Blog: Giac the lad

Juventus will sign Emanuele Giaccherini from Cesena. Antonio Labbate introduces you to the attacker who has played just 33 games in Serie A



“What did he do?” asked Sky Italia commentator Fabio Caressa with utter amazement. “What happened? I’ve never seen anything like it…”

Emanuele Giaccherini had done all the hard work. He’d sprung Juventus’ offside trap, he also kept his head while Gigi Buffon rushed off his line to coolly side-foot the ball past his diving body, but the Nike sphere didn’t end up in the back of the net. His initial effort struck the base of the post and his second, when it rebounded back into his path inside the six-yard box, was incredibly ballooned wide with the goal at his mercy.

“I’ll have nightmares about that miss, but I’ll have to just look to the future,” Giaccherini said after March’s 2-2 draw at the Dino Manuzzi. “Mistakes are part of the game so I’d prefer to just focus on how well the side played today in coming back from 2-0 down against Juve.”

It’s perhaps unkind to have initially focused on such an incident, but the fact that Giaccherini now finds himself in Turin just five months after that horrific miss says much about the real impact he made during his maiden Serie A campaign. Such a transfer becomes even more remarkable when you consider that he came very close to hanging up his boots while lost in the lower Leagues.

Already struggling to convince people in the game that he, standing at just 1.67m, had enough physical presence to make a difference, he was forced to consider retirement after a number of serious injuries. At the age of 16 he ruptured his spleen which nearly cost him his life after clashing with an opposing goalkeeper, then while on Cesena’s books he broke an ankle and then a collarbone.

Giaccherini tentatively decided to play on and was rewarded when he was finally given his chance at Cesena by Pierpaolo Bisoli – a tactician who, with the help of the player, secured two consecutive promotions to get the Seahorses back into Serie A. At the age of 25, the Italian was given his first taste of football at the highest level.

“I never thought I’d get there,” Giaccherini admitted. “I obviously hoped that I would, but I never really believed it. To get into Serie B was already an achievement for me, but luckily I managed to go one better. It was a dream come true and I even signed myself in my own fantasy football side.”

Bisoli, who also helped launch the career of the equally impressive Marco Parolo, was confident that Giaccherini had what was necessary to leave his mark in the game. He may be small in stature, but Emanuele offers big solutions for any Coach.

“Physical presence is important for an attacker, but certain characteristics make the difference,” the now Bologna tactician stated. “Giaccherini is an agile player, he’s rapid and is able to get past his man. The ball is stuck to his feet and he can play in three roles – as a second striker, a trequartista or a wide midfielder.”

Bisoli also appreciated the fact that Giaccherini, 2cm shorter than Lionel Messi, has notable physical resistance – a bit like Giac’s old Ford Fiesta which clocked up an incredible 300,000km before he bought an Audi A4 in 2010. While other players faded during the 90 minutes, the Coach could always count on the fact that the former Pavia player would be able to maintain a consistent rhythm from the first until the final whistle.

That aspect will not have been lost on Antonio Conte. The latter is expected to primarily use Giaccherini on the left hand side of midfield in his elastic 4-4-2, a system where the wingers will play a much more fundamental role than they did last term under Gigi Del Neri.

Giaccherini is clearly not one of the “top players” that Juve director general Beppe Marotta has been talking about for most of the summer, but he could prove to be a useful squad element and a fine piece of transfer business. Reportedly costing just €3m for a half share, he’s a player who Juve – for once – haven’t overpaid for.
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Lets bet the new Camoranesi ...any1 to bet ?

Better idea for us is to start a collective praying that this player is not new Martinez,because smells like that.