it but likewise I think that although Harry kewells move was ill percieved I think he had good intentions with his move too.
ReplyDeleteLol I wouldnt say its about the money! The A-League cant keep even the Marquee players due to competing with the J-League as well as the leagues about the GUlf, so I dont know how they are going to compete financially against the like of Europe.
ReplyDeleteIt will be this hot summer. We're approaching the 'el-nino' period which typically brings hot and dry weather (and to those non australians, not fernando torres). Weather wise, I definately know where I'd rather be, and Ale's would love the dark tan on his olive skin
ReplyDeletethat was his FORMER agent making those statements by the way. His current agent is his brother Stefano...
ReplyDeleteAnd he was playing for Juve 4 months ago. He may be 37 but his game doesnt rely on speed... and for those saying Fowler is a better option. I saw him for 2 seasons here (Oz) before he went to Thailand (for goodness sake) and he wasn't too old, just too slow and fat. very average. ADP would run rings around him...
desperate needs encourage desperate stories.
ReplyDelete