Genoa Club Amsterdam

In this tranferperiod Genoa bought and sold 5 players:

Defense: new: Roger de Carvalho (Figueirense, Brasil)

gone: Dario Dainelli (Chievo)

Midfield: new: Fernando Belluschi (Porto) and Davide Biondini (Cagliari)

gone: Alexander Merkel (Milan) and Felipe Seymour (Catania)

Forwards: new: Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina) and Giuseppe Sculli (Lazio)

gone: Andrea Caracciolo (Novara) and Sebastian Ribas (Sporting Portugal)

 

Besides these players Genoa also bought some youngsters like: Ciro Immobile (Juventus), Stefan Simic (Slavia Prague) and Andy Polo (Club Universitario de Deportes).

Exactly 365 days after his transfer towards Lazio our wingstriker Giuseppe Sculli returned to Genoa. Mr. Marino wants to play with 3 strikers, so we needed besides Palacio and Jankovic at least one other player to help Alberto Gilardino in the attack of Genoa. Sculli already played 4,5 years with Genoa from 2006 till the winter of last season. We still remember him as the “supporter” who ran into the field during the last minutes of Genoa-Napoli at the day both teams promoted to Serie A and the player who scored the great goal in the last minute against Lille in the Europa League. Welcome back Beppe!

Tonight the substitutes of Genoa lost 2-1 in the 1/8 finals of the Coppa Italia in Giuseppe Meazza against Inter. The black and blue of Ranieri first scored twice by Maicon and Poli before Valter Birsa scored his first official Genoa-goal in the 91st minute. Only 2 minutes of injury-time were left, which was too short to score the equalizer. Now we can fully concentrate on Serie A and try to reach the first 7 places to return in the Europa League. The next match is Sunday at 15.00 hours in Palermo.

The biggest problems of Genoa of the last weeks are in the midfield and the forwards. In the summer of 2011 our President Preziosi said that Genoa probably had the best midfield in Serie A with Kucka, Veloso, Merkel, Birsa and Constant. Especially Kucka and Costant don’t play like we all expected. The whole summer Genoa tried to buy central-forward Alberto Gilardino but Fiorentina refused the fantastic offer of €12 million, so at the end Genoa bought Andrea Caracciolo, after we first bought Pratto, Ribas and Zé Eduardo. Except Rodrigo Palacio none of the strikers scored the number of goals we all hoped, so Mr. Preziosi returned to Fiorentina 2 weeks ago and now bought Gilardino with a reduction of €4 million comparing to last summer. In midfield we now hope to find the solution with Davide Biondini the red haired “Gattuso” of Cagliari. The nearly 29 years old midfieldplayer has an experience of 7 years in Serie A and probably will be already in the line-up against Udinese (nr. 3 of the standings).

Our new trainer Pasquale Marino likes the “Dutch way” of playing football: 4-3-3. In this system with 3 strikers you need good players at the wings, but with Palacio we only have 1 good wingplayer to assist central forward Alberto Gilardino. To play at the left wing we need a new player which probably will be Giuseppe Sculli. “Beppe” already played 4,5 years with Genoa before he was transferred to Lazio in the summer of 2010. After the arrival of Gilardino and Biondini we wait for more transfernews the next days, but first we play against Udinese tomorrow at 15.00 hours. A very important match because of the terrible defeats against Napoli and Cagliari. The only problem: we only have 2 defenders (Mesto and Granqvist) healthy for the match.

The whole summer the newspapers told us that Alberto Gilardino the famous striker of Fiorentina and the Italian National team would come in Genova, but at the end we had to be happy with Andrea Caracciolo of Brescia. Andrea gave us a fantastic point in the new Juventus-stadium to score the late equalizer but unhappily this was his only golden moment. Today Caracciolo was hired to Novara and at the end of the morning Alberto Gilardino arrived at the medical centre in Albaro, one of the best areas of Genova. Monday or Tuesday we expect ‘Gila’ for the first training with our new trainer: Pasquale Marino who substitutes Alberto Malesani who was fired one day after the horrible match in Napoli: 6-1 defeat. Marino is born 49 years ago in Marsala on the island Sicily. He trained several teams like Foggia, Arezzo, Catania, Udinese and Parma. With Udinese he reached the Europa League, the same result we like at the end of this season. Lots of success Alberto and Pasquale!

The whole summer it seemed that Alberto Gilardino of Fiorentina would be our new central-forward. Mr. Preziosi already had an agreement with the player and because of the bad relation between Gilardino and Fiorentina the transfer for everybody was only a matter of time. Unless an offer of € 10 million and Houssine Kharja Fiorentina refused to let Gilardino go to Genova, so Mr. Preziosi at the end of the transferperiod had to buy another central-striker: the 29 years old Andrea Caracciolo of Brescia who scored 12 times in Serie A last season unless the relegation of Brescia. The 1.94 meters tall player with the nickname: Heron has to battle with Pratto and Zé Eduardo to be in the line-up.

During the handover of the trophy Genoa Club Amsterdam Genoano of the year we heard that Rodrigo Palacio would stay the rest of his contract that ended in June 2013 with Genoa and afterwards he would return to Argentina. This summer Inter did everything to buy Rodrigo Palacio and at the last day of the transferperiod they offered € 10 million to Mr. Preziosi who refused. Rodrigo Palacio stays with Genoa and last week he enlarged his contract with 1 extra year till June 2014.

The strike of the players in the Serie A is over. Lega Calcio and the players union made a temporarely deal to the summer of 2012 which means that the new season start at Friday 9th September with Milan-Lazio. Two days later on Sunday 11th September Genoa starts in Luigi Ferraris against promoted Atalanta. The first half the stadium will be completely silent to protest against the players-strike 2 weeks ago at the 1st round of Serie A.

