Is he angling for a contact with Inter Milan... or Daz? Smapdoria striker Antonio Cassano is undoubtedly a toddler trapped in the body of a professional footballer (in the manner that doesn't need to be reported to the police). Not only does he throw ridiculous tantrums over silly things, he also insists of stripping to his [.

Chances are you've forgotten and we could've gotten away without assuming any responsibility whatsoever, but there's no integrity in that and we're nothing if not...nevermind. Back in September we listed the ten biggest transfer bargains of the summer and though one year is hardly enough time to properly assess a player's impact on a squad, it's [.

‘Fantantonio' Antonio Cassano is apparently not wasting any time and has already contacted a real estate agency in the area. Juventus are rumoured to be making Sampdoria striker Antonio Cassano their primary transfer target next summer, and La Gazzetta dello Sport today reports that the 26-year-old is already looking for a new home in Turin.

Most Italian soccer fans should be familiar with the name of Andrea Russotto. As a youngster he was dubbed as "the next Roberto Baggio" and "Antonio Cassano with a level head" but up until now he has not even been close to living up to those names. His story is a bit particular, and for those of you that don't know it here it is.

Is Antonio Cassano finally ready to take the burden of high expectations that is inevitably connected to his god-given gift? Since his first days, Italian football bad-boy has been combining the amazing talent with his tough Bari childhood street habits. It was many years ago, on one rainy night at San Nicola stadium when he exploded playing around with twice his age, Laurent Blanc.

Antonio Cassano continua a regalare spettacolo, gol e fantastiche emozioni, gara ufficiale o amichevole che sia. E' sicuramente uno dei giocatori più forti della nostra Serie A di Calcio. Fantasia, tecnica, giocate da brividi, con quella maglia blucerchiata addosso che gli calza ormai a pennello.
E' sempre più un leader nel gruppo doriano e con i suoi gol e le sue magie sta facendo felice il presidente Garrone e i tanti tifosi della squadra ligure.

Now according to ESPN, the not so "Great One" Jose Mourinho is looking to add both Antonio Cassano and Deco to Diego Milito and Thiago Motta as Inter Milan continue to add to their collection of talented, but miscast players. Exactly how many players does this team need? Are they trying to build a third team in Milan?

One of the most popular shows in Italy is "Striscia la Notizia" a parody news show (kind've like a Daily Show with Jon Stewart or a Colbert Report but more variety show styled) that is broadcast on Canale 5 in Italy. It is a very funny show and the news covers all aspects of daily life. Probably one of the shows most famous segments is the "Tapiro D'Oro" (pictured) [Golden Anteater Award] which is given to celebrities and famous people who are embarrassed in the media.

Moody Italian picks on Republic of Ireland international Kevin Kilbane is not a bad sort of bloke. He always comes across as an honest professional, a hard worker who has done the best with the talents he has been given. He keeps his head down and gets on with his job. None of these things could [..

Italians believe the national team needs Antonio Cassano to get the goals flowing. Marcello Lippi doesn't agree.
Italy's scoring crisis continues despite win in Georgia.

Di solito è sempre stato abbastanza riservato e taciturno. Non che gli sia mai mancato il carattere, che da buon friulano ha sempre avuto, ma Dino Zoff, portiere dell'Italia campione del mondo nel 1982, ex allenatore di Lazio, Juventus, tra le principali e più importanti ("un pezzo della mia vita") esperienze vissute nella Serie A di Calcio, questa volta è uscito dai ranghi e ha parlato di molte questioni, esaltando Diego ("è più forte di Zico") compresa quella che sta a cuore a molti italiani, la convocazione in nazionale di Antonio Cassano, autore di prestazioni divine nella Serie A con la maglia blucerchiata.

Since there is a mid-week round this Wednesday, I'll get a super Weekend Round-up post up on Thursday. If you look at the Serie A table right now, you'll see that leading the top of the table is Sampdoria (tied with Juventus, but ahead of goals scored). Sampdoria have never won their first 4 games ever in their history.

After seeing Marcello Lippi's latest national team call-ups this Sunday, the big question all over Italy has been "Where's Cassano?". The media has written articles on it and are severely questioning Lippi's decision to leave out El Pibe di Bari yet again. It really is mind-boggling how Lippi can leave Italy's most talented player at home watching the game from his couch.

LAZIO 1-1 SAMPDORIA (6-5 On Penalties)
Lazio overcame Sampdoria to roll back the years and retrieve the Coppa Italia on familiar turf at the Stadio Olimpico as the outcome hinched on the haphazard showdown of the penalty shoot-out.

When you read news about Serie A you always hear about the big stars and how they are performing, but you rarely hear about other players that are having a good season. We always hear about Kaka, Ibrahimovic, Totti, Del Piero, Buffon, etc but we never hear about Consigli, Guarente, Sorrentino, Marcolini, and Padoin for instance.

This is a tremendous entry from Dave Clark of Better Soccer Coaching - read the entry below, as well as a link to where you can see the video of a comedian's imitation of Fabio Capello's sideline antics.
It was funny this weekend watching the antics of the coaches. It started with Fabio Capello's fury in the first 40 minutes of the World Cup qualifier between Kazakhstan and England.

Roma's Brazilian forward Julio Baptista could be set for a move to Italy's Serie A champions Inter Milan.

News has surfaced that the former Real Madrid star is due for discussions with Jose Mourinho's men over a transfer from the Stadio Olimpico, after falling out of favour with Luciano Spaletti.

