Marco Rossi

Anyone know what Serie A team(s) the new Phoenix signing Marco Rossi played for?

Parma, Sampdoria and Cesena.

.

Link to Ernie on the radio talking about him. 

http://www.radiosport.co.nz/sport-news/football/ph...

Meanwhile at the NZF HQ, overheard over the crack and static of the dual purpose phone / fax line......

"No worries Ernie, we have just asked FIFA to authorise the transfer of your latest signing, Marco Rojas"

Don't even go there, chances of an NZF screw up yet again? EXTREME.

Marco Rossi is a great signing considering the level he's been playing at.

Best pedigree of any Phoenix signing ever (in terms of level he's been playing at - not the match-fixing ban, obviously). 

His details:

http://int.soccerway.com/players/marco-rossi/4284/

Last match was 30/4/16 in Serie B for Perugia v Bari (played full 90)

Perugia finished last season tenth in the 22 team Serie B (23 matches for Rossi)

Career record:

Serie A: 80 matches (Parma, Sampdoria, Bari, Cesena)

Serie B: 84 matches (Modena, Parma, Perugia, Varese)

Would have played more matches in Serie A but for the 18 month match-fixing ban which effectively ruled him out for two seasons (he wasn't involved in actively fixing any matches but rather failed to report the fixing he knew team mates were involved in).

One of our best signings (on paper) in our history. I'm genuinely excited about him.

On the fixing: I can't for the life of me work out why none of the "journos" present at his announcement presser didn't ask a single match fixing question, but while I'm curious I don't really care as long as he can play and doesn't do it anymore. People claiming he "wasn't involved" don't have much evidence to back that up as far as I can see. 

There was no time to Google his name before presser started. Nobody was told his name until the presser had already started. Think that was a deliberate ploy by the Nix.

One of the things I remember seeing on twitter was a journo not happy that the name wasn't given a few minutes before it was announced for them to do the research, said normally they have about 10 minutes to google the player before the presser starts but didn't get it yesterday.

This signing will work out great in terms of an all-Italian centre-back pairing with Durante - does Andrew speak adequate Italian?

Or Vince Lia? If those two guys have some Italian it will help Rossi greatly who apparently doesn't speak much English.

Sauce for that defence?

Well it was on Twitter within about 10 seconds of the presser starting. 

We should get over that match fixing thing, I hate this shark, too. It's one of the reason I ignore Italian football and politics. But you have to see it from the environment you live in. NZ is one of the least corrupt countries in the world, it's foreign idea for most of us here but if you are born in Italy maybe a different thing. (Spoiler: Rank 4 vs 61)

He was young = hard to stand up against. He payed the price with the ban and career opportunities. In the Ernie radio interview they spoke about it in detail. For me it's all good.

Ernie radio interview. In Ernie we trust.

I haven't heard that Ernie interview yet. Well played by him if he's spoken about it and put it to bed. 

That's good enough for me too! Good stuff!!

Well you can hardly (legitimately) be indignant with me for not crediting your sidebar convo with Ernie when you just stated it without any explanation of how you knew what you claimed to know.

Perhaps if you had said "Ernie told me and Dale that..."

You don't have any evidence either by the way. What you have is heresay. But Ernie's word is good enough for me.

Ernie said on the radio that they did background checks, I think even talking to the police

Luv ya Smiff :)

Looks like he's also had a fair few caps for the Italian under-age group. And his most note-worthy youtube clips are people punching him- Ibrmamovic and Chivu

No, it should be Dale and me. In that sentence, Ernie is the subject, and you and Dale are objects. You'd use 'Dale and I' in the opposite scenario (i.e. the one where you and Dale are telling Ernie something).

Grammar lesson for the day.

Woah. 

All I hope is that the guy can defend, head, tackle and doesn't have a turning circle like a Wellington bus and is fairly fast on his feet.

Pastafarian for life, mon.

Talked to Ernie about Rossi and recruitment this morning.

https://soundcloud.com/trackside-radio/ernie-merri...

Apology accepted Patrick.

Ernie says he can play LB too, that's good for the squad, but obviously hope it's never required

... and on the plus side, if he is ever approached by an Australian club and moves over there he'll be immediately deported back to NZ by Aussie authorities as a person of bad character and with prior convictions...

The bottom line is we would never get a player of this pedigree unless there was something nasty in his closet

It's a bit like making a choice between a hot chick at the pub and the average one.

You've been advised that the average one is a virgin and clean whilst the hot one had a std last year.

On this occasion we have gone there.

Erniesay > Hearsay > Hear'say. 

Pure and Simple.

For what it's worth, Rossi's football manager profile as well as Durante's for comparison. Take these with a pinch of salt as these change from save to save but still interesting to see how they compare.

I'm sure Dura is only more than 15k GBP.

Some finish against Sampdoria