Zdenek Grygera is better than Marco Motta. There. Now I'm not entirely off topic here.
Marotta certainly fucked up on Martinez, Motta and Pepe as it stands, unless they can be traded to Russian teams with more money than sense.
What I don't get is why he is criticised for selling Secco's vastly overpriced players for less. I don't think I'll ever get this reasoning. Grosso was 31 then and 33 now, no value. Amauri was 28 then and 31 now, not to mention a stubborn git who won't move, complete failure and on €4.2m wages. Diego and Melo were for joke fees, Diego actually went for his real value. Melo hasn't even been sold.
Forget Grosso and Amauri, Jay - they demonstrated that they were basically useless. That's not on Marotta.
I don't know about your theoretical opinions on this, but for me, selling players who have demonstrated that they're quite useful (even if they may not be everything the fans had hoped for), especially when they're relatively young (and at a significant loss after a single year), is not a wise move (new dysfunctional club, new country, etc.). We compounded the error of overspending on players, by jettisoning useful components. That's a big problem for me.
Also, loaning one of your better midfielders when he's 28 years old, and sending him to Turkey of all places, is not a exactly a conventional (or sound) sporting/business decision.
I agree with a lot of your 'balanced' views Jay, moderation is good, but I'll never understand how Diego became the scapegoat that he did considering how fucked up that year was. It's crazy. Now that he's finally returned to a relatively stable environment, I'd be willing to bet that he puts together a very solid season at Atletico... and he's certainly good enough to play for this Juventus.
Diego isn't a striker too. Without Diego money we wouldn't have cash for Krasič or a place in the squad for Quag's. Melo was not in Conte's plans..
We sold Diego for 15M, after Delneri said a week before the sale that he considered the player to be a fundamental part of the squad. He was playing pretty darn well at SS during the preseason, considering how long he had to adjust to the role. Basically, he was one of our better players the previous season (I thought he was about our 3rd best player), but he was sold because he "didn't fit in Deneri's formation". Even though the coach said publicly that he counted on the player.
Somehow, we bought Jorge Martinez that mercato for 12M, to play a position he had never played before, and clearly isn't suited for.
We saved a little money between the transfer fee, and the salary reduction - but what did we get for it? A year later, Martinez is a 12M bust, on a free loan at Cesena, and I believe we're even paying part of his salary.
We could have kept #28, and definitely still bought Krasic. We also had to dip into the winter mercato for 2 forwards - injuries are obviously a bitch.