++ [ originally posted by Seven ] ++
That's it. That's the final drop. I'm quitting this forum.
Instead of realising what a great player Del Piero used to be and still is (as proved his stunning goal against Roma the other day) people on this forum go on and on bashing Del Piero. We, so called Del Piero lovers, are told be objective. In all our humbleness we obey and try to be objective by looking at the statistics.
Now what do these statistics (which provide us with the only way of looking at football objectively) show us? That Del Piero has won the scudetto numerous times, that he's on his way of becoming Juve's topscorer of all times, that he scored 14 last year (which is five more than the guy you all want at Juve) and that he has played for Juventus for an incredible amount of time. Besides being a great football player, Del Piero has got that rare thing called club love.
But that's not all. Del Piero does all he can to avoid any controversy. He could have argued in the press last season. He could have shown how unhappy he was. But instead of ruining the team's moral Del Piero decided to work hard and try to be succesful whenever he got to play. When Zlatan was stupid enough to get a three game ban, it was Del Piero who stood up and gave away an awesome display in the most important game of the season. But instead of bashing Zlatan for not being there, people on this forum still decided to make a mockery out of DP's career.
"He's not the player he used to be" or "He's all washed up" they say around here. Let me first dismiss all that talk of Del Piero not being a good football player for the last five seasons. In 2001-2002 he scored 16 times and gave various assists. In the last game of the season he also scored a vital goal. In 2002-2003 he scored 16 times in the Serie A and made a number of goals in the Champions League. The most important being the one against Real. He was also one out of two players to score a penalty kick for Juventus in the final. What do we say? "Del Piero's a choker".
Right.
So please go on and have your little childish fights. Tell people Del Piero's old and that it's time to move on. Tell people you want that Bari thug at Juve. Tell people it's cool how Zlatan elbows and fights on the pitch. Tell people what good football players those are. Tell people it's awesome how they behave off the pitch.
But let me tell you this: Del Piero's way out of their league. He's head and shoulders above Zlatan and Cassano. Both on and off the pitch they will never have what Del Piero has: class.
Even though I don't agree with every single aspect of this post......nice post. There is a lot of truth behind it. And don't just leave because somebody has gotten the better of you....stick up for what you believe in.
And I for one am also tired of these Del Piero debacles all over this forum. A few months ago when Del Piero was having a bad spell of form for Juventus his criticism was most of the time justified. However, in the latter stages of the season, Del Piero started to come to life again and helped us in one of the most important matches of the season, of course when the stage was set at the San Siro. Del Piero might not have had his best season ever, and of course you know I will be the first to tell you that, however he did not play as bad as some here would like to believe. His overall play might have been somewhat disapointing, however, his goals HELPED us win the Scudetto and you can't take that away from him. Moreover, Seven stated his case perfectly, showing us Del Piero did not complain at all when he was on the bench and did his best to get back in form.
I sometimes become annoyed with people who seemingly praise Del Piero over the whole of Juventus, and it occured to me that this player means a lot to Juventini over the years because in a sense he is one of the few Juventinos to actually wear the Bianconeri shirt. Although I am sure some of his fans do not care about this matter because those lot are only here for Del Piero, however the rest of us Juventini should thank Alex for what he has given to the club and not let those fans who are completely biased towards Del Piero affect our judgement towards him. Too many supposed pundits have criticised Del Piero just because some people have too much love for the guy, and that is wrong IMO. No matter how much you look or how biased you are, you cannot admit Del Piero is one of the most classy players to ever set foot on a football pitch and is one of the top Juventini in our glorious history.