this signing does make sense in a lot of senses ... first off, if he sucks we can sell him for a few bucks to some arab club and still get a transfer fee, because he'll still be under contract for two more years next summer, so financially its good.
second he is someone the clueless chickenheads in our team can look up to him on the pitch, when they have no clue what to due ... (see krasic, pepe, de ceglie and the others who obviously have no high football intelligence)
thirdly we did all call for a coach who was proven, who had winning mentallity, who was used to win silverware and now we blast a player who is exaclty that ? proven, used to very high standards and winning stuff.
fourth he can teach some of your newer lads to be calm on the ball, how to receive the ball correctly and not play a chickenhead pass that mishits any target.
fifth point is we would have another player that actually knows how to take set pieces. alex is not always on the pitch and his freekicks from more than 25m are often awful. before we have to let grosso or bonucci take a freekick from 30 metres we have actually someone with shooting technique and power.
welcome andrea =)