A Look Ahead

By: cathal | November 5th, 2008

The next few weeks are crucial.

The calendar is looking nice in the immediate future and it now appears critical that we pick up a load of points in the forthcoming games. Siena at home, Roma at the Olimpico, Genoa at home, Atalanta away; that’s a nice group of ties that we can gain points in. Then a look ahead to the proceeding weeks reveals the likes of Inter, Udinese, Palermo and Juventus. For me, it is light and day in the difficulty of these two groupings so I don’t think I would be harsh in saying we have to be getting to the very top very soon.

The big question is, can we maintain the momentum and consistency? It seems we can cope with anyone but I would like to see us trouncing the smaller sides. It would certainly make life easier when it comes to the big boys. The other thing we have to be careful of is not concentrating on those around us. I have this niggling fear that we will get so caught up in hunting down Udinese and Napoli that we will take our eye off the ball. Sure, that is the competition but it is not what we need to focus on. What we need to do is keep picking up 3 points, whether it be frustrating victories against the likes of Catania or deserved luck against the Chievos of this world.

19 points, 3 off the lead, 11 games played, 27 left; it’s a nice position to be in. However, nothing would satisfy me more to be on 25 points and top of the table come the 17th November. That should be the goal and hopefully with a big slice of fortune, we can do it. The last two games have been dire but boy am I excited about the task ahead!

Just to let you know, we have once again been linked with Matias Delgado of Besiktas. Now if you believe goal.com, he is on the radars of every club in Europe but as I said before, he is a solid player and could solve that Mauri/Matuzalem/Meghni dilemma we have. He also has the potential to fill Ledesma’s boots. However, Ledesma’s agent has said the door is still open to retain his client’s signature so I don’t have a clue what is going on behind the scenes. One thing that does appear to be happening is Zarate joining Lazio permanently. Goal.com have a few articles on this subject and it seems Lotito and Mauro see a rosy future at Lazio for the Argentine star.