I believe that Mellberg may start the new season as a right back with Juventus.
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The Official Olof Mellberg Thread (18 Viewers)
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Timing lured Mellberg to Juventus
Aston Villa defender Olof MellbergDeparting Villa defender Olof Mellberg revealed timing and the desire to try something different was behind his decision to join Juventus.
The 30-year-old has signed a three-year contract with the Italian giants after seven years at Villa.
Mellberg will get the chance to play in his favoured centre-back role in Turin after spending his final season in claret and blue at right-back.
But the Swedish international says there were plenty of other factors behind his decision to uproot his wife and two children.
“There were a lot of reasons,” he said. “The timing was one, but they’d been following me both with Villa and the national team for quite a long time and I know their manager pretty well.
“They came in for me at an early stage and I felt it was an opportunity for me to try something different at the age and stage of my career.”
Mellberg revealed he couldn’t resist signing off in his final game at West Ham last week by paying for 3,200 shirts for Villa fans because of the special relationship he has with the supporters.
The defender paid around £30,000 for fans to wear home and away jerseys with 'Mellberg - Thanks 4 the memories’ printed on them.
“It was my idea because it’s unusual for a player to know so far in advance where you’re going to be playing next season,” he said.
“A lot of people have asked me for a shirt since I signed. I thought it would be a good idea for the home game - but it would have a little bit too much to buy 42,000!
“It was nice for the away fans because they have really supported us throughout the years and this season they have been fantastic. It doesn’t matter how much it cost - it was the end of season sale!
“But the fans are paying our salaries, so it wasn’t an issue. I’ve always tried to repay their support on the pitch.
“I think I’m going to keep my kit and maybe get it framed as it was my last game.
“I’ve tried to repay their support by always trying to give 100 per cent and always giving my best.
“That’s what fans appreciate more than anything.
“It was a chance for me to say 'thank you’ in a different way at my final game.”
Timing lured Mellberg to Juventus
Aston Villa defender Olof MellbergDeparting Villa defender Olof Mellberg revealed timing and the desire to try something different was behind his decision to join Juventus.
The 30-year-old has signed a three-year contract with the Italian giants after seven years at Villa.
Mellberg will get the chance to play in his favoured centre-back role in Turin after spending his final season in claret and blue at right-back.
But the Swedish international says there were plenty of other factors behind his decision to uproot his wife and two children.
“There were a lot of reasons,” he said. “The timing was one, but they’d been following me both with Villa and the national team for quite a long time and I know their manager pretty well.
“They came in for me at an early stage and I felt it was an opportunity for me to try something different at the age and stage of my career.”
Mellberg revealed he couldn’t resist signing off in his final game at West Ham last week by paying for 3,200 shirts for Villa fans because of the special relationship he has with the supporters.
The defender paid around £30,000 for fans to wear home and away jerseys with 'Mellberg - Thanks 4 the memories’ printed on them.
“It was my idea because it’s unusual for a player to know so far in advance where you’re going to be playing next season,” he said.
“A lot of people have asked me for a shirt since I signed. I thought it would be a good idea for the home game - but it would have a little bit too much to buy 42,000!
“It was nice for the away fans because they have really supported us throughout the years and this season they have been fantastic. It doesn’t matter how much it cost - it was the end of season sale!
“But the fans are paying our salaries, so it wasn’t an issue. I’ve always tried to repay their support on the pitch.
“I think I’m going to keep my kit and maybe get it framed as it was my last game.
“I’ve tried to repay their support by always trying to give 100 per cent and always giving my best.
“That’s what fans appreciate more than anything.
“It was a chance for me to say 'thank you’ in a different way at my final game.”
Welcome and thanks for the info. Glad to see you drop by. So you rate him pretty high, I suppose? Is he good enough to be a starting CB for a team competing for important trophies? Will he be suited to Serie A? How many years has he left in him (have his performances dropped with years?) Is he injury prone? Is there any chance he becomes a Boumsong in Italy? Has any other team been interested for his services during his Villa career? Why didn't any of the big teams in England show interest in him? Please discuss.
Whether or not he's good enough to start for a team like Juve.. I think it's a case of try it and see what happens. I personally think he could be good enough, especially when I see guys like Kaladze starting for Milan! And he's much better than him. We had Inter here as a pre-season friendly last summer, all their stars on show, Zlatan, Cruz, etc. and he had no trouble at all with them, kept Ibrahimovic quite in an easy 3-0 win. I know it's only a friendly, but he coped comfortabley.
