De Laurentiis, always good for a drama

How often do you see a player string a few decent games together only to have his agent start demanding an improved contract? It happens way too much and the player & agent usually get their way.

Film producer and Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, is one guy who seems to be fighting back.

Argentinean attacker Ezequiel Lavezzi in his second season with the club, got off to an explosive start in 2008/09. And as per usual big English clubs started looking around at the talent (basically Lavezzi & Slovakian midfielder Marek Hamšík) and agents smelling blood start rumbling about improved contracts. At the time De Laurentiis had this to say:

"We made these players — two years ago nobody knew who they were,"

But the real frightener was:

"If they want to go to England then in the end they're going to go, but they need to understand this: the English live badly, eat badly and their women do not wash their genitalia. To them, a bidet is a mystery."

The players went quiet....

So this summer while Hamsik seems settled, Lavezzi started to apply the pressure again as soon as the season was over. There was talk of Liverpool being interested and so naturally, while he loves the fans, the player required improved compensation to stay. He even released a letter to the fans that I’m sure tugged at the heart strings of the population of Secondigliano.

The President initially said:

“A man who signs a contract with an agreed upon length and value, which was already improved within seven months of his arrival, cannot ask for more."

“It’s not even as if his performances warranted yet another raise throughout the season.”

“I am surprised by the immaturity of these professionals. It cannot all be based around money, there is also the value of the rapport between people.”

Kinda sounds fair enough. As the new season nears and decisions have to be made De Laurentiis, who has put together a competitive looking squad this off-season, put the matter pretty much to bed:

"Lavezzi is not Maradona,"

"He didn't even fire us into the Champions League or Europa League, so what does he expect? He only scored seven goals last season, not 27.

"He is an inconsistent player. The club is maintaining its position, we have never done anything wrong. Those who did wrong are the ones who leave the squad. If an actor did that with me I would have eaten him."

Is that clear?

Just to reinforce the point Napoli are talking to Lazio about bringing in Goran Pandev in direct challenge to Lavezzi’s spot.

99 problems

A story the comrades will love, though I will be honest, even I was touched. Cristiano Lucarelli the former Italian International is returning to play for his home town team A.S. Livorno Calcio as they return to Serie A.

The player took a massive pay cut the first time around to play for the club he has supported throughout his life. He also wears the number 99 in tribute of the club’s ultras.

But, even this fairy tale was almost butchered by a chairman & agent.

As negotiations were being completed Livorno President Aldo Spinelli cut talks and released this statement:

“A.S. Livorno Calcio informs the fans that, despite having reached an agreement with Parma F.C. with complete mutual satisfaction, and that the footballer Cristiano Lucarelli was available for the transfer, the Club Livorno regrets to consider the negotiation finished because of the continuous and unjustified demands made by the player's agent, Mr. Carlo Pallavicino,"

Lucarelli flipped: “The news came in about Pallavicino’s fee and I really cannot believe my dream of returning to the Amaranto could disappear because of £40,000.”

His long time agent Pallavicino came through with the goods: “Cristiano is like a brother to me and I will do everything I can to give him this dream with Livorno.”

The agent’s £40,000 fee was dropped and a son returns home.

Article updates

Southampton takeover complete
No Le Tiss, all Swiss. Markus Leibherr whose money comes from owning engineering firms, is the new owner. Don’t expect silly money to be thrown around though, classic Swiss pragmatism and proper long-term planning will be the go. Caretaker manager Mark Wotte has already been axed. The 10 point penalty remains in place.

I also mentioned Ken Bates of Leeds United, in the article. This old school gun slinger has just been ordered to pay £50,000 to a former Leeds Director for libelous claims. David Conn at the Guardian has been sniffing around and it makes for intriguing reading.


Arbeloa school of finance’s first graduate
Well someone was listening to Alvaro Arbeloa at Liverpool’s Melwood training centre. When I heard Jermaine Pennant was going to Real Zaragoza, it seemed a bizarre move. Pennant will have trouble finding a decent R&B club in the sleepy city that sits between Catalunya & Euskadi.

Maybe the compensation will help. Take home pay of £40,000 a week plus taxes payed for by the club. The club can do this as Spain has a top tier tax incentive for executives. It was initially Real Madrid that argued footballers deserve the same allowance, and we generally know that RM get what they want. The tax rate payable is 23% for the first five years. This is a massive competitive edge for the Spanish clubs as the UK’s top tax rate is 50%.

