Transfer Window: Are We Doing Enough?

By: Jeremy | July 15th, 2009

Success often causes complacency and such behavior will cause you to fall behind your competition, especially in Serie A. While last seasons overall results have been discussed and analyzed to death, we are fast approaching a new year and the team cannot think that the same results or better will be guaranteed next year. For those of you who expect improvement, you may be more frustrated then those who only pray for survival so they can see all the top Italian teams blow through Sardinia once a year.

That being said, Allegri has just voiced the same concerns I have been pondering recently, and that is the lack of action in the transfer window. Yes we scored a nice deal in bringing Nene in from Portugal and he certainly has the ability to team with Jeda and make us forget the loss of Robert Acquafresca, but has that trade made us better. For all his inconsistencies, Robert still scored some big goals for us and Nene is unproven in Serie A despite his great success in Portugal.

Other then Nene and a couple of minor loan deals, we have not brought in anyone else who clearly will make an impact and Allegri wants a couple of more players despite being happy, atleast on the surface with the current squad. We still need a defender and a forward to add to the mix but we need more then just a body. I guess its better not to add anyone then to bring in a player who is not any better then what you have, but I think Cellino is going to allow a new player or two to arrive before the window closes. Lets hope who he chooses makes a difference, but the window is closing and it would be nice to get another player who can be expected to make a positive impact.

Allegri continues to show he is a man of contradictions yet with calm and realistic expectations. He seems content with the squad and thinks they will do well, yet would be pleased with 43 points and survival versus 53. He is still in that survival mindset which might be the place to be based on not only our talent but also the improvement of other teams plus the bottom teams likely more competitive then last year. However, any teams goal should be improvement and while it will be tough to finish higher then 9th, we did so after losing our first five games so there is something to the argument that with a couple of key additions, the team will be better then last year.

Luckily the expected big raid of our players has been minimal. While Acquafresca wasnt ours and was likely leaving anyway, we secured a key replacement for him and Jeda, Canini, Conti, Marchetti, Cossu et al should be a part of the team for the upcoming year when many of them could arguably have left. There are still some holes that could be filled by better players, but with Lazzari coming back and possibly seeing increased time, Sivakov an unknown but talented player looking to break in likely in midfield, and Ragatzu maybe ready to usurp Matri as the third striker and possible wildcard up front, it might be hard to do better in the transfer market based on how much we have to spend. We cant bring in the obvious talent with a small club budget so diamonds in the rough must be found and that is not easy year to year.

For all the criticisms I often make of Cellino, he seems to know what he is doing when it comes to bringing in players in the transfer window. The list of players coming in the past couple of years has been tremendous and while most of them have or will soon depart, the fact they move on to bigger or more talented teams means you are bringing in players that have the talent to move up. While his decisions about keeping players have bothered me(yes the Foggia fiasco still irks me), he does a great job getting them for a minimal price and they contribute a great deal. Therefore I type carefully when talking about our lack of quality transfers in an offseason that sees the club in a great position when compared to most years since their most recent return to Serie A.

Either way, full attention must be given to the squad because Serie A is going to be a little stronger this year and with the base of players we have, it sure would be nice to have another year like last year and make a real run at European football.