Manchester City and Chelsea may not be demoted, but it’s a laugh for those loyalists who survived that fate, even when Manchester United called.
The Bald Divine sported a lot of hair and would have been a much less compatible match with Laurent Blanc at the time of his European triumph with Marseille in 1993, which deserves to be among his proudest achievements.
But two seasons after keeping Milan at bay at the Olympiastadion, Barthez gambled in Ligue 2 on a Marseille team devoid of its national name and most productive players. A corruption scandal caused most to abandon ship, but not the French goalkeeper. who stayed long enough to motivate their early return to maximum flight as champions before heading straight to Monaco.
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Chiellini went from being a complement to a 4-man defence of Zambrotta, Cannavaro and Thuram to leading a defence of Birindelli, Kovac and Boumsong in a few months. The Italian colossus even scored two goals in the win that sealed his return to Serie A at the first attempt, guiding him to the top.
So did his jersey number. No player has worn the No. 6 shirt for Parma since, as the legend of Lucarelli, the club’s oldest player and record holder in terms of league appearances, proved too heavy for anyone to wear.
The French foreigner has never played at club level as he did in his final two seasons at Marseille, which culminated in his return to Ligue One and Casoni’s early retirement.
For a solitary year, Florentia Viola, before the naming rights and the classic purple jerseys were secured after the bankruptcy and relegation to the fourth position in Italy in 2002. Di Livio was the only bridge between this turbulent afterlife and an unknown offer and future.
Still as a skipper, he took them through consecutive ascents until he returned to the most sensible flight in 2004, leaving one last crusade before retiring. He won Serie C2 with Perugia and Fiorentina 15 years apart, winning all sorts of trophies at Juventus in between. But only in Florence was he considered a “guardian angel”.
That has never been something for McCulloch, who has gone from scoring at Lyon, betting at Camp Nou and winning in the Premier League to goals opposed to Elgin City and Peterhead without prejudice.
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Durand kept his company until his retirement in 1997, losing when Marseille returned to mid-table in Ligue One.
That punishment was reduced when Juventus were eliminated from Serie B with a problem deduction, but they still progressed towards an inevitable title.
Camoranesi had a great time, saving his best performance for promotion rivals Napoli, against whom he scored and assisted on goals in a 2-0 home win.
Manchester United took a chance on Del Piero, a target known to Sir Alex Ferguson as early as 1996, but who they thought might have suddenly appeared after a slight replacement in the circumstances.
“At first I was flattered, but I never thought about leaving Juventus,” the captain said, adding: “A true gentleman never leaves his wife. “
Ferguson himself, for his part, added much later about what he “went mad” about:
I courted him right after Italy won the World Cup. At the time, Real Madrid were also chasing him and, given Juventus’ situation at the time, I imagined that between us at United and the Galacticos there would be a fair auction to get him. To him.
So I called him directly: ‘Alex, I would love you at United,'” I told him. “You will be the star of the organization and together we will win everything. “He laughed and replied, “Lord, you know that nothing has replaced you in all these years. Juve are going through difficult times and I have to do it. I can’t be a coward.
It probably helped that Nedved is in his thirties and that his family circle has moved to Turin since he moved in 2001. He spent much of his time in Serie B threatening to retire or serving a five-match suspension, citing the club’s president. Disciplinary Committee of the Italian Football League, “insulting the referee and kicking”, and there is nothing to say about it.
Trezeguet is a little more open to the prospect, if only as a bargaining chip to negotiate a contract extension when Juventus returned to Serie A in a year’s time, with the French striker scoring 15 goals along the way. Perhaps he simply felt indebted to them after missing his penalty in that terrible Champions League final against Milan at Old Trafford.