Chasing Trophies with Lazio

After a disappointing and yet promising season, second season was promising enough to be excited. With improvement of the likes of Dolberg and Sancho, ensured that they can be promoted to the first team in League matches.The Board gave an improved transfer budget and asked to Win the League and reach the Quaterfinals in Champions League.

SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW AND PRESEASON

TRANSFER OUTs

Due to poor performances of Ferland Mendy, he was sold to Inter to free up space for a World Class LB. F.Acerbi also left as he was aging and didnt help in the project going forward. Sevilla paid the release clause of J.Correa and got him on cheap.

TRANSFER INs

Freeing up the wages from the players who were given high wages at the end of the last season after selling them , gave up $40m-$50m transfer budget. After the Pre-Contract arrival of Jan Vertonghen and Petr Cech, we had to get quality fullbacks .So, Andrew Robertson*(LB, Rated-82 , POT-88) and Trent Alexander-Arnold*(RB, Rated-80 , POT-89) were signed. A young blood was needed at CB so De Ligt*(CB, Rated-82 , POT-90) was also signed.

To inject dynamism in the midfield Kai Havertz*(CAM, Rated-80 , POT-88) and H. Aouar* (CM, Rated-80 , POT-88)were signed.Making the team truly World Class required a World Class signing which game in form of Sane*(CAM, Rated-86 , POT-93).

The team looked like they can compete in all three front , for the first time.

PRE-SEASON

The team won the Pre-Season tournament and thus justifying my faith . Kai Havertz played as a CF and scored 2 goals and provided 3 assists. Dolberg's performance also demanded a berth in the starting XI. Immobile , on the other hand, was poor as his ball holding was poor (a reminiscent of last season). The new-signings also justified their positions in the squad.

THE SEASON BEGINS

The first match in Serie A turned out in a defeat to Napoli but we recovered and were 1st going into Christmas.However we faced disappointments in other competitions.

The Coppa Italia dreams ended in a quaterfinal defeat to Napoli. But Champions League ensured the final nail to the coffin. Drawn in a difficult group with Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund we crashed out of Champions League and couldn't even ensure Europa League. The biggest shocks were 2 Draws to Dynamo Kyiv in the Group Stage.

The poor form of Aouar ,Luis Alberto and Sane ,coupled with poor back-ups at Centre-Back A congested run of fixtures also contributed toward such disappointments.

This taught us that it nned quality on the bench too ,for every position, to compete in all three fronts.

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW AND PRESEASON

TRANSFER OUTs

Desperate to turn fortunes and to keep the number 1 spot in Serie A , the old guards of Lucas Leiva and M.Badelj were sold. Immobile was also sold for $73m as he wasn't fiiting the team strategy.

TRANSFER INs

As the number of fixtures were supposed to go down as we were playing in only one competetion. Only Ndidi*(CDM, Rated-81 , POT-85) was signed as defensive reinforcement.

THE SEASON REVIEW

The team won the Serie A title with 4 games remaining. Players like Loftus-Cheek became crucial to the team and Sane performed brilliantly in the second half of the season.

Dolberg was the star of the season.

LOOKING FORWARD

Next season we wish to compete for every trophy we play for.With Pre-Contract arrivals of S.Gnabry , R.Guerrerio , N.Fekir and A.Schwolow the team looks stronger than ever and almost certain to win some big trophies.