While Sydney FC in Australia claim to have Alessandro Del Piero signed on a $2 million contract for the upcoming season, Liverpool’s frantic race to get some sort of support to their striking force has led them to the name of the 37 year old Italian legend, although it might be a bit too late.
The Premier League teams submitted their 25-player squad lists, all except for Stoke City, given a bit more time in their attempt to complete the signing of Michael Owen, who was also suddenly on the shortlist for the club realizing a bit too late that whatever it was they did all summer in the transfer window, it wasn’t enough.
But going after aging strikers, no matter their status, doesn’t seem to be the kind of MO John Henry preached about in his letter. Those would be just quick, expensive fixes, without any effect on the future of the club and lets be a little bit serious – It’s hard to see how deeply they can affect the current situation.
But as we said, it’s hard seeing the Del Piero thing happening for three reasons – The club has already submitted the 25 man list: Agger, Allen, Assaidi, Carragher, Coates, Cole, Doni, Downing, Gerrard, Gulacsi, Henderson, Johnson, Jones, Enrique, Kelly, Lucas, Reina, Sahin, Skrtel, Suarez, and all the U-21 players they want, to help them match the rules calling for a minimum of eight homegrown players who – regardless of age or nationality – spent three years (or a total of 36 months) in the youth system of a club in England or Wales before they reached the age of 21.
The second reason is Del Piero’s contract – Sometimes in Europe people tend to forget that theirs football going on in far away corners of this globe, and while the Australian A-League doesn’t usually grab too much attention, a contract there is as good as anywhere else. Reason 3 is the Juventus connection. Since 1985 and the Heysel stadium disaster, there’s plenty of hate towards Liverpool from Juventus fans, and it’s hard to believe someone as connected and as close to the Juve fan-base as Del Piero is will choose to move there, in September or in January.