Cruz Control

By: cathal | July 16th, 2009

Ex-Inter hitman, Julio Cruz appears to be edging ever closer to a move to Lazio and the deal could even be concluded within the next 48 hours. However, his arrival would contradict the youth-orientated policy we have become accustomed to under Lotito. Is it necessary that we pursue someone in the winter of their career?

A necessity it may not be but in my opinion, it is a move that makes perfect sense. In Julio, we would have a big targetman, an additional dimension to our attack and a player with a vast amount of Serie A experience with a solid goal-to-game ratio. In this mercato, we have already discussed possibilities such as Berg and Acquafresca and in the past, illustrious names such as Toni and Iaquinta have been mentioned, but it would cost at least 6-8 million to bring these guys in and then their salary would add many more millions into the equation. With Cruz, the numbers are simple; it costs nothing to bring him here as he is a free agent and we will pay him 4 million for a 2 year contribution. With any of the aforementioned players, we would be looking at paying at least three times that and with Zarate, we are already paying six times this amount for 2 years of work from him. Therefore, it is financially lucrative to a man who likes to hold firmly onto his wallet and ultimately, the Argentine is not exactly a bad player and probably worth the high wage.

In addition to all this and perhaps most importantly, Julio is a temporary solution for a temporary problem. We have targetmen in Rome; the problem is, they are Kozak and Mendicino and they are 20 and 19 years of age respectively. By the time Julio’s career at Lazio is complete, I would hope at least one of these two will be ready to take his baton and run with it. Acquafresca and Berg were mouthwatering options but in two years time, hypothetically speaking, we could be left with 3-4 world class targetmen who are of little value due to a lack of playing time and of little use due to an overabundance of talent in one position. At least with Cruz, we know he won’t kill the careers of two bright sparks and who knows, he may be instrumental in developing their game.