2022/2023 Transfers News, Rumors & Discussion

It would be smart move for Civitanova if they want to continue rejuvenation of their team since basically there's no other that much acclaimed young setter on international youth level with already big pro experience right now (esp considering he's Italian) - but I don't think it will happen and they'll wait a year rather than buy out valid Porro's contract in Milano RIGHT NOW and not re-sign De Cecco for a year, considering the latter won't leave Italy, so there's no rivalry for him at this point on a market. Brizard will renew his contract with Piacenza, so with Sbertoli, Giannelli, Bruno, Cachopa, Giannelli having contracts for the next season, only Verona theoretically can fight for him, and still they have Spirito and at least for now they haven't had a budget big enough to sign such players. I'd bet the next year Porro will get a contract in a top team (Bruno will be 38 and De Cecco 36, not a disaster, but not an asset neither if you plan to build your team for longer than a year or two).

Porro will be great in a near future, but Milano is messy: Ishikawa played like ... well, bad for half of the last season (had some health issues), Ebadipour is a ghost, Patry is awful for the past two years, Loser had some health issues as well and until recently was coasting with Vitelli outplaying him - it's hard to shine as a setter within such environment. Piazza like two weeks ago was publicly complaining that his methods doesn't work and his team needs something different than his coaching, lol, but they defeated Civitanova and everything got fine surprisingly. Milano still has had pretty potent team in this period, so when they'd clicked (like the last year when Ishikawa got back to his normal shape) they look like a decent team and results are fine (the same this season when Ebadipour got finally benched), and Porro immediately (like in a game against Civitanova in Cup) was thriving. Perhaps that's the reason this whole rumor started, Milano and Porro kicked out Civitanova b2b in Italia Cup in the past two seasons.

So it depends on which path Civitanova will choose on a market, and that depends on their financial situation: there are rumors they have verbal agreement with Bovolenta (he's great on A2 level, especially for his age, MVP of the last ECH U20), if they don't have budget big enough to compete with Perugia/Piacenza, then multi-year deals with these most talented Italian youngsters make lot of sense.

Quote from Realista

It would be smart move for Civitanova if they want to continue rejuvenation of their team since basically there's no other that much acclaimed young setter on international youth level with already big pro experience right now (esp considering he's Italian) - but I don't think it will happen and they'll wait a year rather than buy out valid Porro's contract in Milano RIGHT NOW and not re-sign De Cecco for a year, considering the latter won't leave Italy, so there's no rivalry for him at this point on a market. Brizard will renew his contract with Piacenza, so with Sbertoli, Giannelli, Bruno, Cachopa, Giannelli having contracts for the next season, only Verona theoretically can fight for him, and still they have Spirito and at least for now they haven't had a budget big enough to sign such players. I'd bet the next year Porro will get a contract in a top team (Bruno will be 38 and De Cecco 36, not a disaster, but not an asset neither if you plan to build your team for longer than a year or two).

Porro will be great in a near future, but Milano is messy: Ishikawa played like ... well, bad for half of the last season (had some health issues), Ebadipour is a ghost, Patry is awful for the past two years, Loser had some health issues as well and until recently was coasting with Vitelli outplaying him - it's hard to shine as a setter within such environment. Piazza like two weeks ago was publicly complaining that his methods doesn't work and his team needs something different than his coaching, lol, but they defeated Civitanova and everything got fine surprisingly. Milano still has had pretty potent team in this period, so when they'd clicked (like the last year when Ishikawa got back to his normal shape) they look like a decent team and results are fine (the same this season when Ebadipour got finally benched), and Porro immediately (like in a game against Civitanova in Cup) was thriving. Perhaps that's the reason this whole rumor started, Milano and Porro kicked out Civitanova b2b in Italia Cup in the past two seasons.

So it depends on which path Civitanova will choose on a market, and that depends on their financial situation: there are rumors they have verbal agreement with Bovolenta (he's great on A2 level, especially for his age, MVP of the last ECH U20), if they don't have budget big enough to compete with Perugia/Piacenza, then multi-year deals with these most talented Italian youngsters make lot of sense.

i think you are a bit too harsh with Milano’s offensive weapons… Ishikawa is recovering from an ankle injury and the last 3/4 games he was clearly back to form (really GREAT games by him), Patry and Ebadipour (but also Melgarejo in some games, when he started he often didn’t find the rhythm) are underperforming, but they did really well in the last NT season… so, if three good players are underperforming for a reason or another, maybe the setter is at fault… not totally, but surely he isn’t playing them at their strength. I think that with a world class setter Milano isn’t too far from Italy’s top four, maybe a libero away from a Superlega semifinal…

