Have you ever heard of the "offload mode"? It is one much favoured by Italy's most prestigious football club, Juventus of Turin. The basic principle is simple - offload your players, even your most famous ones, before they reach their "sell-by" dates.
When Alessandro Del Piero, currently the biggest Italian name at Juventus, told reporters last Friday that he and the club may soon have to "take some important decisions", one's mind immediately flashed to the "offload mode". One thought of players such as Roberto Baggio or one time Middlesbrough striker Fabrizio Ravanelli or, indeed, one time Chelsea player-manager Gianluca Vialli.
Ironically, Del Piero's difficulty may be England's opportunity. If and when he and Juventus take their "important decisions" and opt to part company, then smart money suggests that he could be headed for the English Premiership.
Given that 26-year-old Del Piero currently commands nearly £5 million after-tax a year (on a contract not due to expire until June 2005), then his only possible destinations outside Italian soccer would have to be either England (Manchester United, Arsenal) or Spain (Barcelona or Real Madrid).
For the time being, Juventus are denying that they have any intention of offloading a player who for a period in the middle 1990s was nothing less than a standard bearer for both club and country. Yet, both the club and Del Piero know that the last three seasons have been bitterly disappointing.
Both parties know, as Del Piero admitted on Friday, that if he does not "play well in the second half of this season", then it could mean the end of a working relationship first initiated when he moved to Juventus from little Padova in 1993.
Del Piero's problems first began with an injury in the 1998 European Cup final in which Juventus were beaten 1-0 by Real Madrid. That injury dragged into Italy's France '98 World Cup campaign, with Del Piero proving a major disappointment.
Shortly after that World Cup, Del Piero was again at the centre of controversy when then AS Roma coach, Czech Zdenek Zeman, suggested that he had made "remarkable" physical progress in recent seasons, implying that he had resorted to prohibited substances.
In the autumn of 1998, however, Del Piero hit his lowest moment when he badly injured his left knee whilst playing against Udinese. So serious was the damage down to cruciate ligaments that his career was in jeopardy.
"Lots of doctors will confirm it for you, but I have to consider myself lucky to be playing again".
Nor did Euro 2000 do much to help Del Piero's cause. Used sparingly as a substitute by coach Dino Zoff, Del Piero blew Italy's biggest moment, missing two glorious late chances in the Rotterdam final against France at a time when the score was 1-0 in Italy's favour.
Nor has this season gone much better. On his initial international outing in September, he missed an apparent "sitter" that would have made it 3-1 for Italy in a World Cup qualifier away to Hungary, a game eventually drawn 2-2.
Two months later, Juventus were out of the Champions League and for a period either side of Christmas he was ruled out by a minor injury. At the moment, he is struggling to command a first team place.
Del Piero admits that the various criticisms levelled at him over the last three years have left him with material for reflection, commenting recently:
"When I was on my holidays, far from Italy, at the seaside last summer, I had a lot to think about . . . People called me the traitor to the cause (after Rotterdam) and that hurt, even if I know it's a linguistic exaggeration. People call me drugged and that really makes me indignant . . . People say that I am a homosexual but I am not, even if I have nothing against homosexuals. People have said that I am finished, but we'll see . . ."
