Andy: People who admit they barely seen him (not many here saw Azzurrini, and Livorno game one might seen is barely any but the Juve and Inter game at best prolly) say he is the new Tiago AND is barely average. I get not being excited or being sold, cautious about it, but being absolute about him in opinion already is pretty weird. I mean, how hard is it to have little patience, see him for yourself, and THEN judge? Especially as its a loan, virtually zero risk at all.
And how hard is it to get? Its obvious we wont sign a defender in mid season, Ciro and the board obviously will go on with the full set we have for the season, and THEN re-evaluate the defence in the summer (regardless of what we think). We are signing a midfielder now not only because basically ALL regular/semi regular midfielders except Marchisio and the suspended Melo are out injured (we are starting Sali and DC FFS), but also because we shipped out Tiago. Hence we need depth (so yes we NEED him), and we need it ASAP considering our injuries. They were getting a midfielder either way this window, and I prefer they get one who has a potential to be a long term option, then a short term fix we have to get rid of in summer anyways (short term fixes you ALL would have flamed as a disastrous, no doubt), or get stuck with if we buy.
I would be the first to ask for other priorities if this was in the summer, but its January now, and its obvious we wont sign any defenders (we have 8 defenders, unless we sell now, which is not gonna happen, we dont have room for more) Wasnt gonna happen unless too good of an option or possibility came up (that Twente defender Douglas). Rannocchia would have been nice, but even if wasnt injured, I doubt the highflying Bari would be as easy to convince as Livorno (star defender for them), nor would Genoa be as accomodating as Udinese. We already have issue enough with dealing with them with the players we (co) OWN.
Seriously, not everything has to be negative, I get saying you are uncertain about how things will turn out with this, so am I, but I like him as a talent, and there is little to no risk with getting a young midfielder we can use, considering its loan. So whats the big deal?
That Lippi BS is downright silly FFS. As I already said, we have been scouting and signing promising younger italian players throughout our history. Mention any prominent Juve player in the last 30 years, and you can bet we have gotten them from Padova, Atalanta, Lecce, Livorno Parma, Varese, Napoli, Como and so and so on, in between the ages of 18-24 mostly. So yeah, us doing so now with a 22 year old is automatically attributed to some "sinister" Lippi influence (like its a bad thing if he recommend a good youngster, if its a shitty Grosso yes, if its a talented player, mucho gracias), because its somehow totally out of the norm of the club huh? Seriously.