Juventus: La Vecchia Signora

CONTE PREDICTS MEGA TITLE RACE

Juventus boss Antonio Conte believes the race for the Serie A title this season will be as open as it has ever been.

Conte’s Juve stormed comfortably to Serie A success last season as Sampdoria finished second but the Italian boss feels there won’t be a repeat of past occurrences.

The 45-year-old believes teams around him have gotten considerably stronger and that there could be up to seven teams fighting for the title.

”This season will be very tough for many sides and it is hard to predict which of the top teams will remain at the top and which of those will loiter in mid-table.

“There’s no denying that certain teams have gotten stronger and it was something I had already sensed towards the end of last season.

“One thing is for sure, I don’t expect us to have such a comfortable lead in May at least and I feel we along with both (AC & Inter) Milan’s, Roma, Napoli and Fiorentina can all challenge for top spot.

“You then also cannot ignore the efforts Sampdoria achieved last season and along with Lazio and Udinese, we have three more teams who can be decisive at the top. It will be one of the toughest seasons in a long time.”

Juventus will begin their defence of the Scudetto on Saturday 23rd August when they face off against newly-promoted Varese at the Juventus Stadium.

August 2014

Vietto (32), Asamoah (59)





Llorente (72), Quaresma (79)



Torje (28), Coeff (44) – Quaresma (63)

Serie A Table

Juventus' Player of the Month

Ricardo Quaresma

I had to go with Quaresma with this one after his first three performances. He played well in his first game with Napoli, got Man of the Match versus Varese and was our best performer against Udinese with two goals in three starts. Furthermore, due to a few injuries, I had to play him on both flanks and he kept up the standards of his performance. He may not be as bad as Inter Milan thought!

Conte’s Verdict

We have started very well with success in the Supercoppa Italia versus a strong Napoli team and we should have won by more against Varese. The Udinese game was a shame but we played well nonetheless and I would put it down to a combination of us getting used to playing under a new formation and Alexandre Coeff playing brilliantly versus us.

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UEFA CHAMPIONS’ LEAGUE DRAW

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

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Arsenal – Emiliano Viviano (£5m), Nicolas Nkoulou (£11.25m), Tom Cleverley (£11m), Fernando Muslera (£11.75m), Alexandru Maxim (£9.75m)
Chelsea – Christian Benteke (£33.75m), Ezequiel Garay (£14m), Yorben Yanhee (£775k)
Everton – Michael Essien (£500k)
Liverpool – Nemanja Matic (£9.5m), Dusan Tadic (£6.25m), Milan Badelj (£7.5m)
Manchester City – Claudio Marchisio (£28m), Hatem Ben Arfa (£27m), Andriy Yarmolenko (£26m), Juan Cuadrado (£16m)
Manchester United – Stephan Lichtsteiner (£13m), Jordy Clasie (£15.25m), Ben Davies (£18.5m)
Newcastle United – Nick Powell (loan), Loic Remy (£5m), Giovani Dos Santos (£10.5m), Jay Rodriguez (£5.25m), Fabio Borini (£3.6m), Kyle Naughton (£2.9m)
Southampton – Mauricio Isla (£4m), Nicolas Lodeiro (£6.5m), Domagoj Vida (£5m), Nicolas Otamendi (£12.25m), Ivan Rakitic (£9.25m)
Tottenham Hotspur – Alex McCarthy (£4.5m), Sebastian Giovinco (£2.9m), Sergio Canales (£16m), Yaroslav Rakitskyi (£14.25m), Victor Valdes (Free)



AS Monaco – Paolo De Ceglie (£14m), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (£18.5m), Andrea Ranocchia (£6.75m), Asmir Begovic (£9.5m)
AS Saint-Etienne – Tomas Rosicky (Loan), Yaya Sanogo (Loan), Christophe Jallet (£700k)
Girondins Bordeaux – Stephane Sessegnon (Loan), Pierre Webo (£450k)
LOSC Lille – Nicklas Bendtner (£2.6m), Samba Diakite (Loan), Joel Obi (£1.5m), Ciro Immobile (£2.4m), Alex (Loan), Etienne Capoue (£3.8m)
Olympique Marseille – Frederic Bulot (£825k), Kevin Volland (£30m), Adrien Silva (£4.6), Alvaro Pereira (£3.1m), Fernando Gago (£1.7m)
Olympique Lyonnais – Kevin Theophile-Catherine (£1m)
Paris Saint-Germain – Dusan Celebic (£3.1m), Carlos Tevez (£9.75m), Mbaye Niang (£27.5m), Hugo Lloris (£25m), Oliver Torres (£24m), Marcelo (£27m)
Stade Rennais – Nelson Oliveira (£6.75m), Park Chu-Young (£550k)
Toulouse – Jonathan Biabiany (£3.4m)