Not injury prone, I think of his 7 seasons here, he played at least 35 games in 6 of them. Whenever he misses games it's often through illness rather than picking up an injury. I wouldn't worry about him being like Boumsong! He's 31 in September, I think, so I think he could be around for 4/5 more years with him being a defender. He's quick, but he's game isn't built on pace, so the pace he loses with age won't really affect him.
I know Valencia were after him when we were about to buy him, but other than that I'm not sure if any of Englands top teams have been in for him. There was rumours of him going to Liverpool around 2004 when Sami Hyypia (I think?) got injured, so they were looking for a replacement, nothing happened though.
I think he's very under-rated. Our other main CB, Martin Laursen, scores alot of goals, never loses a header and is very vocal, so he gets all the attention. But Mellberg is no worse of a player in my opinion. Forced to play at RB this season since we didn't have one! I don't think he'd suit Serie A at RB though as he really can't cross.
As a person he's great too. He only played 7 years for us, but made a great impression on us. One big reason is because he never hid his hatred for our big rivals Birmingham City!
But the things he did for us were fantastic - like spending all that money on shirts! Stayed loyal with us through all our bad years, and now we're back on track thanks to his help and he really deserves a shot in the Champions League, which he'll get with you!Anyways, that'll be the end of my rant. I'm sure you'll think Mellbergs a good player once he gets started, hope it works out well for you!
that's what I call a great description.
welcome kurtsimonw, hope you hang around here. Now what about Thomas Sørensen?
welcome kurtsimonw, hope you hang around here. Now what about Thomas Sørensen?
I shall stick around, I've always enjoyed Serie A football - though I must admit I do follow Milan as my Italian team - but as I like the league in general I watch as much as possible and have an interest in the top teams - which includes Juve of course!
Sorensen. Shame he's leaving too. I hope he goes to another EPL team so he can come back to Villa Park and we can say goodbye to him properly as we never got to this season
Not like Juve need a keeper though really, Gigi is the best in the World in my opinion.
Sorensen was good GK few seasons ago....I would dare say one of best on the island..... but I hope that carson took him out just cuz he's english...If he put him out cuz of GK qualities.......we're screwed
He's still a good keeper. Carson is in front of him because Sorenesn got injured in pre-season, so we bought Carson in on loan. Sorensen said something that annoyed our manager so he was dropped for the season. He's better than Carson.
I understand that bigger clubs want him, he's done very well for us. But I hope he doesn't leave, he's our captain and a very important player to us. He's only 27 and already played nearly 400 games for us, a legend in the making. I don't like the way Liverpool have gone about trying to buy him, so if he does leave, I'd rather it not be to them.
We've bought no-one to replace him yet, and only have 4 senior defenders at the club right now which is worrying. We've been linked with a few RBs to take over from Olly - Nelson of Benfica, Christian Maggio of Sampdoria, Pascal Chimbonda of Spurs and Jonas Ollson of NEC Nijmegan are the main ones.
Gabby is a good player, by the end of his 2nd full season as a player he had 23 goals for us - even Rooney only had 15 at this point! But his finishing is very poor, he needs to improve on it. His main asset is his speed - I think he was named faster player in the Premier League a few months ago. Hopefully our UEFA Cup experiences this season (if we get through the InterToto) will help him develop as a player, obviously he's not as good as players like Rooney, but Capello has called him up for his latest England squad. The future could be very bright for him, and he's a Villa fan, so hopefully he'll stay with us for a long time!
P.S. Thanks for the kind responses and questions of all the Juve fans. I appreciate this warm welcome.
We've bought no-one to replace him yet, and only have 4 senior defenders at the club right now which is worrying. We've been linked with a few RBs to take over from Olly - Nelson of Benfica, Christian Maggio of Sampdoria, Pascal Chimbonda of Spurs and Jonas Ollson of NEC Nijmegan are the main ones.
Gabby is a good player, by the end of his 2nd full season as a player he had 23 goals for us - even Rooney only had 15 at this point! But his finishing is very poor, he needs to improve on it. His main asset is his speed - I think he was named faster player in the Premier League a few months ago. Hopefully our UEFA Cup experiences this season (if we get through the InterToto) will help him develop as a player, obviously he's not as good as players like Rooney, but Capello has called him up for his latest England squad. The future could be very bright for him, and he's a Villa fan, so hopefully he'll stay with us for a long time!
