The market is over and it’s time to take stock. Valerio Giuffrida, who together with his brother Gabriele is the driving force behind the GG11 agency, one of the main and most active on the Italian and international scene, takes stock of some of the most important negotiations of the last summer. He does so together with Radio Sportiva, going from De Gea to Gudmundsson, from Vitinha to Dovbyk and more.
Your assessment of a market full of successful deals and negotiations
“We always tend to dissatisfaction without analyzing the successes but analyzing the operations not done. From here we want to understand our mistakes and the mistakes of others. There are a thousand variables that dictate successes and failures. Generally speaking we are satisfied, it was a good market but… Now we feel a sense of emptiness. When there is a market you can’t wait for it to end, now the feeling is of melancholy”.
In the meantime, Florence has embraced two very important players who landed in Viola also thanks to your work: Gudmundsson and De Gea
“Fiorentina have made so many deals, an incredible job. The Gudmundsson deal has had an impact on the outgoing and incoming deals of other teams, it’s been a tug-of-war that we’ve been carrying around since January. It allowed us to free Nico Gonzalez who went to Juventus and not only that, we felt… Responsible for everything and everyone”.
The Icelander’s was a real soap opera
“It was a tug of war. Genoa really wanted to keep him, Fiorentina really wanted to bring him in. Then, the unexpected events of the market: Scamacca’s defeat came and the alarm bell rang. We understood that Atalanta would be very interested in Retegui and they made this important transfer in one day, they were really good”.
And added a chapter to the soap opera
“It affected Gudmundsson, it slowed him down. There were other days, moments of tension that are then forgotten when the operation is over and everyone is moderately satisfied and moderately dissatisfied.”
Between the Viola posts, the great shot. David de Gea
“He was out for a year, turning down offers from many Premier League and Spanish League clubs between last season and this season. He immediately said yes to Fiorentina’s call. This was an easier operation as there were only two interlocutors but also because the parties declared their love for each other from the very first moment. There were no ‘big negotiations’, it was a very quick operation”.
You contributed to the arrival of Roma’s new centre forward, Artem Dovbyk
“Satisfaction and great responsibility, being from Rome and full of Roman friends. There is great expectation: you can make a mistake with the wife but you can’t make a mistake with the striker. They did technical and sports analyses, then the statistics help, he was Pichichi of the Spanish League arriving ahead of the strikers of Real, Barcelona and Atletico. He will have to adapt, it will take his time”.
Among the other heavy operations carried out is that of the ‘new’ Genoa striker
“Vitinha has taken on an important legacy, practically all of Genoa’s starting attack has gone. They have spent a lot, they have had time to test the waters, six months ‘to try it’. However, Genoa’s attackers always do well: when they land at the Grifone they are enveloped in a magic that leads them to perform better or to find themselves again if they have lost themselves. He had gone to Marseille for a very important sum, at Genoa he found himself and found great enthusiasm. They transform, they perform better, the youngsters get excited. In our experience as agents we have many cases of great success, from Palacio to Piatek to Sanabria and Shomurodov, the hope is that Vitinha will follow this path”.