Ishikawa is pretty good this year, I was talking about the last season, when he was at 40% kill rate for like half of the season. Melgarejo plays really well past couple of weeks as well when he actually got a chance as a clear starter without this improvising three-OHs system. And Ebadipour was pretty bad in Poland for like half of the season (and very mediocre before), so it's not to surprising he's awful here, he played basically the same level in the Plusliga's playoffs last season. And the link of Porro with OHs is his biggest asset (Jaeschke had last year his career-best season), so this is not something I'd analyze. Loser and Patry are the surprises here, but Porro connection with Vitelli is strong, the same with Chinenyeze last year. I have no idea what the hell is happening with Patry second season in a row though.

The point is if basically all the players are inconsistent in longer period of time (even of a status of Loser or Patry, then it's wishful thinking to expect from by far the youngest player at the most difficult position to be consistent. And this is on coaching and Piazza has been aware of that - that's why he made this public self-bashing after a loss against Monza. You are right that with world-class setter Milano would've been stronger (Porro isn't there yet), but he's just better than you suggest, actually when Milano is clicking he's very good - and I don't think cause-effect relation works the way you suggest here, volleyball is very circumstantial game after all and it's always more about synergy than monocausal inference. And you are right that Milano has a team strong enough to compete for top4 (some 5-6th place with upset potential), but I'm pretty sure it's on Piazza who doesn't exploit this potential for 100%. That's why he had this interview when he basically said his team needs something different than he can give and if that's continue, then they won't finish the season together (basically suggesting he'll resign/get fired). Luckily, they crushed Civitanova in Coppa with all-round great performance. But nevermind, you may move this discussion into Superlega topic if you want to continue about Milano themselves, it's my fav Italian team past two years, that's why I've decided to elaborate.

Porro is not having a good season

his location and decision-making have been disappointing...certainly not a Lube caliber setter yet unless they are losing budget

Porro is overrated, definitely not second coming of "William".

Quote from taylor10

Porro is overrated, definitely not second coming of "William".

He is a good setter at such young age. Definitely not one of the elite setters yet but being one of the very rare young & decent Italian setters gives him a big advantage to have a contract from the top teams, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he will be in Lube’s jersey in the next season or two.

Quote from KVB

He is a good setter at such young age. Definitely not one of the elite setters yet but being one of the very rare young & decent Italian setters gives him a big advantage to have a contract from the top teams, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he will be in Lube’s jersey in the next season or two.

Italy has lot of young, up and coming setters (Boninfante from '04, the youngest Porro from '07 looks decent as well, there are still Giannelli and Sbertoli, Fanizza and Bonacchi from 2004 look promising, Sperotto was great on junior level and looks fine in A2, so maybe he'll develop into something interesting, I like Selleri from 2005 generation), but yeah:

1) Porro is basically the only setter from 2001-02 generation actually playing as a starter in either Italy, Poland, Brazil, Russia and Turkey, at least in some respectable teams, in France there's Kylian Paes, but he was clearly outplayed by Porro at the ECH U22, one 2003 kid (I don't know him, didn't look any special at junior event last fall), and that's it.

2) he'll be 22 on October, in his age Bruno was considered a nepo baby (lol), Janusz was a backup until he was 24 and got a chance to play in top Polish team/Polish NT when he was 27/28, Zagumny was basically considered a wasted talent in PL until Lozano came to Poland in 2005 (and Zagumny was already 28 at that time), William played in mediocre Brazilian teams and in Argentina until he was 31/32yo, De Cecco in his age played in A2 and in some weak Russian team, Toniutti played in Ravenna when he was 25 or 26, Brizard was so-so in his first season in Poland and he was 24.

Not saying he'll be a player like some of those above, but he has like 15 years of career ahead, plenty of time to further develop, lol.

President of Milano confirmed that Porro has a contract for the next season and they want to sign a renewal further. That doesn't mean he won't be bought out, but it's kind of obvious, Milano needs NT players if they want to advance one day to the semis, so it'd be smart.

Fusaro also talked about some “top players” in that interview… who could they be? Is Yuki leaving Milano then?

