Buon Natale!!!

By: cathal | December 24th, 2008

To whom it concerns, I would like to wish you a very happy Christmas. Please take care over the festive period and don’t eat or drink yourselves to death.

Apologies for the severe lack of posts over the last few days (none to be exact). I was mulling over when I should round everything up as there is not much to report at this time of year. Still, there is enough bits and pieces for a supersized blog. How convenient.

After a timely win over Palermo last Saturday, the Lazio Christmas party was quite vibrant this year. Photgraphs from the bash can be found here. Our trendy players seemed to be completely overshadowed by a limelight seeking Lotito but thankfully it is not Claudio we watch week in week out on the pitch. The look on Muslera’s face suggests that he is also enjoying the festivities and who can blame him after he put in a considerably better performance against Milan this year than he did in 2007.

I have some good news regarding Lichtsteiner’s injury. He has completed all those routine checks you have to go through when you might be injured and fortunately for us there appears to be no lasting damage. This is great news and with all being well he should be back in training when it resumes on the 2nd January. In saying that, the source that said all this has mysteriously vanished from the internet and this may all have been some cruel Christmas joke. Let’s hope the original article was the article of truth.

Next up, transfer speculation. Latest name to be linked with Lazio is a certain Genevier of Pisa. I have never seen this guy in action but I do have some information on him:

He is French.
He is around 25 years of age.
He is a midfielder.
He kicks a football for a living.

That may have been overly sarcastic and slightly unfair considering I haven’t seen him play but there is a big difference between seeing Genevier’s name on the teamsheet and that of Elano’s for example. Speaking of the Blumer, he is still interested in Lazio, we are still interested in him and this love affair is being held back by factors commonly known as “long distance” and “Lotito doesn’t sign individuals of his calibre.” But with love, there are no obstacles so who knows. One can follow “developments” here and here. The latter here also explains how Chievo are interested in Makinwa. All I can say to that really is name your price.

Someone who always names his price is Ledesma’s agent who has recently been claiming that Ledesma is not leaving Lazio…yet. That may well be the case but it doesn’t stop us being linked with other Argentine midfielders with exotic names like Rinaudo. Once again I know absolutely nothing about this chap and all these transfer rumours are contriving to annoy me. Ah well, only another six weeks or so to go.

Many fans were irritated and disheartened by Zarate’s showing against Palermo. It wasn’t just his on-field performance that caused hurt; his actions on the bench were none too savoury either. However, the maestro has went a long way in redeeming himself this week. He played down his reaction to being subbed stating that he was extremely disappointed with his own performance. He also declared his love for Lazio and reiterated his desire to sign a permanent deal with the club as quickly as possible. Fantastic news I’m sure you will agree.

Now check this out. Mauro rang up a radio station pretending to be a normal laziale and answered a survey on Lazio. He responded to every question with a Zarate-related answer which caused broadcasters to suspect that the caller was a massive fan of Maurito. That’s when the Zarate Kid dropped the bombshell that it was actually the wizard himself on the phoneline. Clever stuff. Have a listen for yourselves:

http://www.lazialita.com/ascoltaudio.asp?idaudio=101 (part 1)
http://www.lazialita.com/ascoltaudio.asp?idaudio=102 (part 2)
http://www.lazialita.com/ascoltaudio.asp?idaudio=103 (part 3)

That’s it for now, the next post will be up on the 27th. In the meantime, I will be indulging in the festivities but I will check the comments section and put some news in there. I’ll leave you with a Christmas classic and some select images. Ciao for now.