Bayer Leverkusen – Sebastian Rode (£7.75m), Alan (£2.1m), Eren Derdiyok (£3.4m), Nils Petersen (£6.5m), Fallou Diagne (£6m), Nacer Chadli (£3.9m)
Borussia Dortmund – Nuri Sahin (£5m), Matthias Ginter (£7.75m), Marc Bartra (£14.5m), Pierre-Michel Lasogga (£4.5m), Mats Daelhi (£1.3m), Gylfi Sigurdsson (£13.75m), Dennis Praet (£1.2m)
FC Bayern Munich – Robert Lewandowski (Free), Aleksander Mitrovic (£8m), Martin Montoya (£14m)
Schalke 04 – Dennis Aogo (£3m), Timo Horn (£3.8m), Morgan Schneiderlin (£17m), Omer Toprak (£10m), Lam Zhi Gin (£2.9m), Ricardo Rodriguez (£6m), Robin Knoche (£6.5m)
Hamburg SV – Johan Djourou (£1.1m), Marko Marin (£8.75m), Toby Jantschke (£2.6m), Afriyie Acquah (£3.4m), Stefan Reinartz (£3.8m)
Werder Bremen – Douglas Costa (Loan)
Stuttgart – Alexander Buttner (£1.8m), Nicusor Stanciu (£7m), Andreas Beck (£3.9m), Aleksandar Ignjovski (£4.1m), Kostas Mitroglou (£3.2m)
Wolfsburg – Michu (£12m), Marco Hoger (£4.4m), Phillip Wollscheid (£4.1m)



Ajax – Frank Acheampong (Loan), Michael Bradley (£4.2m), Aras Ozbiliz (Loan)
AZ Alkmaar – Ben Sahar (£1m)
Feyenoord – Emmanuel Badu (£2.3m)
PSV Eindhoven – Vasilis Torosidis (£1.5m), Romain Hamouma (£6.25m), Papiss Cisse (£5.25m), Maya Yoshida (£2.1m), John O’Shea (£325k), Franck Tabanou (£6.25m)



AC Milan - Itumeleng Khune (£2.1m), Alexandre Pato (£22m), Fabio Coentrao (£8.75m), Joel Matip (£6m), Pepe (£1m), Ignacio Scocco (£2.8m)
Fiorentina – Sebastian Leto (£6.25m), Nenad Krsticic (£2.6m/CO), Antonio Cassano (£300k/CO)
Inter Milan – Juraj Kucka (£3.6m), Luis Pedro Cavanda (£900k/CO), Alexander Merkel (£2.1m/CO), Leandro Castan (£2.2m/CO), Giacomo Bonaventura (£22m), Franco Zuculini (£3.1m), Allan Nyom (£11.25m), Rhodolfo (£8.5m), Josip Ilicic (£2.1m/CO)
Napoli – Sami Khedira (£11.5m), Ron-Robert Zieler (£4.2m), Guido Pizarro (£2.2m)
Lazio – Abel Hernandez (£5.25m), Perparim Hetemaj (£2.3m), Ricardo Alvarez (£2.1m/CO)
Sampdoria – Guiseppe Bellusci (£1.4m), Eduardo Vargas (Free)
Udinese – Marco Capuano (£7m), Rhys Williams (£4.4m), Charles Kabore (£6m)



Benfica – Guilherme Siqueira (£6m)
FC Porto – David Ospina (£2.2m)
Sporting Lisbon – Fredy Montero (£1m)



CSKA Moscow – Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik – (£4m)
Dinamo Moscow – Alan Kasaev (£3.8m), Luciano Narsingh (£14m)
Spartak Moscow – Alexandr Kolomeitsev (£8.75m), Vitaly Djakov (£10.5m)
Zenit St. Petersburg – Roberto Pereyra (£8.75m), Jorginho (£10.5m)



Atletico Madrid – Dede (£15m), Vicente Guaita (£2.2m), Mohamed Diame (£3.5m), Mikel Arteta (£900k), Fabio Quagliarella (£3m), Bojan Krkic (£2m)
Barcelona – Salvatore Sirigu (£8.25m), Inigo Martinez (£21m), Wilfried Bony (£23m), Gabriel Barbosa (£2.6m), Rui Patricio (£5.5m)
Malaga – Raul Garcia (£1.9m), Milos Krasic (Loan)
Real Madrid – Mario Mandzukic (£32.5m), Jakub Blaszczykowski (£22.5m), Mohamed Salah (£15m), Doria (£20m)
Real Sociedad – Madjid Bougherra (free), Esteban Granero (£4.6m), Sergi Roberto (£1.1m), Diego Godin (£2.1m)
Sevilla – Juan Sanchez Mino (£3.8m), Chico Flores (£3.9m)
Valencia – Ki Sung-Yeung (£2.7m), Emilio Nsue (£2.2m)



Celtic – Alex Pearce (£2m), Fabian Orellana (£3m), Marco Van Ginkel (Loan), Fernando Torres (Loan),

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