I don't think Everton fans would agree on Lukaku flopping in the PL. He's simply not good enough for a team that wants more out of him than what he gave them. Unfortunately for him, that's most top teams.

I definitely think Serie A is a step down from the PL though, and it was only a question of time. Even the middle of the pack PL teams have had way more money than sense for years, but eventually that kind of money gets you some quality no matter how stupid you are.

I think that's accurate, Quincy. I also think there are specific circumstances in every league that makes it more/less likely for certain player types to succeed than others though. In Italy the midfielders are the most important part of most teams. A lot of Premier League players wouldn't make it in that tactically demanding environment, weaker league or not.

Defenders, by contrast, are usually big and physical. They have a reputation of being skillful because of guys like Nesta and Maldini - Acerbi scored a pretty decent goal in that clip Jones linked to on the last page too - but on average they are less technical than their counterparts in England. The majority of them aren't ballplaying centrebacks at all.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

What is a reliable publication then that can provide an answer to my question?
Would this do?
https://www.football-italia.net/145877/man-utd-want-€20m-smalling

Is he doing better in Serie A than the Premiership?

Smalling is a huge bloke and Italian forwards are usually smaller and/or less physical, so it's not surprising to hear that he's done well at Roma. The main thing that stopped him from being great in England is that he's houseboat on the ball. Mourinho 'joked' with him publicly for being so shit at playing it out from the back and said he had to device ways to bypass Smalling in the buildup. He doesn't have to worry about that in Rome and I imagine it's a relief for him.

Smelling was a good defender, so no surprise at the slower pace league he is finding it very easy. Remember Wenger wanted him and phil jones desperately in the past but got outbid. The year after Smalling was the best defender in the league and they won the title. A look at Roma forums and they love him to bits, huge upgrade on Manolas who is struggling at Naples

Serie A players can sometimes be overrated and find it hard when they move overseas. There are quite a few big flops but I realise top class CMs there tend to succeed anywhere if they are good in Serie A because of the tactical demands of the league.

Sirigu has been hard at work in the Turin goal. Made some good first half saves. But it’s still a tense 0-0 15 minutes into the second half of the Turin derby.

Balotelli walks off pitch after being racially abused by Verona fans
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/mario-balotelli-racist-abuse-walk-off-brescia-verona-serie-a-a9183376.html?
Brescia coach Eugenio Corini also said he didn't hear the offensive chants but added, "If the referee decided to suspend the match and ask for that announcement to be made something must have happened.
https://www.usnews.com/news/sports/articles/2019-11-03/balotelli-brings-fight-against-racism-directly-to-fans

Noticed Gervinho captained Parma in their 1-1 draw away to Fiorentina. Scored the first goal with a nice dink over the keeper after outpacing the defense. Good for him , didn't think he would come back to Europe.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

Balotelli walks off pitch after being racially abused by Verona fans
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/mario-balotelli-racist-abuse-walk-off-brescia-verona-serie-a-a9183376.html?
Brescia coach Eugenio Corini also said he didn't hear the offensive chants but added, "If the referee decided to suspend the match and ask for that announcement to be made something must have happened.
https://www.usnews.com/news/sports/articles/2019-11-03/balotelli-brings-fight-against-racism-directly-to-fans

Disgusting. As usual nothing will be done about it.

Verona coach Ivan Juric had earlier told Sky Sport that he heard

"no racists chants, nothing at all" after a win that lifts his side to ninth, adding that "to say otherwise is a lie".

The club's president Maurizio Setti then said that his club's supporters were

"light-hearted, not racist" and were a crowd with "real sport in its DNA".
"We are the first to condemn racism but it is wrong to generalise... Maybe two or three people among 20,000 fans might have said something,"

https://news.yahoo.com/balotelli-thanks-support-being-racially-abused-verona-230743001--sow.html?

Despite denials of abuse from Verona, a video published on Twitter by a fan showed a number of supporters clearly directing monkey chants at Balotelli before the Italy international booted the ball at them in the stands.

Balotelli wrote in a message on Instagram alongside a video of the incident.

"Thanks to all the colleagues on and off the field for the solidarity expressed toward me and all of the messages received from you fans,"
"A heartfelt thanks. You're real men, not like those who deny the evidence."

https://www.afp.com/en/news/831/balotelli-thanks-support-after-being-racially-abused-verona-doc-1lz2hh1

No surprise, Hellas Verona fans make Lazio supporters look like Antifa. Hope that piece of shit club goes down again soon

On Tuesday, Serie A's disciplinary commission ordered Italian club Hellas Verona to close part of their stadium (the Poltrone Est stand) for one game as punishment following the racist abuse of Mario Balotelli.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50299720

Verona have banned the head of their ultras fan group, Luca Castellini, for 11 years.

https://hot-gaming.com/sport/who-is-luca-castellini-the-ultras-leader-of-hellas-verona-who-denied-racism-on-balotelli/
He had commented on the Balotelli case as follows:

