Italy's Top Clubs Indebted To Expensive Recruits
ROME (February 5, 2001 5:03 p.m. EST http://www.sportserver.com) - Italian
first division leaders AS Roma and defending champions Lazio are locked in a
three-way fight for the Scudetto with Juventus of Turin - and both Roman
clubs owe their lofty positions to the prodigious form of their expensive
close-season Argentinian recruits.
Roma moved to sign Fiorentina's Gabriel Batistuta last summer when the
hitman decided to end a record-breaking nine-year stint with the Florence
club and he has amply repaid that faith with the 13 goals that make him
Serie A's capocannoniere (leading scorer) alongside AC Milan's Ukrainian
forward Andriy Shevchenko.
Champions Lazio forked out a not-so-small fortune to get Crespo from Parma
with Portuguese winger Sergio Conceicao and Argentinian forward Mathias
Almeyda moving the other way as part of the deal.
But until Dino Zoff replaced England coach Sven Goran Eriksson that had
looked a less sound investment.
But seven goals in four games has put Crespo on 11 goals for the season and
Lazio are now joint second with Juve, only six points behind their
arch-rivals and Olympic Stadium co-tenants.
That raises the possibility that both Roman clubs could be deadlocked in
battle until the season ends on June 17 although Juve coach Carlo Ancelotti
insists his club - known in Italy as the 'vecchia signora' (old lady) - will
be there or thereabouts when the fat lady sings.
With the season at the halfway point Batistuta was confident that his side
could relieve Lazio of the Scudetto, saying: "A six-point gap at the halfway
point is not a small one. I am not thinking about the other teams, only
Roma. We have shown we can finish ahead of the others. We must only think
about ourselves."
Crespo, meanwhile, told Corriere dello Sport: "As for the title I only hope
my goals will be for the good of Lazio. We must carry on winning and hope
Roma lose their nerve."
But he played down talk of the title race being a Batistuta-Crespo affair,
well aware that both teams have many other players and that Juventus are
well in contention.
"We are not the two key players - I don't know. I think the other players
will also have something to say."
Juventus too have a new striker with Argentinian roots in French
international David Trezeguet, who spent much of his childhood in Buenos
Aires but he is sidelined with injury at present.
But the Turin side's real talisman is, of course, another Frenchman in
playmaker Zinedine Zidane and just as Juve depend on him so the two Roman
clubs are heavily reliant on their Argentinians.
Batistuta's absence at the start of 2001 on doctors orders saw Roma draw 1-1
at home to bottom club Bari, their first sign of frailty.
Likewise it is only since Crespo started scoring with regularity that Lazio
have come into the title equation at all.
Zidane's absence through suspension cost Juventus a place in the second
phase of the Champions League and an injury to any of those three players
could be a crucial development in the race for the Scudetto.
