Thetownend.com

Apparently Paul is coming back next week with agreements from (I assume) 3 Italian players in tow, a defender, midfielder and striker.

There have obviously been some high class Italians (Di Canio, Zola etc) that have played in the premier league but have there been any Italian players in England that have played in the lower leagues of England and had what it takes?

Many people have spoken about cold evenings in Morecambe but genuinely what are people's thoughts about the spine of our team being filled with Italian player?

No probs with Italian players coming over here. The right players will impose themselves on the game and we've all seen Nancy boy foreigners wearing gloves and scarves to keep them selves warm.
In fact, the Town should get in a variety of cold weather gear, could be a sellar come first cold night in Morecombe.

Di Canio himself states in his book that generally, Italian players aren't really 'up for it' in the way that British players tend to be. I think he knows what he is going into with Swindon and has already spoken about needing players with the right mentality for L2. I would therefore assume that he will have been very careful in making sure that any potential targets would fit that criteria. If they're lower league players, a cold Tuesday night in Morcambe shouldn't be too much of a shock to the system.

People tend to think that Italian players are only used to playing at the likes of the San Siro and Stadio Olympico etc but It don't imagine it would be that great going to this place mid-week (or any day of the week come to that):

[url width=500 height=333]http://www.aclumezzane.it/images/stadio_lumezzane.jpg[/url]

Is that the Withdean stadium?

Italian players don't tend to travel, most stay at home - and historically they haven't need to as Serie A wages have always been good and clubs compete well in Europe - perhaps that is coming to an end though. Veiri and Zambrotta are probably the exceptions as players who went abroad while still first choice internationals. Most of what we've seen over here have been on their way down.

Apart from Ivano Bonnetti I can't think of many who have gone below Championship level. At that level there was Speroni at Palace. Boroni was at Swansea but is off to Parma. Otherwise Forest had a few diasters - mainly Silenzi and a couple of others I forgotten. They did also have Flippo Galli, but he was long past his best then.

Edit- just remembered - Derby had Biano and Eranio (spelling?) and they were hugely popular.

As for cold nights, where do people think Italy is? They get very harsh winters and play during them, just like us.

Precisely my point. Although I have to admit I had not spotted the uncanny resemblance to the Withdean. It's actually where some team called A.C. Lumezzane play (somewhere in the north of Italy). They play in the 'Pro Prima Divisione' apparently, which is one level below Serie B.* This is the sort of place your average Italian player (and certainly the ones we would be looking at signing) is used to playing at.

*thanks to Wikipedia for making me look like I know what I'm talking about.

Ivano Bonetti...I'd forgotten about him, he was brilliant :nod:

Ages ago, when David Platt came back from Italy and became manager of Forest he brought a load of Italians with him, and their fans were going nuts with excitement about it all - I worked with one at the time.

It was a complete disaster, Platt left and the new man (I forget who) quietly shipped out the majority of the imports.

To be fair they still travel considerably more than English players who seem totally unwilling to play outside England.

FWIW there should be no worries about Morecambe on a 'wet and cold Tuesday night', its in the fixture list for a Saturday in April - and if next year is like the last few we have had up here it will be the sunniest month of the year - it will be tropical on the Lancashire coast, will be like home for the Italian players!

 However spineless any Italians might be, they'd be going some to be vertebrally more gelatinous, than what we saw last season from mainly players from the " Celtic" fringe.

We can only hope they have a similar impact than Roberto Martinez, Isidro Díaz and Jesus Seba did when they joined Wigan in the mid-90's.

Guily Do Prado knocked around in Italy without doing much but was pretty good in L1 last year for Soton.

Although he is brazilian.

Sounds Italian, that'll do

Yeah, I know but the point was he has played with little success in the Italian second tier before moving.

Lower league English football is alien to any imported player. If they've got enough about them then they will adapt quickly enough.

The key to this is regular first team football... So they had better be good :)

Arturo Lupoli looking for a move back to England maybe?

Are you crack?

Is he suddenly amazing? I thought he played in Serie B?

Speroni is from argentina

At this point in time, any fucker who is not fat, under thirty and can kick straight is in with a shout.

I am ruled out...

Marco Angeletti DF - Roma
Daniel Ciofani FW - Roma
Emmanuel Cascione MF - Reggina
Davide Di Gennaro MF - Milan (been on loan in the lower league in Italy)

Possibly, who knows.