Media Frenzy

By: cathal | May 24th, 2009

I’ll try and deal with each area of the team and the rumoured ins and outs. Apologies if I am lacking a few sources with the information I have but there is just so much speculation, I am struggling to keep track of it. Ok, so here we go.

Goalkeeper:
Despite Carrizo getting an outing in recent games, Rossi’s words appear to demonstrate a distinct lack of faith in the guy. Hence, there is meant to be a colossal scrap for the Argentine stopper. Valencia, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and Hamburg are the teams said to be leading the way. The rumour is reputable enough for me; Valencia have struggled with goalies all season and if they are particularly interested, I would not be surprised to see him leave. Muslera will stay, surely.

Defence:
As everyone is probably aware, Cribari seems to be a certainty to walk out of the Olimpico this summer. There have been no rumours regarding our other centre-backs but despite this, we are being linked with two South American defenders. Diego Lugano is one and Miranda is another. I know absolutely nothing about the latter except for the fact that he has been linked with big clubs in the past but Diego is an experienced centre-back with regular European experience at Fenerbahce and he is also available on a free contract. He has many admirers and popular opinion would suggest he is a very reliable option but from what I have seen of him, I am not a fan. He always plays for attack-minded teams and yes, we are that but judging by the amount of goals his side concede, I doubt he is any better than who we already have here. There is also speculation regarding Kolarov and De Silvestri with Juventus seemingly interested but I don’t believe that rumour for a second. However, there is some murmuring that Lotito is looking to sell Aleksandar. Goodness knows why.

Midfield:
Matuzalem is the current focus of this area. In the last few days, Real Zaragoza, the club who own him have been asked to pay his former club, Shakhtar Donet’sk a figure somewhere in the region of 12million euro for what seems to be the conclusion of an illegal deal. Now, I am not quite sure what the implications of this will be. From what I have read, Francelino wants to remian at Lazio but whether he holds any personal responsibility for this is unclear. Hopefully not, because that is not something we want to be associated with. However, what if the Spanish side can’t pay the money, who does he belong to? Will he get the choice to stay with us or perhaps buy out his existing contract? This could work out very well or very badly for us. It is hard to tell which way it would go.

In terms of bringing someone new in, it seems that a right winger is top of the agenda; for a long time it has been said that we are looking for a player to compliment Foggia and his role on the left. Two candidates have been mentioned recently; Edgar Barreto (who is probably more of a centre-midfielder but potentially, a right midfielder) and Eden Hazard. Both are interesting options with the Reggina man looking increasingly likely to make a move to Rome in the near future. I can’t imagine the guy wants to play in Serie B and his club have admitted that we are in hot pursuit of the Paraguay international so the arrival of Barreto may be imminent. As for Hazard, he probably has the most apt name in football, a dangerous 18 year-old who reminds me of Messi to a considerable degree. Clearly he is not as good and may never be but it would be a huge scoop if we got him; Barca and Arsenal are said to be in the hunt but we have a great relationship with his club Lille (because of the Lichtsteiner deal) and if Eden fancies a step up rather than a massive jump, we may just have one of the world’s brightest talents on our hands. Boca Juniors’ midfielder Battaglia is linked with us once again but I suspect this rumour is false. His teammate, Fabián Vargas is another potential target. In fact, there were some reports that he was incredibly close to signing. They have since faded away.

Attack:
Along with Angeleri who ’signed’ for us, Genoa have acquired the services of three of our main striker targets; Acquafresca, Floccari and Crespo. With Pandev set to leave, a quality forward is needed. Igor Budan is the man who is currently heading the talk. He won’t set the world alight with his ability but he is the kind of physical forward we have lacked this season and a part-exchange deal with Palermo for Cribari has been mentioned. I know that Zamparini and our very own president shared a cup of coffee earlier in the season and were forced to deny any players were discussed but perhaps this deal was the topic of conversation? It is a longshot but you never know.

Just to clarify the Pandev situation, a few days ago I was under the impression that he was yet to decide on his future but apparently he has refused the latest offer made by Lotito. If he wants to go, we have to sell; he has only one or two years left on his current deal (the media seem confused about this and I am too, various reports are claiming different years of expiry). The longer we leave it to sell him, the more he depreciates in value. if you think the rumoured 10million plus Almiron offer sounds low, then be prepared for it to go a whole lot lower. If you believe the reports, Juve are desperately trying to offload their rubbish to us, cut their wage bill and get Goran in the process while Claudio is apparently doing his utmost to integrate Marchisio into the deal. If Tottenham are keen and it has been said that they are (Pavlyuchenko could leave) then they would probably offer us the most cash with their Berbatov fund financing the deal. So, I am relatively optimistic that we can get a good deal from this situation if we act in the correct manner.

Coach:
Lotito held a meeting with Delio a few days ago and the meeting is said to have gone both successfully and unsuccessfully, depending on which report you read. Each source says the same thing; Claudio is ‘evaluating’ the ‘demands’ made by our coach. This is a crafty statement if ever I saw one. It gives Claudio grounds to sack him but also reason to extend his contract. However, Walter Zenga has just thrown in the towel at Catania and some sections of the media expect him to become our new manager. Personally, I believe he is just running away from the Sicilians before he lands himself in hot water because they have been so hit and miss recently, you have to make them one of the favourites to go down next season, regardless of who they appoint. Nevertheless, I would definitely keep a close eye on the managerial situation.

On another note entirely, a few of you may remember that I did a short interview with Michael Di Mascio prior to the first Coppa Italia tie with Juve for his “North Curve” audio blogs. Since then, we tried to do a quick interview before the last derby but we had communication troubles and ultimately, ran out of time. I did however, do an interview before the Coppa finale and I will post that blog here when it is ready. In the meantime, he has promised me that he will give a shout-out to us laziali on his radio show tomorrow which will broadcast at 5.30 p.m. CET where he will be discussing the much anticipated Champions League final. As I have been a part of his work in the past and hopefully in the future, I thought I would give him a brief mention here. Aside from that, he is a hard-working laziale and it’s always good to show support to a fellow fan and friend, right?

Poll results tomorrow. Forza Lazio!