I do a lot of business with a guy in Modena, born up near Turin he's a Juventus supporter. I spoke with him this afternoon and he still tries to make me cry about Paul Pogba every time we speak, although it doesn't work because I just never bought into him as a player in England. Anyhow... on your behalf I asked him about this Giaccherini bloke, whether he's all he's cracked up to be. His response to me was that he was neither happy nor bothered to see him leave but if he had the choice he'd rather hang on to him, because he's useful for specific games, although he conceded that would be a luxury for Juve and the player probably wouldn't want to stay under those conditions. He said Conte undervalued him and used him here and there last season, and he reckons Conte has ditched him from his plans as he tries to make sure Tevez gets the best supply. I told him Tevez would likely leave after a few weeks and go awol for a few months and he just said he'd rather see a youngster given a chance if they can get 10m Euro for Giaccherini, he said Italian fans are scared of the tax man and it's nicer to have the money than a big squad (He mentioned on a business note that some businesses are having to produce profit and loss figures to their banks on a DAILY basis!!! That's so the banks don't extend any credit lines to businesses in trouble).
I said that you lot were going on about how good he was at the confed cup, and he said that Diamanti was probably Italy's best player in the competition, I think he means Diamanti is usually crap but I'm not sure! Promisingly though he did say that he's an explosive type of player, can be frustrating (like all flair players?) but given the confidence he reckons the English league would be much better for his style.
He's not the most enthusiastic of blokes, I think we pushed about 250,000 Euro his way last year and his Christmas card to us was a generic picture of a robin. We went to a restaurant in Milan, must have been £250 a head and he sat there watching a Juve game on his phone, totally uninterested in the posh grub being served up, but he really loves football. He said he'll try and watch a bit of Sunderland if possible this season to see how things go. He also said that all Italians know of Sunderland now, he asked if you were like a new Anzhi Makhachkala, I just told him it probably colder in Sunderland.