The transfer market has yet to officially open its doors (it will do so on July 1st), but Giovanni Sartori he has already been working for some time to secure Vincenzo Italian a competitive squad for next season.
A season that promises to be very challenging for the Bologna. For the first time in a long time, Saputo’s club will find itself having to manage three competitions: championship, Champions League and, from January, also the Italian Cup.
After an incredible championship like the one that has just ended, the eyes of many big names are focused on the jewels brought under the two towers by Giovanni Sartori: Zirkzee, Calafiori And Ndoye over all. Therefore, some departures cannot be ruled out. To date, the most likely departure is that of the Dutch attacker. Despite some departures which, inevitably, there will be, Sartori is working to allow Italiano to be able to count on quality players in view of the triple commitment next season. However, the summer market requires a lot of patience and weeks of negotiations will be necessary to arrive at the white smoke.
In fact, the past years have taught us that Giovanni Sartori is a sporting director capable of completing negotiations even, and above all, in the last days of the transfer market.
Sartori, a sporting director who knows how to wait
The Bologna has one of the best sports directors in Europe in its house. An expert sporting director, skilled in dealing with clubs to reach the best compromise for both parties. For this you will need to be patient.
The last summer transfer market taught us that the best shots can come in the last month. That is, when negotiations are facilitated by the desire of both clubs to arrive at white smoke. Prices can drop and it is easier for one of the two parties to make an effort towards the other.
During last summer, in fact, the only two significant signings that arrived before August were those of Sam Beukema and Oussama El Azzouziwhich arrived on 3 and 20 July respectively.
All the other important shots were completed from mid-August onwards, thanks to a discussion between the technical area and Joey Known following the heavy declarations of Thiago Motta in Utrecht.
Below are the purchases made official from mid-August onwards:
- Dan Ndoye – August 14th
- John Fabbian – August 20th
- Jesper Karlsson – August 23rd
- Alexis Saelemaekers and Victor Kristiansen – August 30th
- Richard Calafiori – August 31st
- Oar Freuler – September 1st
All of these, with the exception of Karlsson, later proved to be decisive signings in the Champions League race.
The same situation occurred during Sartori’s first transfer market for rossoblù. The only difference between the two market sessions was the resources made available by the owners, which last year proved to be many more.
Even in thesummer of 2022therefore, the main blows came from mid-August onwards:
- John Lucumi – August 18th
- Nikola Moro – August 29th
- Joshua Zirkzee – August 30th
- Stephen Posch – September 1st
Here too we are talking about important players. The same Morowho this year ended up at the bottom of Thiago Motta’s hierarchies, two years ago proved to be a determined player for Bologna.
The only noteworthy coup that came before August was the signing of Lewis Fergusonmade official in July 2022.
Also at the time of AtalantaSartori became the protagonist of some last-minute coups. It happened above all in the summer of 2021, when on August 30th the Goddess made Teun official Koopmeiners, a player who later turned out to be a real market coup who today could be worth 60 million. Again, a few days earlier (24 August) Atalanta made Davide’s return to the Nerazzurri official Zappacosta. Finally, at the beginning of August (precisely the 6th), he moved to Atalanta Merih Demiraltoday in Arabia.
Going back in time, on 26 August 2015 Sartori’s Atalanta made Rafael’s arrival official Toloiwho later became captain of the Goddess following the farewell of Papu Gomez. The Argentine player himself had been another last-minute shot of the Cobra. In fact, Gomez had landed in Bergamo on 1 September 2014 from Metalist after the long experience at Catania. Gomez can be considered to all intents and purposes the first real last-minute coup by Sartori, who had become Atalanta’s sporting director since August 2014.
Bologna, the waiting strategy has always paid off
The examples cited in the previous paragraph demonstrate how the waiting strategy has always paid off. It is true that training camp for all teams in Serie A begins around mid-July. It is equally true that any coach would want the team to be done and finished by that date. This way he could have a month to prepare for the start of the season already with the new additions.
However, for some time now, all this has occurred very rarely.
Sartori is a sporting director capable of negotiating, who knows when to strike and when to wait.
Last season showed that the arrival of many of the most important players when the championship had already started did not affect the final result. This is because if the signings are right and if the coach (in that case, Thiago Motta) manages to find the right fit for the group, the result can only be positive.
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