More names, ideas and rumors

By: salvatore | June 15th, 2008

Some new names have been mentioned this week in connection with Lazio, and at least one truly disheartening piece of news also made the rounds. We’ll start with that, since I’ve always felt it best to get the bad out of the way before diving into the, um, less bad? (Just kidding, it’s not all shitty).

Yep, Stefano Mauri, AKA The incredibly vanishing Mauri, might actually be playing with Lazio next year. Let me rephrase that, Mauri will be playing with Lazio next year, as the player’s agent and the team are apparently already discussing an extension. Frankly, I don’t know how I feel about this. On the one hand I know that Mauri has at times in the past been a good player. On the other, I remember how quickly and completely he disappeared this year, acting like a whiny little bitch the entire time. Which guy are we signing exactly? And worse yet, if he stays, does that mean that no other striker/trequartista is being brought in?

Speaking of which, the Biancoceleste were linked this last week with the impossibly named Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who to be honest, I’d like to see on the team solely so that I could hear commentators on Rai and Sky sports stumble. Reportedly, this would be the consolation prize should the team fail (likely) in the high-stakes race for Rodrigo Palacio. Vennegoor of Hesselink wouldn’t be an earth-shattering addition, but it would give Delio another decent striking option off the bench (or at least another option for the trident he used for much of the second half of the season).

The rest of this week’s talk revolved around the defense, starting with word of a possible exchange with Napoli involving Domizzi-Zauri and Stendardo-Bogliacino. If you’re confused, don’t worry, you should be. Ever since the season ended we’ve been hearing about how Stendardo was on his way to Juve (for countless combinations of their young prospects), and now suddenly, he’s not only off to Napoli, but for two players I doubt the Partenopei would give up. Oh, and wasn’t Zauri supposed to be heading to Florence? It’s enough for you to just want to give up.

Which brings us to Cosmin Moţi. It seems the whole Radu experience (now fully owned by Lazio by the way, along with Rozehnal) has really turned Lotito on to Romania, because he’s reportedly trying to land another Dynamo Bucharest defender. I can’t pretend to say I know enough about this Moţi guy to really weigh in here, but he is young, experienced at the international level, and best of all, a center back. So why the fuck not? Especially if there’s the chance he can be as promising as his former teammate (Radu).

As always, let’s see what develops (if anything really does)…