"Balotelli is Italian because he has Italian citizenship but he can never be completely Italian. We also have a nigger in the team, who scored yesterday, and all of Verona has beaten his hands. Balotelli, who is a finished player, decided yesterday, pushed by someone and something, to do the clowning and throw the ball into the curve. Next year - continued Castellini - Balotelli no longer plays football, she will go on television to make the first woman. As soon as he was under the curve Verona decided to throw the ball. In Verona he is annoyed because we sing him 'Mario Mario' and he prefers to be insulted, as everyone does. He has infamed Verona".

https://www.calcioefinanza.it/2019/11/05/verona-daspo-fino-al-2030-per-il-capo-ultras/
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

Guardian SFW version
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/nov/05/verona-ban-ultras-leader-over-racist-comments-about-balotelli

Brescia ultras, who Balotelli plays for, choose this moment to call him 'arrogant'.
Blatantly stating self preservation in defence of a cabal of dregs shaming Italian society.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50343222

Statement translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
[spoiler]- We were not in Verona, and this because the card prevented us from doing so, so we know the episodes that have made so much public debate only by heard or through more or less official statements;

• for some time now we do not believe in the general media, which are increasingly looking for the scoop at any cost (other than the trash of Barbara D'Urso!);

• at the stadium we are deeply apolitical, and as already said on other occasions, in many ways we are antiracist (for this reason we invite you to read our communiqué of 2015, in which we deal with the subject in question, pointing out among other things some concepts dear to us. Here is the link: https://19biesse11.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/bs_livorno15_16_resoconto1.pdf);

• for this reason, let's be clear, we do not feel better than other Ultras groups and, above all, we do not think we have the truth in our pockets;

• simply, we feel free to express some concepts without the possibility of denials or manipulations;

• Just as stated in the above statement, we believe that - fundamentally - the fans can not currently be considered racist, in fact, in every team play more and more often boys from other continents, and are certainly not disputed or insulted for this reason;

• Unfortunately, however, racism exists, existed and perhaps will always exist, especially in the civil society in which we live, where citizens are increasingly exposed to discrimination of all kinds, and this regardless of their nationality (to remain in football, the most striking example is that of the fan card, which criminalizes and discriminates against Italian fans who have not signed it);

• Racism not only exists, but is also spreading, and this is also thanks to general ignorance, fears of an increasingly uncertain future, and especially thanks to those who legitimize and justify it, perhaps proposing / issuing laws against the liberticide Ultras;

• In the face of certain episodes, some of which are very doubtful, we should ask ourselves why the media, the institutions and the leaders of Italian football have only now begun to cry out for scandal, and denounce only a part of the problem, much more complex than we want to make believe;

• it is said that the stadium is the mirror of society, so, given the level of ignorance, violence and incivility reached - not by chance - by Italian society, should not surprise certain blatant demonstrations, provocative and apparently racist, and yet we are scandalized at every turn, without even deepening the truth of the facts (an example above all: after "Napoli vs Brescia" of this championship, one of the major Italian sports newspapers denounced the white-blue fans present in Naples for ignominious choruses apparently made against the Neapolitans, obviously hoping for an exemplary condemnation; for good fortune, while the machine of mud and summary justice was already leaving, the first retractions arrived and the newspaper was forced to correct the news; In fact, the choirs were really made, but not by the Brescians; to intone them were in fact the Neapolitan fans themselves, who in addition to provoking the opponents anticipating them in their alleged intentions, with a marked self-irony had wanted to denounce the conformism typical of Italian society and the servility of many national media. In this case it went well, the truth prevailed and no innocent paid, but history teaches that it has not always been the same for the Ultras);

• Precisely because we have often been victims of prejudice, institutional violence, media gogne and miscarriages of justice, we do not like to judge and prosecute publicly others;

• despite this, and although none of us personally know Mario Balotelli, we must admit that we have had differing opinions (compared to those who call him a sacrificial victim) and unflattering about him since before he wore our Jersey;

• Moreover, we were not the only ones to have had doubts about him, if it is true that thousands of fans from different Italian / foreign squares first welcomed him with open arms, and then defeated him for his attitude (and certainly not for the color of the skin), sometimes childish, often indisposing;

• after all, his exploits inside and - above all - outside the football pitches, the famous "Balotellate" to be clear, are by now a well-known and acclaimed history;

• We did not oppose or denigrate him when he arrived in Brescia; on the contrary, we accepted and respected him like all the other players in Brescia who wear our Jersey, less famous footballers than him, but who showed - from the beginning - passion and spirit of sacrifice;

• the fact that he lives in Brescia and wears our Jersey, however, does not elevate him above all and everyone else, and the arrogance that seems to shine through his person is not justifiable, especially when he brings it to the field and becomes a reason for destabilization for the team and tension and embarrassment for the fans (as for Brescia, we refer in particular to the middle finger exhibited as a response to Inter fans for their chorus against, perhaps offensive and provocative, but certainly not racist in response to the fans of Inter for their chorus, maybe offensive and provocative, but certainly not racist; not to mention the photographer who Balotelli -after the "suffered" replacement in Marassi- broke the camera with which he was working);

• Balotelli, among other things, should know that for errors much more venial than those he committed (even in the recent past), any fan would be "massacred", denounced and finally distrusted for years;