Legends of the Lounge – Silvio Berlusconi

Born: September 29, 1936

Died: -

Club: Associazione Calcio Milan, Italy

Making a living:
A classic entrepreneur, he started early selling all kinds of stuff while studying law. He then got into, you guessed it, construction. He eventually built a monster estate on the fringe of Milan consisting of some 4,000 residences. He then started a cable television company to service the estate, and then bought another station and another then print and other media outlets.

Assets have come and gone in industries such as Insurance and Finance, but he is smart enough to always have held a major stake in Media. He still has Mediaset that owns the 3 private national stations.


Politics?
Hell yeah. Once you build your fortune it is time to go into politics to protect it.

The guy is one of the longest serving Italian Prime Ministers of all time. Considering the usual turnover in Italy his time in charge has been very impressive. His success is very much built on his populist right wing, commie hating views and his own loud personality, as it has been achieved across different political parties and coalitions.

He admitted to, at least for a time, being a card carrying member of Propaganda Due, which had some very coulourful members.

Chairmanship:

Berlusconi bought AC Milan in 1986 and a big club went truly global in it’s appeal. The spending was on and the brilliant Dutch players Van Basten, Gullit & Rijkaard drove the team. Milan owned Seria A in the early nineties and Seria A was the place to be.

In recent times however the spending has dried up. The most significant example was the allowing of Kaka to leave this northern summer.

Maybe he is thinking of the very expensive divorce that seems to be on its way after his wife’s complaining about too much partying with teenage girlies.

Chutzpah:

Why be in politics if you can’t help yourself?

Silvio has fought many allegations regarding fraud and bribery etc. Nothing really seemed to stick, either he simply won, it was thrown out on appeal or the statute of limitations passed.

To make things les complicated he simply passed a law that that gave him and other top public post-holders immunity from prosecution while in office. Though the constitutional court threw it out.

He has also shortened the statute of limitations for most crimes and watered down white collar fraud sentences.

Administration, new owners and docked points

Slowly the inefficient crumble away. English football clubs go into administration, the Football League fines them and they get docked a truckload of competition points. Brutal stuff.

I have been reading about the recent problems with Southampton Football Club. Building a new stadium then several seasons in lower leagues after falling out of the premier league after 27 years dragged the club down. Even having the genius player contract clause that slashed wages by 50% upon on relegation from the premiership couldn’t help.

Things have come to ahead and the club is now in Administration. Several parties took an interest but exclusive negotiation rights had been given to the Pinnacle Group. This group was basically a guy called Michael Fialka, who apparently made his money in property. Saints fans seem to be cautious but the trump card for the bid was that it is fronted by the club’s greatest legend Matt Le Tissier. A man whose motives are surely beyond question.

The group has now pulled out of negotiations and one of the main stumbling blocks was the 10 competition point penalty that the Football League has imposed and does not seem to want to remove. So, staff are not getting paid, a great club may not exist and all this because the FL won’t budge on a 10 point penalty, even though the Administration happened in the previous season. The FL argue that they need to make sure that all teams starting the season end it, and that is a fair call.

Pinnacle were banking on the fact that the parent company and not the club itself went into administration, but I think it should not even come to such a technicality. If a new potential owner comes to the table and offers to save a club then surely a points deduction can be forgiven. It is fair that certain criteria are met; the owners should prove they can reasonably finance at least one season and that they have nothing to do with those that dragged the club down (assuming mismanagement was a factor).

Leeds was put into administration in 2007, one round before the end of the season. One of the biggest creditors Astor Investments, based in a tax haven, was prepared to write off it debts IF the club was sold to another tax haven domiciled company Forward Sports Fund and also only IF Ken Bates was maintained as chairman. The end owners of both of these companies was not known and Bates denied any ownership or knowledge. Yeah right are we to believe they just liked the cut of his jib? Anyway it has now come to light that Bates has ownership in Forward Sports Fund. Shock.

In the end the administrators did sell the club to Forward Sports Fund and it is true the points deduction was maintained.

I believe these two cases are vastly different.

The Leeds situation was a farce and deserved to be treated with contempt, the Saints potential buyers were clearly identifiable and not linked to previous ownership. Surely in such circumstances there is argument for relief.