The World According to La Gazzetta

By: Martha | October 16th, 2007

Future Interista. Since we’re through all of seven weeks of the season, the time has apparently come for serious transfer talk. To that end, today’s print edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport* has a feature on which one player each Serie A team needs to buy — either this winter or next summer — to solve their single greatest problem. It’s wonderfully detailed and completely obsessive, not to mention sure to make a few heads explode with, yes, indignation.

The most eye-catching transfer on their list is probably Inter’s, because the people at La Gazzetta think they needs to spend €20-30 million this summer on one Alberto Aquilani, the mere mention of which is sure to send a small, highly insane section of the internet into a complete frenzy. Inter do, after all, need a midfielder, and apparently the paper thinks Aquilani is the best option available — talk about a complement for the poor, broken lad. I wonder if there’s an amount that would persuade Rosella to part with the golden boy. Would €30 million do it? What if they threw in Chivu, too? Ahem.

Roma, on the other hand, are said to need someone to add weight to their attack; who better than Rolando Bianchi, who’s struggling to make an impact at Italian-laden Manchester City and could return to Italy this winter for an alleged fee of €15-20 million? The other top clubs, meanwhile, aren’t being told to spend quite as much. If La Gazzetta was in charge: Milan would spend €15 million on bringing in Alex from Chelsea (he’s been on loan to PSV all this time), so they’ll actually have someone young to replace Paolo Maldini; Juve would pick up Rafael van der Vaart for a mere €10 million to replace Tiago, who will presumably be leaving in January; Fiorentina would add Italy youth star Daniele Cacia from Piacenza, which is the lamest of all the proposed deals, since they signed him over the summer and already know he’ll be arriving in January.

The whole thing is disappointingly reasonable, really — no Ronaldinhoes, or Drogbas, or Quaresmas in sight, and no wild fees, apart from the Milan clubs, who spend that sort of thing all the time. We’ll see come January how close their predictions are for the first transfer window but, hey, at least they got the Viola one right.

*If anyone can find the story online, leave the link in the comments and I’ll add to the post.