Quote from Realista

Italy has lot of young, up and coming setters (Boninfante from '04, the youngest Porro from '07 looks decent as well, there are still Giannelli and Sbertoli, Fanizza and Bonacchi from 2004 look promising, Sperotto was great on junior level and looks fine in A2, so maybe he'll develop into something interesting, I like Selleri from 2005 generation), but yeah:

1) Porro is basically the only setter from 2001-02 generation actually playing as a starter in either Italy, Poland, Brazil, Russia and Turkey, at least in some respectable teams, in France there's Kylian Paes, but he was clearly outplayed by Porro at the ECH U22, one 2003 kid (I don't know him, didn't look any special at junior event last fall), and that's it.

2) he'll be 22 on October, in his age Bruno was considered a nepo baby (lol), Janusz was a backup until he was 24 and got a chance to play in top Polish team/Polish NT when he was 27/28, Zagumny was basically considered a wasted talent in PL until Lozano came to Poland in 2005 (and Zagumny was already 28 at that time), William played in mediocre Brazilian teams and in Argentina until he was 31/32yo, De Cecco in his age played in A2 and in some weak Russian team, Toniutti played in Ravenna when he was 25 or 26, Brizard was so-so in his first season in Poland and he was 24.

Not saying he'll be a player like some of those above, but he has like 15 years of career ahead, plenty of time to further develop, lol.

President of Milano confirmed that Porro has a contract for the next season and they want to sign a renewal further. That doesn't mean he won't be bought out, but it's kind of obvious, Milano needs NT players if they want to advance one day to the semis, so it'd be smart.

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Yeah I was just counting the starting setters in A1 and only around half of the teams (I ignored the bottom 3 teams tough lol) play with Italian setters while Porro is much younger than others, that’s why I said he was the rare one.

Glad to know there are many more upcoming talents as many top setters now are 30 or even 35+ already, but I think it will take at least a few more years for them to gain experience in top leagues before they’d be really interested by the top teams like Lube, so Porro is definitely several steps ahead of them now.

I do believe Porro will only become even better in the future, but his biggest disadvantage is his height that makes him always a big hole in blocking.

For Milano if they want to make that step further to the semis, pls get rid of Patry… I am tired of watching him in his MVP mode in NT summer then becoming a ghost in Italy every seasons…

Volkov said in a recent interview that playing in italian league is his dream He has a multi-year contract with Kazan now. Hope some big Italian club would recruit him in few years.

Savo Volley announced Kevin Rodríguez (MVP of the last LVSM finals).

Hapoel Mate Asher announced Inovel Romero.

Quote from Realista

Italy has lot of young, up and coming setters (Boninfante from '04, the youngest Porro from '07 looks decent as well, there are still Giannelli and Sbertoli, Fanizza and Bonacchi from 2004 look promising, Sperotto was great on junior level and looks fine in A2, so maybe he'll develop into something interesting, I like Selleri from 2005 generation), but yeah:

1) Porro is basically the only setter from 2001-02 generation actually playing as a starter in either Italy, Poland, Brazil, Russia and Turkey, at least in some respectable teams, in France there's Kylian Paes, but he was clearly outplayed by Porro at the ECH U22, one 2003 kid (I don't know him, didn't look any special at junior event last fall), and that's it.

2) he'll be 22 on October, in his age Bruno was considered a nepo baby (lol), Janusz was a backup until he was 24 and got a chance to play in top Polish team/Polish NT when he was 27/28, Zagumny was basically considered a wasted talent in PL until Lozano came to Poland in 2005 (and Zagumny was already 28 at that time), William played in mediocre Brazilian teams and in Argentina until he was 31/32yo, De Cecco in his age played in A2 and in some weak Russian team, Toniutti played in Ravenna when he was 25 or 26, Brizard was so-so in his first season in Poland and he was 24.

Not saying he'll be a player like some of those above, but he has like 15 years of career ahead, plenty of time to further develop, lol.

President of Milano confirmed that Porro has a contract for the next season and they want to sign a renewal further. That doesn't mean he won't be bought out, but it's kind of obvious, Milano needs NT players if they want to advance one day to the semis, so it'd be smart.

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In turkey we had Berkun Üstündağ who is from 2001 generation and played as starter in Turkish league team however he was transferred to Abu Dhabi midseason🤦 of course not a comparison to Porro or others you mentioned above

Our most talented setter is Arda Bostan (2002) he played as a starter last year but this season he is back up of Marouf so he is unfortunately not getting much playing time

1. Paperoga I don't know if they're correct, but there are rumors in Poland about Atanasijevic joining Milan despite Patry having a valid contract (I guess he'd leave), it would be an exchange of one overrated player (in club volleyball) for another since Atanasijevic is waaaay past his prime for a while. Porro, Patry, Vitelli, Piano, Loser, Mergarejo have in theory valid contracts, if Milano wants to make a progress, they have to sign someone much better than Ebadipour to play alongside Yuki in the first place. You may wonder what are the top names they can theoretically acquire. The second step is to get rid off Patry like KVB already said.