P.S. Thanks for the kind responses and questions of all the Juve fans. I appreciate this warm welcome.
Mellberg hopes this could finally be Sweden's turn
Salzburg, Austria - When Euro 2008 finally winds up at the end of the month, defender Olof Mellberg harbours realistic hopes that his Swedish team will have been involved for most of it, perhaps even reaching the final. The Swedes have started Euro strongly, overpowering defending champions Greece 2-0 in their Group D opener, but next up are many people's favourites for the tournament, Spain, who signalled their intent with a 4-1 thumping of Russia.
"This my fifth consecutive championship so I know how important it is to get off to a winning start for the atmosphere in the group and everything," said Mellberg, who after seven years with English Premier League side Aston Villa, moves on a free transfer in the summer to Serie A giants Juventus.
The 30-year-old defender is aware that this year's tournament in Austria and Switzerland most likely represents his final chance of making a lasting impression on the international stage before hanging up his boots.
He is confident of making an impression this time around.
"I think we have a good chance, we need to work hard and play our game and hopefully we can be one of the outsiders," he said.
While the generation of Swedish footballers before Mellberg achieved a third-place finish at the 1994 World Cup in the United States and also made it to the last four at the 1992 Euro as hosts, this group have always stumbled at the business end of major tournaments.
Mellberg made his national team debut in February 2000 against Italy and was part of the Swedish team that finished bottom of their group at the Euro finals in the Netherlands and Belgium later that year.
Sweden put in a much stronger performance at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, finishing ahead of England, Argentina and Nigeria in their group before going down to Senegal in the round of 16 on a Golden Goal.
A run to the quarter-finals in Portugal four years ago was halted by a penalty shootout defeat to the Dutch while hosts Germany proved too strong in the round of 16 at the World Cup in 2006.
In order to be truly considered in with a chance of lifting the Henri Delaunay Trophy in Vienna on June 29, Mellberg and defensive partner Petter Hansson will first have to show they are capable of containing Spain's hat-trick hero against the Russians, David Villa, and Liverpool hit-man Fernando Torres on Saturday in Innsbruck.
"When they get going as team they are hard to beat and are dangerous going forward with Torres and Villa. They have a few more players to choose from as well," Mellberg admitted.
But Mellberg certainly has to ability to put in the type of world- class performance.
DPA
Salzburg, Austria - When Euro 2008 finally winds up at the end of the month, defender Olof Mellberg harbours realistic hopes that his Swedish team will have been involved for most of it, perhaps even reaching the final. The Swedes have started Euro strongly, overpowering defending champions Greece 2-0 in their Group D opener, but next up are many people's favourites for the tournament, Spain, who signalled their intent with a 4-1 thumping of Russia.
"This my fifth consecutive championship so I know how important it is to get off to a winning start for the atmosphere in the group and everything," said Mellberg, who after seven years with English Premier League side Aston Villa, moves on a free transfer in the summer to Serie A giants Juventus.
The 30-year-old defender is aware that this year's tournament in Austria and Switzerland most likely represents his final chance of making a lasting impression on the international stage before hanging up his boots.
He is confident of making an impression this time around.
"I think we have a good chance, we need to work hard and play our game and hopefully we can be one of the outsiders," he said.
While the generation of Swedish footballers before Mellberg achieved a third-place finish at the 1994 World Cup in the United States and also made it to the last four at the 1992 Euro as hosts, this group have always stumbled at the business end of major tournaments.
Mellberg made his national team debut in February 2000 against Italy and was part of the Swedish team that finished bottom of their group at the Euro finals in the Netherlands and Belgium later that year.
Sweden put in a much stronger performance at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, finishing ahead of England, Argentina and Nigeria in their group before going down to Senegal in the round of 16 on a Golden Goal.
A run to the quarter-finals in Portugal four years ago was halted by a penalty shootout defeat to the Dutch while hosts Germany proved too strong in the round of 16 at the World Cup in 2006.
In order to be truly considered in with a chance of lifting the Henri Delaunay Trophy in Vienna on June 29, Mellberg and defensive partner Petter Hansson will first have to show they are capable of containing Spain's hat-trick hero against the Russians, David Villa, and Liverpool hit-man Fernando Torres on Saturday in Innsbruck.
"When they get going as team they are hard to beat and are dangerous going forward with Torres and Villa. They have a few more players to choose from as well," Mellberg admitted.
But Mellberg certainly has to ability to put in the type of world- class performance.
DPA
