About The Wise Guys

Pete and Pops have travelled throughout Italy in search of the reason why Italians are so passionate about their beloved calcio.  Their trip left them with a giant hangover, 20 pounds of pizza/pasta heavier, a severe hatred towards Romanistas and above all, a new found respect towards Serie A fans/Ultras. 

On the peninsula where cigarettes, cell phones, pink shirts, Mamma’s cooking, Mamma’s love and above all, living at home well into your 30′s, are all virtues taken more seriously than politics, Calcio is the one aspect of Italian culture that trumps all. 

Everyone in Italy is an expert when it comes to Serie A.  Franco the barber, Luigi the Barista (not to be mistaken with the “confused” neon-coloured hair, too much mascara-wearing gothics who call themselves ”Baristas” at your local frapa-slappayouface-chino watering hole), Maria the waitress, Marco the bus-driver, the anti-globalization yet big Britney Spears fan Antonella and even your fagioli-picking Nonno…they are all experts in determing the advantages of a 3-man backline or the proper use of a trequartista in the hole behind two out-and-out strikers.

Pete and Pops live, breathe, sleep, smoke, drink, yell, curse and love Serie A soccer, providing strongly opionated Serie A talk with an emphasis on statistics and sarcasm.

Contact the Guys by email: pinkshirtwiseguys@gmail.com

Pietro “Pete” Aiello 

Pete is fanatical about soccer and believes that despite the lack of mainstream intelligent coverage of Serie A Football, he will dedicate the podcast to attempting to bring the same soccer knowledge, statistics, opinions and passion that you would hear at your local cafe in a small Italian town.  Hand-gestures, sarcasm and yelling included.

Pete has been a contributer for Sports Opinionated Back Pages and has written several books about Serie A soccer / football such as Berlusconi: the Man, the Myth, the Pervert and the highly acclaimed novel, Milan Lab Consists of three Dirty, Drunk Old Quacks and one of them Touched me Inappropriately however due to various legal battles and hidden controversies with the Forza Italia political party in Italy and Mr. Silvio Berlusconi himself, these novels have yet to be published.

Ryan “Pops” Popilchak

Pops is a little less fanatical than Pete, but easily twice as smart.  He loves the transfer market and the tactical aspects of the game the most, but can be blindly supportive of Milan players at times, even when they don’t deserve it (see Huntelaar, Klaas-Jan).  His podcast contributions are generally centered around sarcastic digs at Juventus and highlighting the Italian delusion that young players aren’t experienced enough until they’ve been on 4 loan spells and reach the age of 26. 

Pops writes about Serie A on Sports Opinionated and Bleacher Report and was the creator of a statistic known as S.O.A.R which measures the attacking impact of players, especially strikers.  His goals for the podcast are to ensure that the listeners learn about proper drink selection, hear at least a few arguments between he and Pete and all while hearing enough to capture a full week’s action from Serie A.