Chapter 387: Controversy and the Closing of the Winter Window
After Torino's big win over Benevento, the remainder of the Serie A round kicked off and the final result was all decided before midnight on Sunday.
Inter Milan's away challenge to promoted Maspar was thought to be undeserved, but Spalletti's side were cursed, as if they had lost their instinct to win, and only managed to secure a 1-1 draw with a goalless goal from an oppositional defender. The Nerazzurri suffered a seven-game winless run after a five-goal home win over Chievo on 5 December last year, with five draws and two defeats dropping them from top of the table to fourth, and the trend is still on the decline. It was also their fourth consecutive draw, with the last three games all 1-1 scored.
However, considering that Inter's recent opponents are relatively strong, it is not certain that they will definitely miss out on next season's Champions League qualification, and the difference of 7 points with Torino seems to be a bit much, but the latter will also usher in an extremely difficult schedule in the closing stages of the league, and once the results fluctuate, it will still leave a chance for the chasers behind them. Therefore, it is still impossible to judge who will die, and it can only be said that Li Mudi's team is temporarily ahead of one or more positions, and it is still unknown whether it can have the last laugh.
Fiorentina and Roma also lost 4-1 at home to promoted Hellas Verona, causing the biggest upset in this round of Serie A. And Verona also relied on this victory to gradually catch up with Crotone and Spal in front of it, the difference between the three teams is only one point each, and the intensity of the relegation battle is really unusually tragic! The Red Wolves were overturned 0-1 at home by Sampdoria, not only failed to take the opportunity to shorten the gap with Inter, but were narrowed by the old sailors. Samp are already just two points behind Roma after winning this head-to-head clash between sixth and seventh places in the table, with a Europa League ticket seemingly beckoning them.
In addition to Torino, the other team that did not lose Jingzhou this Sunday was Napoli, who won 3-1 at home to Bologna with a solid performance, overtaking Juventus who ended yesterday by one point and continuing to dominate the Serie A leadership. With 57 points after 22 rounds, this is the best record in the history of the White Dolphins, but it still can't give the team any advantage on the road to the league title, because the old lady is also as good as the previous six consecutive championships, with such a strong opponent close behind him, even close to his back, the psychological pressure on Sarri and the players can be imagined.
No, on Monday morning, a report spread in major media and Internet mountains, which said that Napoli President De Laurentiis blasted the Agnelli family's extremely high status in Italy in an interview with "Milan Sport" to give Juventus additional benefits, which aroused heated discussions in the entire Italian football world for a while, and temporarily shifted everyone's attention to the transfer market.
According to the article, De Laurentiis responded to a reporter's question about the general lack of optimism about the finances of the league teams: "We are the only club in Serie A that does not owe money to the bank, when I took over, Napoli was just a piece of paper handed over to me by the bankruptcy court, and now you look at it, the club has grown a lot." "Originally, everything was normal, but the painting style suddenly changed later." Today Napoli earns a third of what Juventus does, but the club's accounts are much better than theirs. But this is worthless in the eyes of the outside world, because Juventus belongs to the most powerful family in Italy, and the Agnelli family has been in this position for 100 years. It's not a question of money, it's a question of relationships that can quietly change the situation, these have always been true, but everyone doesn't dare to say it, it's really sad! ”
He later cited the example of the stadium, saying that it took Napoli seven years to reach an agreement with the local council and pay a large sum of money to get the right to use the São Paulo stadium, otherwise there would be no home stadium to use. However, Juventus can connect with the likes of Sportfive, a top sports institution, and not only can they build a new stadium that is part of the club's property, but they can also complete all the formalities in the shortest possible time. After comparing the two, we can see some problems that cannot be made public.
To be honest, although the Bianconeri are one of the flags of Italian football, especially in the last decade, they are the only team that can maintain the dignity of Serie A in the world, but their reputation in their home country is very polarized, and it can be said that there are many allies and countless enemies. In addition to AC Milan, which formed a "holy alliance" with it before, will not openly dismantle their stage, several other strong teams have a hostile attitude towards the old lady, from Inter Milan to Roma, and then to Napoli, which has risen strongly in the past two years, have complained that Juventus's strength outside the football stadium has more or less affected the game and even the final championship, but it is still rare to have such a straightforward accusation as De Laurentiis.
The Italian media then published a series of special reports on whether the influence of the Agnelli family off the field interfered with football itself, in order to interpret and analyze whether the Napoli president's statement was untenable, and the chairman Cagliari's revelations on Tuesday added fuel to the fire, causing the "anti-Juventus front" storm to sweep the entire Apennine Peninsula. In an interview with reporters, Giulini angrily accused the injustice of today's Serie A after his own team lost to the Old Lady in a controversial penalty, and this time mocked the dynasty side that had made a history of six consecutive championships with Napoli at the top of the front to attract firepower.