From Monday to Friday this week we'll have the best highlights from matchday II of Serie A for your...
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It was a weekend of some nice goals. First, let's just say that Fabio Quagliarella ALMOST scored the goal of the season (he did however score 2 goals on the night). You can watch that video here. Diego scored his first goals in Serie A, Julio Cruz scored his first goals for Lazio, Alberto Paloschi continues to look more and more like the new Pippo Inzaghi, Giampaolo Pazzini continues to score, and Antonio Cassano worked some magic again.

Italy took another step towards World Cup qualification a 2-0 victory over Georgia courtesy of a...
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The matches to watch after you realize Andrei Arshavin is physically incapable of not making goofy faces. Or looking like a 12-year-old.

Saturday

Wigan v Chelsea at DW Stadium Coming off a 4-0 loss to Arsenal, Wigan are looking to take on the impossible challenge of stealing points off Carlo Ancelotti's still perfect reign at Chelsea.

All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

More footballers reviewing music. This time: Millwall on a song called "Oopsy Daisy". [Channelbee]

Will you be dumb enough to pay to watch England v Ukraine on the internet?

First, the international week is incredibly boring. Second, I thought I'd start a new post here on the Italy Offside: Great Serie A games. A post that will show videos of some of the greatest Serie A games of all time. For the first post I decided to stay fairly recent. We go back to the 2004/2005 season.

Welcome to this episode of Minute+10, listen to Dov and Kevin discuss new arrival Stephen Appiah to...
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Since Lippi has taken over the national team for a second time, the big question has always been, "Why aren't you calling up Antonio Cassano?" Cassano has widely been recognized as the best Italian player at the moment and there is no other talent in Italy that can even reach his level at the moment (maybe an in-form Totti).

Soon after the start of Saturday's 0-0 friendly between Italy and Netherlands, an Italian fan ran out onto the pitch wearing a Superman t-shirt with "Cassano in Nazionale" (Cassano in the national team) written on the front and back. Once he got his shirt message of support for the ignored Sampdoria striker seen (hooray for s-words!

A lot of credit always goes to the goalscorers of Serie A, but not enough credit goes to the players that create the goals. Tomorrow is Milan-Sampdoria, and the two top assist-men face off at the San Siro: Antonio Cassano and Ronaldinho. Currently, Cassano leads the charts with 7, while Ronaldinho is just behind with 6.

With the World Cup Draw dominating the attention of soccer fans throughout the world, it is easy to forget that there are soccer matches to be played this weekend.

The upcoming weekend won't have the number of high-profile matches we saw last week, but there are still top matches on the schedule.

February just isn't AC Milan's month. With the exception of a (valuable, but unconvincing) victory obtained against Cagliari, the Rossoneri's performances since their 3-0 thumping of Lazio have been punctuated by mediocrity. They tied to Reggina, lost the Derby della Madonnina to Inter, and got eliminated from the UEFA Cup.

February just isn't AC Milan's month. With the exception of a (valuable, but unconvincing) victory obtained against Cagliari, the Rossoneri's performances since their 3-0 thumping of Lazio have been punctuated by mediocrity. They tied to Reggina, lost the Derby della Madonnina to Inter, and got eliminated from the UEFA Cup.

"A big Blucerchiati slap in the face": there's little more to be added for José Mourinho after Coppa Italia's Sampdoria vs. Inter Semi-Finals match. Thanks to the goal by Cassano, the brace by Pazzini, and the saves of Castellazzi, Sampdoria walked all over their Nerazzurri opponents Wednesday, virtually putting one foot and a half into [.

(Summary is not available.)

Juventus were left impressed by Cassano's showing against Inter and now they want him in Turin. Juventus have stepped up their interest in Sampdoria playmaker Antonio Cassano as they continue the search for Pavel Nedved's replacement. The Blucerchiati hero was sublime against Inter in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday night.

pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/u65Ovg4aJPBglCNkp8OQB-z-m3A/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/u65Ovg4aJPBglCNkp8OQB-z-m3A/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pI waited till today before posting on this match because I wanted to provide readers with all the...br/ br/ please leave your comments and opinions @ serieaweekly.

For the last 4 years it was the same thing. Roma-Inter, Inter-Roma, Roma-Inter, Inter-Roma. It was starting to get boring and predictable. Finally, the Lega gave us a break this year. They put Inter and Roma on the same side of the bracket and therefore eliminated the chance of having another year of Giallorossi vs.

Both sides went into this game knowing it would define their season. Both sides basically had the exact situation. They both performed under expectations this season, and both have managers that don't really look like they will be in charge next season. Also, because of their poor season, both clubs were looking for a backdoor into Europe.

Si avvicina (mancano dieci giorni) il campionato europeo, che si terr in terra svedese, e gli azzurrini si preparano con grande concentrazione e impegno per il prestigioso appuntamento. E' una vetrina importante per tanti giovani, accompagnati in quest'avventura dai veterani. Si respira un'aria serena, e soprattutto un grande entusiamo.

A Little History and Explanation Before Our Azzurri Head South

Ahh! June has finally arrived! The warm weather, the end of the Serie A season, and.....what? Azzurri football? But this isn't a World Cup or Euro year?!?
For those of you who have been living under a rock the past few months, the Confederations Cup is just around the corner.

[101 Great Goals] The corner flag is the underappreciated woodwork of the modern game. While the goalposts get all the glory - and the occasional kiss - corner flags just sit around idly and only joining the action on rare occasion. But Sparta Rotterdam appreciate the corner flag's work. With the ball on the line (yes, [.

I have yet to wade into the Cassano/Lippi debate fully, but after another superlative performance...
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