Lazio president Claudio Lotito confirmed that Leonardo Bonucci and Juan Cuadrado both wanted to move to the Biancocelesti this summer. The Lazio patron was speaking at the clubs summer training camp and touched on a number of subjects, most importantly, the transfer market and their efforts to sign Piotr Zielinski from Napoli:
“There are two players that we have all shared, now we hope to sign them, I always talk about important figures. I also got annoyed with this thing that players are worth what they cost, otherwise a good missionary in Africa is worth less than the one who gets a thousand euros per visit.
“Once the technical and moral qualities have been established, we sign them. In one calendar year we bought 16 players, because we went from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3. Now we are perfecting. We have priorities and we are working on them. After Milinkovic’s replacement we’ll be at the bottom, which means that someone has to leave because we already have Cataldi, Marcos Antonio and Vecino. But you have to sell the players. Akpa Akpro went to Empoli for free, saved them, they sold two players for €30 million and they asked me to loan him? No. It’s not a supermarket”.
“Lazio has a sports centre with 8 areas, we saw the players, the characteristics needed. I see the technical aspect, I don’t give a damn about the name. If I go after the names, I’ll take Lo Celso, Paredes, I’ll bring them here. Cuadrado wanted to come to us, Bonucci the same. Where did they go? Cuadrado went to Inter. Three players we wer tracking then went to Milan. There are choices that have to be made, then I also stick to the choices of others.
“Zielinski? He’s 29 years old, his contract is about to expire, how much will you pay him? I offered 20 plus bonuses and they said no. But now the offer goes down, because if you don’t give him to me on the first day, the offer goes down. In life you have to do things wisely, otherwise it takes a minute to spend.”
“Immobile? Ciro has never been for sale, because of things to do things in the interest of the club, and for instrumental reasons. The club has never been in these conditions in its history. Lazio escaped Serie C, then made it to Serie B, grew and had a period of prosperity linked to the management of Cragnotti. But then the club was dead. If one of the family collects 100, he can’t spend 500! So slowly you grow. We pay the salaries and upfront, we are the only team in the world that paid for January in September!” .
