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It appears that out transfer policy is heavily weighted towards players playing in Italy, at least this transfer window so far.

 

Do the club feel that you can get good players at good value by exploiting a weakening ecomonic system over there or are NC's infamous transfer negotiation techniques only tolerated by some like minded individuals in Serie A?

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Probably a little bit of both.

 

Nicola Cortese's Italian background may allow him a greater understanding of how to deal with the Serie A clubs and their financial meltdown makes the attraction to pick the carcass even better.

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Wasn't Cortese linked with a job at AC Milan a few years ago?

 

Coupled with the signings from Italy it would suggest the bloke has some decent contacts over there.

 

Personally, I'm all for him utilising these connections if they can pull out deals like Guly (knock all you want, that was a good signing in L1) and Gaston.

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Probably a bit of both. Top players at lesser teams in Serie A are probably going to find it increasingly difficult to get the big money moves within Serie A as even the biggest clubs are less willing to splash out and as a result may be more open to looking abroad like Ramirez did and like Criscito did when he went off to play for Zenit. Truth be told we should be looking to try and take advantage of La Liga for similar economic reasons as Swansea have managed to so successfully.

 

On the other hand we were looking towards Serie A from the moment Liebherr and Cortese came in with Waigo and Guly joining when we were in L1, which does suggest either Cortese finds Italian teams easier to negotiate with either because of shared philosophy or through connections.

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Wasn't Cortese linked with a job at AC Milan a few years ago?

 

Coupled with the signings from Italy it would suggest the bloke has some decent contacts over there.

 

Personally, I'm all for him utilising these connections if they can pull out deals like Guly (knock all you want, that was a good signing in L1) and Gaston.

 

You should have only included Guly in your post, just for lol's!

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I think it's obviously aided because of NC's background, he obviously has built up a lot of Italian based contacts from previous times.

 

But this is also a great time to be looking into Italy. It's not a great league anymore, you only have to look at some of the great names that have left there over the last 18months to realize that it isn't the force it once was. Matches are riddled with racism, match fixing, gambling. It's not an attractive league really, and it's why all the big players are moving away. Obviously money helps, as Italy doesn't have any at the moment - even some of the biggest clubs in Europe (Inter/ AC) are struggling financially big time, which is why players like Ibrahimovich and Thiago Silva left for the French league, which says alot - that wouldn't have happened a few years back.

 

We're targeting ''top players'' at clubs at a similar level to us (I'm refering to Astori and Ramirez btw!), which is a clever tactic because at best those players will just be making a sideways step in order to make a bigger step in the future. In some ways some of these players will use us as a stepping stone, that has to be expected, but as a fan you pay to go and watch likes like Ramirez and Coutinho play for your club in your city. Enjoy it whilst we can.

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It appears that out transfer policy is heavily weighted towards players playing in Italy, at least this transfer window so far.

 

Do the club feel that you can get good players at good value by exploiting a weakening ecomonic system over there or are NC's infamous transfer negotiation techniques only tolerated by some like minded individuals in Serie A?

 

 

who cares... as long as we sign a good class of player !

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It appears that out transfer policy is heavily weighted towards players playing in Italy, at least this transfer window so far.

 

Do the club feel that you can get good players at good value by exploiting a weakening ecomonic system over there or are NC's infamous transfer negotiation techniques only tolerated by some like minded individuals in Serie A?

 

OK ..let's put it another way.

 

Clubs with money to spend will try and get the best deal they can by buying from clubs who have financial difficulties (polite way of saying -about to go bankrupt) and will part with a player.....

and be glad of the money (as were Bologna - who are still in business). Good grief ...big clubs have done it to us for decades .....it's part of the football scenario.

It's not unethical - it's business, and if Cortese has lots of contacts in Italy and we get good deals for good players, then good for him (and SFC)

 

Orthodox or not - Cortese is no walkover in transfer deals, as we saw from the valuation in the Alex OC to Arsenal deal...He signs the cheques and knows how much we have in the bank....is that a problem?

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Probably a bit of both but with so many technically excellent Italian players we might as well use whatever advantage we have.

 

Some of the players we are being linked to are of the calibre that we would never have dreamed of getting during our last premiership spell.

