Is there still anyone who believes that our football is sustainable? Economically, yes, but above all as a system? Why are our teams getting older and older? We have often become the (not so) golden retirement of players on the sunset boulevard of the Premier League or La Liga. The games are slow, with an exasperated tactic. The festival of the old fox, of those who deflate the ball instead of making it run. Obviously it is also a problem just to be relegated, because from Serie A to B there is such a strong digression that it is impossible, for certain clubs, to afford the salary of a player from the medium-low Serie A. The Serie A squads are endless, many end up outside the list, others have to contribute to the salaries with loans. In fact, the schizophrenia of our football, the pressure to which players and coaches are exposed, chews and spits out anyone. Whoever makes three mistakes is hanged and is unlikely to fit into the plans of this or that club.
Then there is the talent issue. We win 3-0 with the Under 21 in Norway, quite easily too, thanks to Baldanzi. Who will practically never play for Roma, closed by Dybala, Soulé, El Shaarawy, then there’s also Saelemaekers… Right or wrong that the ten million investment made by the Giallorossi in January, the risk that he bit off more than he can chew is there. Risking losing a fundamental moment of his growth: is it easier to bench Soulé or Baldanzi? The answer seems obvious, maybe it’s even right. And Dybala? It’s true that there is now a lot of play, every day there is a match, there is not even the ritual of stopping at home and watching it. Overexposure does not cause curiosity but boredom. Who knows if the leaders of our football will understand it sooner or later, but we fear not. Or maybe they know it very well, but as long as the King lives.
Then there are too many foreigners, that’s obvious. But it must also be said that they have a system, especially in their own countries, that helps to enhance and export, we don’t do that. An easy solution would be to close the borders. Or to put some crazy rules – like in Serie D, for example – that protect Italians. At least five present on the field and off you go, as happened in other countries. But then Spain and Germany still have talented players even without blocks on foreigners. So?
Provocation: Let’s abolish loans. You can’t loan young players to Serie C or Serie B. You have to sell them, maybe with a percentage on the future resale – look at Juventus with Riccio, but also Milan with Maldini to Monza – but at least there wouldn’t be the constant shuttling between the “mother” team and the Serie C team. Some players spend their careers under contract to one team and continue to travel around Italy, once here and once there, without continuity. And then, in fact, if they play three bad games they end up in the stands and never come back to play, getting lost, waiting for the market. There will always be another loan, another opportunity. So it can go well the following year, while the Serie C teams are effectively de-responsible since there is no real market, currently, other than that of taking some experienced players and then hoping for the best young players for the relationships that exist.
Atalanta, Milan, Juventus have the under 23. Let’s create a reserve championship, like it happens in the Premier League, for players from the Primavera and up. Maybe with prizes and that has a reason to exist, but that is not Serie C, with that devil’s mechanism of giving millions as a grant to not have the certainty of being registered. Every year there are loan transfers of 20-30 players by the big teams (including Inter, who has won a certain number of Scudetti primavera but never brings anyone to the first team), let’s do them permanently. Three-year contracts at sixteen are fair to avoid thefts, but at nineteen there must be a choice: either focus on him, making him play in the first team or in the reserves, otherwise really sell him, not use a (legal) trick to ensure that someone never manages to grow, except for fortunate circumstances. Only the best will advance, but Serie B and Serie C would also be decidedly more competitive.