I'm not saying that this case with Rugani is identical, but Barzagli was a useless jabroni right up until he suddenly became the greatest CB in the world. Check the first 10 pages of his thread, one person says 'at least he's better than Grygera' and somebody else says he's not fit to clean Zebina's boots.
Like I said this case isn't the same and anyway for every Barzagli there are 5 Ogbonnas or whatever. But still, Rugani at Empoli was excellent, there's something in there to be chiseled out.