Team Focus: Lazio Making Much Needed Improvements Amidst Fan Fury

There were 500 disgruntled Lazio fans outside the team hotel in Auronzo di Cadore last Thursday night. They wanted to speak to Igli Tare, the director of sport. An explanation was owed them.

Since the end of last season and over the course of the World Cup, Lazio had been in negotiations with Cagliari for one of the highest regarded centre-backs in Serie A, Davide Astori. Throughout them, owner Claudio Lotito lived up to his reputation for being tight. Fully aware that Cagliari wanted €7m in cash, he offered €5.8m up front and another €1m to follow once certain performance related add-ons were activated.

The proposal yielded a polite refusal from his opposite number Claudio Giulini. Knowing the player wished to move on, he tried to find a compromise that would leave all parties satisfied. Lazio could pay the fee in instalments over the next three seasons if they liked. The price, however, was €7m and Cagliari didn’t want part of the fee to be dependent on appearance bonuses.

Stubborn to a fault, Lotito wouldn’t budge. Exasperated, Giulini broke the whole thing off. Astori signed a ‘new contract’. But then Roma called. They were prepared to meet Cagliari’s valuation. A deal was done.

Without even playing Lazio had ‘lost’ the first Rome derby of the season. It was a “humiliation” [il Messaggero]. As if missing out on a key transfer target wasn’t bad enough, their fiercest rivals’ had gone and got one over on them. And to make matters worse, Astori was Roma’s sixth signing of the summer. Runners’ up last season, their cousins are going from strength to strength. Many are even making them favourites for the Scudetto. To Lazio supporters’ the prospect is unbearable. Is it any wonder they were angry?

This year has been one where longstanding grievances with Lotito have boiled over. Hernanes’ sale to Inter back in the spring led to protests outside the club offices. Whilst Lotito got the best possible price for a 29-year-old entering the final 18 months of his contract, it didn’t go down well. A fan favourite, Hernanes’ exit was symbolic: Lazio couldn’t match his ambition because they lack it themselves. What else should players’ and supporters’ think when stars are sold?

The timing also frustrated having come as late as it did in the January transfer window. No replacement could be found. With the team weakened, the mood was deeply pessimistic. Few held out hope that Lazio could rally and get back into the Europa League places. Lotito was labeled a “dream thief.” In order to register their discontent at not being listened to, Lazio fans packed the Olimpico for Sassuolo’s visit in late February. They spent the entire game demonstrating against Lotito, holding up white pieces of card in unison with the words: “Free Lazio” on them. The ultras then boycotted all but one of the club’s remaining home fixtures.

It’s in this context that the Astori affair must be seen. It was the latest transfer - after the Keisuke Honda and Burak Yilmaz cases in recent years - to go far down  but never actually cross the line. In fairness to Lazio, however, their business this summer merits consideration as some of the best in Serie A, irrespective of the Astori debacle.

First, the appointment of Stefano Pioli as Edy Reja’s successor is a very good one. Sacked by Bologna last season, that decision came about for a series of reasons that do little to diminish his reputation. Financial problems made the owners resent him for signing a new contract they’d offered and he deserved. Pioli had replaced Pierpaolo Bisoli in October 2011 with the team in relegation trouble. They finished ninth. It’s worth remembering that had the season started when he took over Bologna would have concluded in sixth, which would have been their highest placing since 1961. The feat was even more impressive when you consider how their record in the second half of that campaign was also the third best in the league.

Safe nice and early the following season, the players relaxed instead of pushing on and ended in 13th. Austerity then hit Bologna. They sold their share in Manolo Gabbiadini to Samp. Alberto Gilardino returned to Genoa. Goals were hard to come by. Captain of a ship that was sinking more for the decisions of others than for his own, Pioli was made to walk the plank. Lazio were only too pleased to welcome him aboard.

The team has strengthened from front to back. Miroslav Klose, the all-time World Cup top scorer, is staying. He has a new strike partner in Filip Djordjevic who joins on a free from Nantes. He scored seven in his first 14 games in Ligue 1 last season, adding a couple more before a knee injury ruled him out for the rest of the campaign. His arrival means that after a couple of years of searching, Lazio finally have a striker capable of sharing the goalscoring burden with the veteran Klose.

In central midfield, World Cup finalist Lucas Biglia and Cristian Ledesma are joined by Marco Parolo. Part of the Parma team that finished sixth last season, he contributed 14 goals [scoring 8 and assisting 6], a return that contributed to his inclusion in Cesare Prandelli’s Italy squad for Brazil. Lazio have also bought out Udinese’s remaining stake in another of their internationals, the team’s main difference-maker Antonio Candreva.

At the back, they edged Walter Mazzarri’s Inter to Djordjevic’s Serbia international teammate, the Udinese full-back Dusan Basta. Most impressive of all, however, was how Lazio redeemed themselves for missing out on Astori.

Chastened by it and unwilling to be beaten to another transfer objective, Tare flew to Rotterdam and closed a deal with Feyenoord for versatile defender Stefan de Vrij, a member of the Netherlands team that reached the semi-finals of the World Cup. Recognition for his performances is found in the composition of the Team of the Tournament. De Vrij was voted into it. The top-rated centre-back in Brazil, according to WhoScored [7.90], he made more interceptions than anyone else [25]. Only Javier Mascherano won more tackles [26]. Incidentally he was also third in clearances [50].

Not since Lazio signed Hernanes from Sao Paulo in 2010 has the reaction been: how have they managed to pull a deal like this off with so much reported competition? The Biancocelesti still hope to add another centre-back between now and the end of the transfer window: they wanted both Astori and de Vrij, it wasn’t a case of one or the other. You can’t help but think they would have complemented each other well. Astori is good in the air. No one has made more aerial clearances over the last five campaigns in Serie A [748]. De Vrij is good on the ground.
 
Had Lotito not been so inflexible with Cagliari on the structure of payment and their wish that he stump up an extra €200k, Lazio might be celebrating the signing of both. Instead, they’re still looking. Overall though they have, relatively speaking, still upgraded quite impressively and their academy continues to produce talents to supplement Keita Balde Diao’s. With all this in mind, expect Lazio to be competing to return to Europe this season. The Eagles have wind beneath their wings again.

Who do you think will prove to be the best signing that Lazio have made this summer? Let us know in the comments below