Genoa has passed the 3rd round of the Coppa Italia by beating Nocerina (Serie B). After only 16 minutes the match seemed already played when Genoa leaded by goals of Palacio and Pratto by 2-0. Just before halftime Nocerina-defender Di Maio brought the team of South-Italy back in the match: 2-1. Only 3 minutes after the break Rodrigo Palacio scored his 2nd goal and Genoa started to play spectacular football, but forgot to score more goals. Nocerina came back in the match and scored 2-3 and in the 87th minute even 3-3. Extra time was nearby, but in the 91st minute Kakhaber Kladze headed Genoa in the 4th round of Coppa Italia against Bari: 4-3.

Central-defender Cesare Bovo is back with Genoa. Three years ago he moved to Palermo (in which deal Giuseppe Biava came to Genoa) and now the 28 years old defender returns in the red and blue shirt. Together with Dainelli, Granqvist and Kaladze we now have 4 central-defenders in the team that have to play for 2 positions in the field.

Since the end of last season, especially after the derby, the rumors about the end of Eduardo as goalkeeper of Genoa went on and on. Since Eduardo was rent to Benfica we had to wait for our new goalkeeper. Mr. Malesani wanted Emiliano Viviano his goalkeeper with Bologna last season and the substitute of Buffon in the Italian National team. Unfortunately last weekend Viviano was injured very badly (recovering-time around 5 months) which meant that Genoa had to look for another goalkeeper. Today Mr. Preziosi gave us a new goalkeeper: the very experienced 31 years old French goalkeeper of Fiorentina: Sebastien Frey. About this goalkeeper nobody has any doubts and he played for years with our central defender Dario Dainelli.

Today our Genoano of the year 2007-2008 Omar Milanetto left Genoa to the other team of President Preziosi: Lugano (Switzerland). After the goal in the last seconds of the derby by Mauro Boselli last 8th May several Genoa-players like Rossi, Criscito and Milanetto (see foto) went to Gradinata Nord to blame them for the song: “Il derby non si regala” (the derby is not a present). The fans thought that Genoa and Sampdoria made a deal to draw the derby, which should give an important point to Sampdoria in their struggle to stay in Serie A. Genoa-fans only had one wish: Sampdoria had to relegate to Serie B, so Genoa more than ever had to win the derby. After the goal of Boselli at 96′11″ Milanetto should have screamed “Bastardi” (Basterds) to the fans in Gradinata Nord, who were furious. A few days after the derby Milanetto made excuses to the fans, but some of them did not accept this. For these fans Milanetto has made an unforgettable mistake and he has to leave the club. Today these fans got what they wanted: Omar Milanetto ends his career after 5 great season in Liguria with Lugano FC in the Serie B of Switzerland.

 

Tonight Omar Milanetto played his last 30 minutes with Genoa in Austria in the friendly match against Stubaital. The score at halftime was 2-0 (Kucka and Pratto) and with double scores of Ribas and Birsa in the 2nd half the match ended in a 6-0 victory of Genoa that played in the offensive 4-3-3 system.

Today Genoa starts the season in Austria with our new trainer Alberto Malesani and the following 26 players, including 15 new arrivals:

Goalkeepers: Lupatelli Cristiano (1978, Bologna Fc), Scarpi Alessio (1973, Genoa), Zima Lukas (1994, Sk Slavia Praga).

Defenders: Antonelli Luca (1987, Genoa), Dainelli Dario (1979, Genoa), Granqvist Andreas (1985, Fc Groningen), Kaladze Kakhaber (1978, Genoa), Krajnc Luka (1994, Maribor), Mesto Giandomenico (1982, Genoa), Moretti Emiliano (1981, Genoa).

Midfielders: Birsa Valter (1986, Aj Auxerre), Constant Kevin (1987, Ac Chievo Verona),Jorquera Cristobal Andres (1988, Csd Colo Colo), Kucka Juraj (1987, Genoa), Merkel Alexander (1982, Ac Milan), Milanetto Omar (1975, Genoa), Rossi Marco (1978, Genoa), Seymour Felipe (1987, Club Universidad de Chile), Veloso Miguel (1986, Genoa).

Strikers: Acquafresca Robert (1987, Cagliari Calcio), Hallenius Linus (1989, Fc Lugano),Palacio Rodrigo (1982, Genoa), Pratto Lucas (1988, Cd Universidad Catolica), Ribas Sebastiàn (1988, Dijon Fco), Rudolf Gergely (1985, As Bari), Zè Eduardo Josè (1987, Santos Fc).

Besides these 15 new players Genoa also bought Andes Escobar (Deportivo Cali, Colombia) but he now plays the World-Cup for players till 20 years. This week also Ajax-player Evander Sno was in Genova to sign a contract with our team, but he did not pass the medial tests because of his hart-problems.

The following 14 players left us this summer: Eduardo (Benfica), Perin (Padova), Chico (probably Betis Sevilla), Criscito (Zenit St. Petersburg), Konko (Lazio), Rafinha (Bayern Munich), Boakye (Sassuolo), Boselli (Wigan), Destro (Siena), Floro Flores (Udinese), Jankovic (not known yet), Jelenic (Padova), Paloschi (Milan) and Rodriguez (Bologna).

Today Genoa bought the 26 year old and 1.92 tall defender Andreas Granqvist of FC Groningen. The Swedish defender signed a 4 years contract and was also wanted by Glasgow Rangers and Galatasaray.

« Previous entries