"There really doesn't mean anything in this kind of game, the ubiquitous falsity is seriously corroding the whole of Italian football, and I'm not surprised at all that we didn't get a ticket to the World Cup, we deserve it," he said. In the game against some teams, our players are fighting hard all their lives, and in the end they often lose everything because of a so-called misjudgment. If you want these teams to win all the time, if you want them to be happy and satisfied, you can just tell us and don't tarnish the field. ”
These remarks are almost an accusation that Juventus have been deliberately arranged to be taken care of by the referee in recent years, combined with Zeman's previous report that they made players take banned drugs en masse and the phonegate scandal that broke out in 2006, many fans began to question the success of the six crowns. But not many people in the football circle will put their minds on these so-called insiders, because everyone knows that some things cannot be put on the table, after all, decades of history have proved that those who tear their faces with a certain team do not end very well, such as former Roma president Sensi. And after the phone door incident, Moggie and others were expelled, and the old woman is no longer as unfairly cared for as she was before, so many Serie A teams have always complained in private, and will not publicize the existence of match-fixing in the league everywhere, which is also not good for the entire football environment.
As for Napoli, they themselves are one of Juventus' henchmen, and this time their president complained to the outside world just because the pressure was too great, which does not mean that the two clubs have broken up, and they will still be the members of the alliance that occupy the vast majority of the resources of the country. And Cagliari is just a small character that people don't want to play with him, and he just takes the opportunity to vent a few words, and it can't make a big impact.
So when fans are still interested in this topic, industry insiders, including Li Mudi, are actually paying close attention to the dynamics of the transfer market, because according to historical experience, like the first day of the window, the last two days of the closing game are also the most critical period for important transfers to be reached, and some unexpected and surprising events are often reached within these thirty or forty hours. Although Serie A teams have had an outrageously low number of player transactions during the month, the rumours and the numerous transfer intentions displayed by the FM system have kept the Torino club's staff on the lookout for events related to them.
On the 30th, there were several large transfers of players, Athletic Bilbao's French central defender Laporte joined the Premier League leader Manchester City with the second highest price of 65 million euros as a defender. As a replacement for the Frenchman, Spanish centre-back Inigo Martinez, who plays for Real Sociedad, switched to the Basque Lions for 32 million. In addition, there has been a larger deal in Serie A, but it is a sale rather than an introduction, Roma sold Brazilian left wing-back Emerson Jr. to Chelsea for 20 million euros, which caused heated discussions in the domestic media, and most people believe that if the Red Wolves cannot bring in a qualified replacement in time, there will inevitably be a decline in strength, which will obviously be bad news for the second half of the Champions League qualification.
The next day, a bigger player deal appeared, and the big rotation of the three clubs that Li Mudi had known for a long time was still completed, and Aubameyang arrived at the Emirates Stadium for 63.75 million euros, and the exchange of Sanchez for the professor of Mkhitaryan half a month ago was a rare show of courage, bringing in another world-class striker for the Gunners since Henry. Giroud, who is no longer needed by Arsenal, can finally prove his worth at Stamford Bridge, and the transfer fee of 17 million is still very respectable for a 31-year-old veteran. After getting the French center forward, Batshuayi, who was very optimistic about Li Mudi, still arrived in Germany on loan, and at the West Stadium, he had the best chance to prove himself in a year and a half, while the Torino coach could only watch the striker who had the opportunity to usher in an explosion miss out in front of him and was helpless.
In addition, there were more than a dozen medium-value deals with transfer fees of more than 7 million euros on this day, but almost all of the buyers were from Premier League teams, which attracted a lot of attention. In fact, of the nearly 500 transfer deals that have been reached in the entire winter transfer window, the clubs of the five major leagues have generated a total of 880 million euros in transfer fees, of which the Premier League accounts for a little more than 600 million (including the number sold to foreign leagues), accounting for nearly 70%, and the name of the world's No. 1 local league is well deserved.
With top giants like Real Madrid tightening their purses and doing nothing in the transfer market, almost all 20 Premier League teams have made a difference in their squads in January, and even Stoke City and Swansea, who are at the bottom of the table, have spent at least £2,000 on new signings.
And with the exception of Coutinho's transfer to Barcelona, the rest of the big deals were bought by British teams, which means that, in general, the current situation is that the world's stars are flocking to the island of Great Britain, and the scene of the small World Cup in Italian football is now reappearing, but the location has been changed to the empire on which the sun never sets.
On the other hand, Serie A, which was still shouted by the media at the beginning of the season to see the prospect of revival, several strong teams have invested a total of 0 euros in terms of reinforcements this winter, yes, everyone is not mistaken, just not a penny. In fact, apart from the signing of free agent Tulalang by Torino, only Juventus have reached a buyout signing, Pescara winger Mancuso, who was born in 1998, has officially joined the Old Lady, but will remain with the original team until the end of the season, and Juve have not yet shelled out a penny, this player they exchanged for two academy youngsters. In addition, Inter Milan brought in Benfica's Argentine central defender Lisandro López and Barcelona's Brazilian midfielder Raphinha on loan, and Roma also brought Argentine fullback Jonathan Silva from Sporting de Portugal in the same way.
To go into more detail, the Italian team not only did not use this transfer period to reinforce, but also sold some players with a certain quality to foreign teams, not to mention the transactions digested within the domestic league, Croatian winger Piazza, Portuguese midfielder Joao Mario, Japanese full-back Yuto Nagatomo, Mexican central defender Moreno, and other international-level players who have proven their strength in the European league, have all left the Apennine Peninsula to start a new chapter in their careers in other leagues. Although none of them can be called first-class footballers, but they have also weakened the strength of the Serie A team to a certain extent, Italian football seems to be in an economic crisis after the tragedy of the World Cup, and the prospects do not look very optimistic!