• Having said that, we are extremely convinced that Balotelli is in fact Italian, and - as far as we are concerned - even from Brescia (although he has always shown his passion for Milan), but he must be convinced of one thing: precisely because he plays in Brescia as a Brescian, his dedication to the cause and his commitment must be equal - or even superior - to those of his teammates (who, by the way, must not make themselves forgiven for a past to say the least... over the top), above all, they must be greater than those profusioned up to now, and by this, of course, we are not referring only to the two goals scored, moreover, irrelevant;

• For us, in fact, what matters most is the spirit of sacrifice, passion, respect, motivation, the sweaty jersey, concepts that seem unknown to him at the moment (for this reason we hope to be denied soon);

• for instance, for his part (as indeed by all the other players of Brescia) we want a total commitment, at least until he wears our sweater;

• no one has ever put pressure on him, so the nervousness that grips him and turns him into a negative every time he takes to the field (not only in Verona) is unjustified, at least for us;

• if he wasn't ready psychologically to face a supporter such as the one in Verona and - above all - a game as delicate as Sunday's, in which a city (ours) was playing salvation and a coach - among the most beloved in absolute - was playing his last chance, he had to say it and leave the place to someone less... nervous than him; no one would be pissed off, indeed...;

• it wasn't the first time that Balotelli played in Verona, and given his past in the ranks of Inter and Milan, he knew well the yellow and blue fans and the value of a derby, so, for better or for worse, he also knew what he could be facing; moreover, they confirm that the provocations towards him have been really marginal (he has then admitted it publicly even), and we know very well how much the Scaligeri fans can expire in provocation (after all, rightly or wrongly, they have always boasted of this peculiarity);

• this obviously does not mean that some choirs are legitimate and acceptable, but neither does it mean that the yellow and blue fans are all racist, and that the Curva del Verona is a sort of hideout of the KKK, as some would have it believe (this is also demonstrated by the fact that to provoke "seriously" Balotelli were very few fans, among other things "unrelated" to the choirs of the rest of the Curva);

• Having said all this, we are willing to start again from Saturday also - and especially - with Mario Balotelli this summer (provided of course that the club stops blackmailing us and puts us in a more than dignified condition to enter the stadium), that is, with the player who said he had put his head in place, to love our beautiful city, and want to give his all to change (obviously for the better) the white-blue story of recent years.

Always on the side of Ultras?!:

• let's be clear to everyone: we don't want to be the devil's lawyers, and we don't even want to be proveronese sympathizers (we're not looking for new friendships, the rivalry is in fact sacred for us), but we like to mention the yellow and blue Ultras especially for their solidarity shown during the dramatic months in which a boy of our group remained in a coma because of a violent and unmotivated beating of the fast, in the Porta Nuova station, just after a derby with Verona;

• Moreover, however questionable, the personal statements in the post match of one of the leaders of the Veronese Curva cannot justify the witch-hunt unleashed by the media and institutions in yet another attempt to criminalize and finally execute the entire Ultras world;

• not to mention the measure implemented by the Verona club, which, thanks to the possibility of applying the code of ethics (so much disputed by us), will prevent entry to the Bentegodi for more than ten years to one of its historical fans, who had the audacity to express in the post match a thought perhaps very strong (which we also did not share, as we have already explained), but that certainly has little or nothing to do with the stadium and the cheer in general;

• an unconventional language, but one of strong topicality; in fact, it is increasingly used by public and political figures, to whom of course no one would ever think to apply the code of ethics in question;

• for this reason we feel to condemn every gesture, every provocation clearly hostile and discriminatory towards all our players, and not only;

• at the same time, however, we want to give our solidarity to those who have suffered yet another liberticide measure, this time not from the Police Headquarters, which evidently did not consider this attitude so serious, but from their own society;

• to those who have been outraged -also rightly- by some apparently racist episodes within the stadiums, remember that the theme of racism today is often used to create a new scaremongering between public opinion, useful -as a Trojan horse- to introduce new tools of repression and mass control, which otherwise would not be justifiable and acceptable (unfortunately this method has already been used in the past, artfully exploiting the theme of alleged violence of organized groups).

Today at the Ultras, tomorrow at the whole city!

Ultras Brescia 1911 Ex-Curva Nord[/spoiler]

Tl:dr

Everytime I watch Dybala, I'm just thankful Spurs didn't pay up for him. What a magical player

The problem wasn't that they didn't pay up for him, was it? Juve changed their mind I think.

Was under the impression both United and Spurs couldn't afford his wage demands as reported.

I think he turned down Spurs outright and didn't really want to go to United either so he demanded a wage they'd never give him for the trouble.

Amazing player at any rate. Not sure who I'd compare him to currently. It's a really unusual mix of creativity and technical ability in a striker. Sergio Agüero played a little bit like that before his injuries turned him into more of a box player, but it's been ages ago now.

Yeah certainly reminds me of Aguero, but he is creative as well.

It's just insane Sarri try to force him out.

Even Sarri will surely want to keep Dybala now with how much Ronaldo has slowed down. He's not up for it week in, week out anymore and seems to save his good performances for Champions League. Ronaldo has the most shots in Serie A this season, but Immobile has almost three times as many goals as him.