 

All pretty exciting stuff.

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OK ..let's put it another way.

 

Clubs with money to spend will try and get the best deal they can by buying from clubs who have financial difficulties (polite way of saying -about to go bankrupt) and will part with a player.....

and be glad of the money (as were Bologna - who are still in business). Good grief ...big clubs have done it to us for decades .....it's part of the football scenario.

It's not unethical - it's business, and if Cortese has lots of contacts in Italy and we get good deals for good players, then good for him (and SFC)

 

Orthodox or not - Cortese is no walkover in transfer deals, as we saw from the valuation in the Alex OC to Arsenal deal...He signs the cheques and knows how much we have in the bank....is that a problem?

 

Never said it was a problem. I thought of a question and shared it with the MB. If people didn't, you would have nothing to bold and underline ; )

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http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/lambert-sparks-comeback-that-turns-adkins-obit-into-an-ovation-8165702.html

 

Nicola Cortese, Southampton’s chairman, is that modern phenomenon, a self-possessed businessman, who is not steeped in football, and can hardly claim a long-held love for his club. Before he was installed at St Mary’s by Markus Leibherr, the club’s late benefactor, he ran the sports business desk at Credit Suisse in Geneva, where his clients included Silvio Berlusconi.

 

There is his link to Italian football and why he was linked to AC Milan

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Funny how the value of €12m seems to be the going rate with most of the players we are associated with.

 

It's like we pop into a €12M shop to buy our players. Invariably we offer 8 and then end up paying something in the middle.

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in the main,Italian footballers have flair and ability on the ball. I think this is something the club is trying to ingrain in our style of play. NC upsets the old school football people and agents. He likes to keep negotiations away from the media and does not condone blabbing to the media, having Big Sam and HR doing negotiations in the media is something I doubt we will see at the club.

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I think it's a combination of NC's contacts there and the state of the league's finances.

 

You only have to lok at the fall from grace of Mighty AC Milan, the likes of Pato moving from Milan to Corinthinians wouldn't have happened a few years ago, the big lcubs in Italy traditionally buy the best Brazilians not the other way round.

 

Look at the list of players who have recently left Milan:-

 

Imbrahimovic

Thiago Silva

Pato

Cassano

Nesta

Gattusso

Seedorf

Van Bommell

 

Something like 29 players have left recouping nearly £80 million in sales and only £20 million spent.

 

Seems only Juventus are financially ok.

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in the main,Italian footballers have flair and ability on the ball. I think this is something the club is trying to ingrain in our style of play. NC upsets the old school football people and agents. He likes to keep negotiations away from the media and does not condone blabbing to the media, having Big Sam and HR doing negotiations in the media is something I doubt we will see at the club.

 

I agree there hasn't been as many as some other countries.

 

But that's not to say there hasn't been some notable successes. For me, Zola is one of the best players to have played in the Premiership era. Vialli was pretty good too, as was Roberto Di Matteo - hmmmm are we doing a 90's Chelsea?

 

Ravinelli was ok for Boro too. Granted it's not a huge list (doubtless I'm missing some) and it's been a while...

 

Maybe the prem is due another?

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I agree there hasn't been as many as some other countries.

 

But that's not to say there hasn't been some notable successes. For me, Zola is one of the best players to have played in the Premiership era. Vialli was pretty good too, as was Roberto Di Matteo - hmmmm are we doing a 90's Chelsea?

 

Ravinelli was ok for Boro too. Granted it's not a huge list (doubtless I'm missing some) and it's been a while...

 

Maybe the prem is due another?

 

I would say though that throughout the 90's serie A was the dominant league in world football, remmeber wathching it on 4 all the time, all the top stars went there so a mvoe to England was generally a step down. Over the last 5 years or so it's been on a steady decline and seems to have issues fiancially.

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It appears that out transfer policy is heavily weighted towards players playing in Italy, at least this transfer window so far.

 

Do the club feel that you can get good players at good value by exploiting a weakening ecomonic system over there or are NC's infamous transfer negotiation techniques only tolerated by some like minded individuals in Serie A?

How many players have we signed from Serie A?
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