2. About Volkov, one may wonder if that was "I wish to play one day in Italy" meaning something, or meaning completely nothing as most players theoretically would like to play in the most marketed and accessible for fans league in the world. But it's not something I'd consider as binding as for now, it was like a sentence on a question about his dreams thrown throughout a regular interview.

3. KVB - well, this is tricky, I referred to these Italian guys not as upcoming world-class setters, but just as an example of serious depth that they (can) have. Italy from 97/98 to 05/06 played at least in ECH/WCH finals on either/both U19 or U21 level in every generation (and have Giannelli from 95/96 generation), this 07/08 team looks promising as well, so obviously they have great depth on every position but MB. Boninfante is more hyped than I like him personally, but he's decent regardless, I liked Fanizza and the third Porro (especially) as well from what I've seen. I like Thelle and Dvorak from NCAA (it's a reach tho), Abaev from Novosibirsk (he's already 24, so a bit out of equation, but definitely world-class potential), obviously Porro, Paes (2002) is solid early on, Chaboissaint (2003) plays in one of the best French teams already (need to watch him more since he's a newbie, maybe he improved drastically since the last time I saw him), younger Nikolov from Levski will be great (2006, already playing as a starter in Bulgarian highest division, great size and versatility), I liked Kirillov (2003) from Russia as well, same with Iranian setter (don't remember his name), at last ECH U20 Slovenian Najdic (2006) looked very promising, the same Belgian setter from 2005, Kubicki (2003) from Poland is the biggest talent in our country since Janusz. And I liked Czech's setter from 2003, but he's a backup in local league, so that's not too promising. With Russia not playing in international competitions, maybe there's someone that I should've been familiar with. Porro swept almost all individual accolades at the junior level and already plays in very respectable team, so alongside Abaev he's by far the closest to this highest level. On average, the level of setting gets better and better as the game itself gets faster and faster, at the London Olympics in medal-contending team we had Suxho, Żygadło, Bratoev or Travica, and I don't think nowadays it would've been possible to play in such style they all represented (at least not in +- 50% of top teams), and it was like a decade from now. In terms of individual star quality, you may wonder who'll join Giannelli, Christenson or Brizard in the next few years after Paris Olympics (I guess De Cecco, Toniutti and Bruno will be done with international vball).

4. serdar - yeah, I liked Bostan at ECH U22, these were close to my hometown, so I've already seen him live once - I think I've already said somewhere before the season it sucks he'll be a backup of Marouf and unfortunately it did materialize so far.

Aaaaaand director of Civitanova said that they want to renew De Cecco and have already had positive meetings about that.

Bednorz officially in Zaksa!

Quote from jt1267

Bednorz officially in Zaksa!

They needed him ! I hope he will show his big potential. At last he played in big clubs like Modena and Kazań.

Quote from Wojtek13

They needed him ! I hope he will show his big potential. At last he played in big clubs like Modena and Kazań.

As the audience watching Chinese League, I just said, he is just worse than healthy Zhang Jing-yin.

Of course, I am Chinese.

However, if you saw the matches, you would have the same mind.

Quote from tomen

As the audience watching Chinese League, I just said, he is just worse than healthy Zhang Jing-yin.

Of course, I am Chinese.

However, if you saw the matches, you would have the same mind.

Yeah, he wasn't any great in China, but it's not like you're playing in China for anything other than money and shorter season (at least in a male league). It may be unprofessional, maybe he had other issues, but Bednorz is clearly way better (seasons in Bełchatów, Modena, the second one in Kazań) than what he showed in Shanghai, that's why people have high expectations, on normal basis Zaksa wouldn't be able to afford him, but he has already gotten his paycheck, so he can play for some trophies (and NT spot) now.

Quote from tomen

As the audience watching Chinese League, I just said, he is just worse than healthy Zhang Jing-yin.

Of course, I am Chinese.

However, if you saw the matches, you would have the same mind.

unfortunately I couldn`t watching his games and stats in Shanghai. If his shape wasn`t good maybe it will grow up in ZAKSA. His mentality can change playing in Poland. Here he will be following in relation to NT and in interviews he said many times that he want to be part of team. He know that in ZAKSA everyone are waiting for him. Hope he will handle this.