Building Our Future

By: cathal | February 19th, 2009

Apologies for no posts in recent days. Once again my internet went loopy and there was nothing I could do. I will round up the news of the last few days now and if anything crops up today, I will have another post for you later.

Much of the speculation nowadays centres on our future plans and much of it is based on a rather premature assumption that Rossi will not be plonking his backside on our bench next season. Lazialita claims and has been claiming for sometime that our “new” manager will be one of three men: Diego Simeone, Walter Mazzarri or Roberto Donadoni. I know who I would prefer.

I personally think Simeone is the natural successor to Delio and I’ve thought this for quite a while. The problem with that belief though is that I never expected this season to go so badly, or for Diego’s career at River Plate to plummet like it did. In my head, I had Simeone on our bench in about 3 years time when Delio had decided to move on and take a challenge. Now, I see two managers you can’t really depend on. Delio is the anti-Diego; Rossi has worked his way up the ranks starting from scratch and proving what he is capable of. Diego, on the other hand, walked into a job after his professional career, proved a point by winning silverware (Delio’s cabinet is rather empty) but went on to spectacularly self-combust last season. If you think Delio is a mystery, Diego would be worse and although I do want to see him strutting around the Olimpico again, I hope he gets some Serie A coaching experience underneath his belt first.

Donadoni would just be the most ridiculous choice ever. He is completely overrated, should never have been manager of Italy and we are not Livorno. I’m not going to increase my stress levels talking about him. Mazzarri would be a more than decent selection. He is currently the manager of Sampdoria and although many are saying Samp are having a bad season, I have to disagree. Last season was an incredible season for them with a squad that is basically rubbish bar Cassano. In addition to that, Walter’s achievements with Reggina were highly impressive and if he can make them a comfortable mid-table side, I reckon he could take us places. Definitely the better of the three men.

Atalanta striker, Sergio Floccari has been linked with us in recent days. Along with Iaquinta, this is one of the guys I would like to see in our attack. He strikes me as one of those late bloomers having relatively little pedigree prior to this season but he could develop Toni-esque levels of ability. He is a player who is surely on the verge of a national call-up and someone who is definitely on the move this summer. However, with the likes of Juventus eyeing him up he could be a difficult catch. Nevertheless, we may be the only team that can guarantee him first-team action and that could be a key selling point when you factor his age into the equation. Would he be happy warming the San Siro bench? Probably not so watch this space on that rumour.

Briefly, Lazio are believed to be working on securing the services of Pandev, Ledesma, Foggia and Zarate for next season. A permanent deal for Matuzalem may also be on the cards.