Alberto Aquilani

Current Sporting CP central midfield talent, Alberto Aquilani says the departure of former Liverpool tactician; Rafael Benitez made life at the club tougher for him.

The Italy International played at Italian club side AS Roma in the 2002/2003 season before moving on loan to Triestina for a short while but returned to the club. He made a switch to The Reds for 15 million Pounds in the 2009/2010 season as he was hitting decent form. He played for Liverpool for a season before being shipped off on loan to Juventus in the next season. He returned to Anfield after his loan spell before being sent on another spell with AC Milan. He returned after his Milan spell but was eventually sold off to Fiorentina in the 2012 season. He has played there until his move to Sporting CP this season.

Italy are one of Europe’s great footballing nations and Antonio Conte will lead his troops into battle at this summer’s European Championship in France.

Conte, who has signed a deal to take over at Chelsea after the tournament, has a tough decision to make on who deserves a place in Italy’s 23-man squad and Alberto Aquilani is one of those players currently on the cusp of an inclusion.

Aquilani’s playing career has taken a huge dip ever since he left Fiorentina back on August of 2015. It was during this period of time when the Italian player decided to join Sporting CP as the Italian midfielder penned a 3 year long contract with Sporting CP but despite having joined the Portuguese outfit, he has barely had any time on the pitch with his new teammates.

After Aquilani was released from Fiorentina, the veteran midfielder stated that he would like to join a club that believes in him and it’s why he opted to make a move to Sporting CP but things haven’t been working out for him as Aquilani has had to spend the majority of his time on the sidelines.

The substitute position role is what Alberto Aquilani has had to play as a player of Sporting CP which is clearly not what he wanted to have happened after leaving Fiorentina a few years ago.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has branded Alberto Aquilani as one of the worst signings made by the club in recent history.

He has also named Mario Balotelli and El Hadji Diouf as the other transfer blunders by the club. Aquilani was brought to Anfield by Rafa Benitez, who is remembered as the last manager to have brought the Champions League title to the club. There was a time when Benitez was seen as a god among the Anfield faithful. However, he failed in his assessment of Aquilani, who came to the club for £ 20 million from Roma.

Being able to compete in a top league at the age of 16 is a historic accomplishment and this is something that AC Milan’s Gianluigi Donnarumma has been doing in this season with the Italian club.

Gianluigi Donnarumma is the undisputed first team shot-stopper

Alberto Aquilani failed to seal a return to Italian football after the rumours about a move to Sampdoria did not materialise.

The former Roma and Liverpool midfielder has been playing with Portuguese club Sporting CP, but it has been strongly hinted that he wants a return to top-level European football. Despite the Portuguese league being competitive, it does not match up with the likes of the Italian Serie A in terms of profile. Still just 31 years of age, Aquilani will believe that he is seeking what could possibly be his last time at a major club in Italy.

The player has scored four goals in four appearances for the Portuguese outfit this season. His biggest disappointment may stem from the fact that Sporting are not playing in the Champions League. They have had only been able to give two appearances for Aquilani in the Champions League before dropping back into the Europa League.

Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani has taken time to discuss situation in the Italian league, which is turning out into a fascinating competition for the league title.

Juventus looked seemingly out of the title race after just a few weeks. However, they have now returned firmly back into contention after several weeks of good form. Aquilani says that it would be foolish to rule out Juventus, who have won the league title for the last four seasons in succession. However, he also reckons that Fiorentina and Inter Milan appear to be ready for a fight till the end.

Sampdoria’s form worsened a lot with the latest 3-1 loss against Sassuolo ensuring a fourth consecutive defeat for the Italian club.

Manager Vincenzo Montella has failed to bring an improvement in form after taking over as the manager in November. However, he has been able to escape some of the criticism due to the awareness that the squad needs an overhaul. This revamp is expected to arrive in January, as the club are likely to bankroll significant additions to improve the squad according to the needs of the new manager. Alberto Aquilani could be one of the names coming to the club in January if reports are to be believed.

AC Milan’s run of three consecutive victories came to an end after they could manage only a 0-0 draw against Atlanta at home.

This was a disappointing result for the home team, but manager Sinisa Mihajlovic felt that the solitary point itself was lucky. He had seen Atlanta dominate the game and could have easily won it in the 90 minutes. There was a huge positive for Milan in the form of goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who is just 16 years old. Based this performance on, one can believe that the youngster has the capability to become the backbone of Milan for a decade.

The decline of the Milan clubs – Inter Milan and AC Milan – has been one of the major talking points in recent years.

After sharing a number of titles between them in the last decade, they are no longer in contention for the top honours. In fact, it may take a while before they even get into the position of challenging for the title. Inter manager Roberto Mancini, however, is convinced that the duo will return back much stronger in the coming seasons. Inter have already made substantial investment in the transfer window. They would expect a return on the signings made.