PAPER TALK - Pjanic's angry whatsapp, Conte's Boot Camp, Vrsaljko to Inter, Jese to Milan?
We begin with the Gazzetta Dello Sport's preview of Italy – Belgium, with Antonio Conte set to throw on both Stephan El Shaarawy and Antonio Candreva: will the Azzurri really go into the Belgium game with an attacking mindset? This game could turn ugly.
There's an interest feature on Conte, who is said to be tensing up both with players and media alike ahead of the Belgium game, typical of him before important ties. The players are being kept on their toes, with constant changes of schedule, which Conte justified by saying that “I was a player once, too”. You know what? Love him or hate him, the former Juventus manager is fun, like a strict version of Colonel Kilgore from Apocalypse Now, though the Gazzetta compared his timetable antics with the first Fantozzi film.
Alessandra Bocci write a fascinating feature about just how short both teams are: with Insigne, Hazard, Giaccherini and Mertens, these are probably two of the Smurfiest teams in France.
The big news coming from the Corriere is Miralem Pjanic's whatsapp to a friend, which we reported on here. He is alleged to have told his friend that 'Roma called Juventus to sell me, and they did so in 15 minutes. I'm very embittered. The club needs money”. Spicy!
They then provide an update on Juventus, with every single sector being reviewed and the team's transfer targets being analyzed. Romelu Lukaku is said to be back at the top of the transfer list.
Sampdoria are rumoured to be after Roger Martinez of Racing de Avellaneda, whilst on the Milan front the Corriere reports that the Chinese consortium has chosen Manuel Pellegrini. Inter, on the other hand, are being tipped to pick former failed Milanista Francesco Acerbi, who is a substitute in Italy's 23-man Euro 2016 squad. Imagine if he was a hit at the San Siro... but not for Milan!
The big news is that Napoli have reportedly reached an agreement with Udinese over the transfer of Piotr Zielinski, who could be a star at the San Paolo. Lazio are said to be awaiting Marcelo Bielsa's signature.
The Corriere runs with the De Biasi miracle, with his Albanian charges taking on Switzerland today. “We need to have our heads screwed on”. No kidding? There is a small article on the Xhaka brothers, with Taulant playing for Albania, and former Juventus, Inter target Granit on the Swiss side. Even better: Italy's neighbours boast SIX players with Albanian roots (and they're mostly from Kosovo, too), whilst Albania have themselves TEN squad players who have either grown up in Switzerland, or played there. Remember, Migjen Basha of Como refused to play for Switzerland at the senior level, despite representing the Alpine team at Under-21 level.
Tuttosport begin with a piece on Italy, claiming that beyond Graziano Pelle' it's an open race in attack for the Azzurri, and hint that Ciro Immobile (who does play for local team Torino) could be in with a chance to start ahainst Belgium.
Let's move on to Juventus, where Tuttosport claim that Andrea Agnelli trusts a 'mature' Paul Pogba to remain at the club. It has previously been said that the Frenchman won't move to a 'nouveau-riche' club, which is a start. Juventus are said to still be on the lookout for a midfielder (Mateo Kovacic, Andre' Gomes), whilst they claim the Mascherano trail is getting very cold, with Barcelona unwilling to sell.
In defence, the Mehdi Benatia rumour mill is back, along with German international Shkodran Mustafi, who has previous Serie A experience with Genoa.
The Turinese paper outlines an interest two-way scenario for Milan: Brocchi's Rossoneri would give away Bacca and bring in Napoli benchwarmer Manolo Gabbiadini, whilst Manuel Pellegrini's team would line up Bacca along with Jese' Rodriguez of Real Madrid.
Inter are said to be chasing Sime Vrsaljko, 'a slap in the face' to former Nerazzurro Diego Simeone, who really wants the Croatian to join Atletico Madrid.
We cap off with some praise towards Torino's Gianluca Petrachi. The Granata's director of sport is set to chase Nathan Chalobah (on loan at Napoli) and Markus Henriksen of AZ Alkmaar. The man who has rebuilt Torino from the ground up and stocked the team with young, exciting Italians could now add two very interesting attacking midfielders to his stables. He's done very, very well of late.
