Wow, that is a big sponsorship! Not a usual update, I like!

Lazio announce Parolo and close in on triple signing

14th July 2014

Claudio Lotito announced the signing of Marco Parolo and confirmed that Matt Cox is closing in on three more players.

Lazio President Claudio Lotito has announced that midfielder Marco Parolo has agreed to terms with the Biancocelesti and will sign pending a medical.

The Lazio Chief recently announced that both Parma and Lazio have agreed to a fee that would see Parolo sign with Lazio, adding that Parolo wanted to join the Biancocelesti. The 29-year-old's strong performances last season earned him a place in Italy's World Cup squad and he featured in two games in Brazil before the team were eliminated from the competition in the group stage.

Following rumours that the club were close to the signings of Marco Verratti on loan from PSG and the permanent signings of Emiliano Viviano and Eder Alvarez Balanta, the Lazio president moved to confirm the reports today: "Yes we are working on those moves. The manager was in Brazil last night to watch Germany win the Final and will travel to Argentina today to finalize talks with River Plate. Meanwhile we are arranging for Viviano and Verratti to arrive for medicals this week."

The fee for Parolo is believed to be £2.8m whilst relegated Palermo have confirmed the transfer of Viviano has been completed for £1.8m. The Italian goalkeeper's performances were a positive in an otherwise negative season for the Rosanero and the former Arsenal loanee is expected to come in and provide competition for Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year Federico Marchetti.

Despite an impressive loan spell at Toulouse last season, Italian playmaker Marco Verratti will not have the chance of regular playing time in Paris this year. The former Pescara player was a regular in the Azzurri's short World Cup campaign, but as oil-rich PSG are rumoured to be interested in a host of top rated talent there is potential for the switch to the current Serie A Champions to become permanent.

With Daniele Bonera returning to parent club Milan and there being no signs of Cox tabling a bid for the veteran defender, it seems Lazio look intent on plugging the hole in defence with River Plate's 21 year old commanding centre back Eder Balanta, who shone at this year's World Cup as Colombia reached the Quarter Finals of the competition. After impressing on the global stage it is believed the Argentinian club are looking for a fee in the region of £8m for Balanta, but Lazio manager Matt Cox has travelled to the Los Millonarios to negotiate a deal in person.

In terms of players out at Lazio; Nicklas Bendtner has been shipped back to the Premier League as Swansea agree to a fee of £1.1m for the Danish striker, whilst French centre back Michael Ciani has also returned to France in a £1m deal with Stade Malherbe Caen. The only major departure for the Biancocelesti is Albanian backup goalkeeper Erit Berisha joining Serie A rivals Bologna in a £3.4m deal.

In terms of contracts a host of youth players have been offered new deals, whilst Lazio captain Stefano Mauri's has expired. However the club have issued a statement that despite being unable to agree on terms with the skipper, the two parties are close to agreeing on a deal that will keep the Serie A winning captain at the club for one more year. However it has not been confirmed if the 34 year old will keep the armband, with Ashley Cole and Antoino Candreva rumoured to be in line to replace Mauri for the upcoming season.

ASR-PSV: Thank you mate, that kit reveal is coming soon, you'll enjoy it!
Bebero: Thank you! Hopefully we can do it again this year!
Tallery: We got a new three year kit sponsor on the game that was pretty expensive, so I thought why not have some fun with it and use it in the new kits! Cheers lads, I appreciate the congratulations.

The home kit is the famous sky blue that has been unanimous with the club since our first uniforms. The sleeves, collar and abdominals are trimmed with white whilst the club also welcome our new kit sponsors Enel. The new kits also incorporate the Coppa Italia badge on the chest that the defending team wears for the next season.

Lazio and Macron worked in unison with respected kit designer ASR-PSV who was extremely happy with the outcome: "It was a pleasure to work on the kit for the new Italian Champions. I wanted to keep the historic aspects of the shirts but start to move them away from their usual design. This is after all a club that is going through a transition and I wanted to use that to my advantage."

ASR-PSV went on to explain incorporating the new sponsor into the design: "The new sponsor Enel is a company that everyone is familiar with in Italy. The Lazio kit is too so when combining them both I wanted them to be strong and solid kits."

Lazio will wear the new strip on their upcoming tour of England this month, and again for the Supercoppa Italia Final in August.

A huge thanks to ASR-PSV for designing the 2014/15 kits. Read and comment on his great Valencia story here >>> http://www.fmscout.com/q-12968-Valencia--Catching-Up.html

Very nice kits. Good luck in the new season!

Darmian leaves Lazio for Inter in £25m deal

12th August 2014

Inter Milan have signed highly rated Italy defender Matteo Darmian from Serie A Champions Lazio for £25m.

Darmian was used as a centre back rather than his natural wing back role and was a regular starter under Matt Cox last season as Lazio did the double and won the Italian league and cup. The former Torino player was voted into the Serie A team of the season and was awarded 3rd place in Serie A defender of the year. Darmian played a key role for Italy at the World Cup, starting all 3 of the Azzurri's games in Group D.
Despite playing a key role in the Roman clubs charge to the title, Matt Cox could not turn down the high money offer: "Bids from Inter were rejected a number of times. I made it clear to Erick Thohir the amount that would be necessary to complete the deal and after a long period Inter finally matched that number."

Lazio fans have expressed their disappointment at the sale of Darmian, but are understanding of the sale due to the high profit that the club have made on the defender. Darmian was signed from Torino for £3m meaning the profit Lazio made on the defender in one year is £22m. Cox went on to add: "We made a very healthy profit, yes. But Matteo was a model professional and was a favourite here in his short time. I want to extend my thanks and i'm sure that echoes the fans' feelings too. He made history here with the club."

Soon after the transfer was announced Darmian released a statement to express his gratitude to Lazio: "I cannot thank the club enough for the past 12 months. Although my time in Rome was short I made a lot of friends and have a lot of great memories. I also have two winners medals so this club will always have a place in my heart. Thank you to my coach Matt Cox and the staff at Lazio. You believed in me and made me the player I am today. I look forward to my new challenge with Inter and will relish playing against my friends two times this season."

Inter manager Delio Rossi has started a rebuild at the club for the new season by bringing in Mexican forward Javier Hernandez and Italian striker Lucas Pratto with the club's spending spree rumoured to continue.
Lazio have also been busy in the transfer market, securing the services of Emiliano Viviano, Eder Alvarez Balanta, Marco Parolo. Whilst Marco Verrati has joined on a years loan from PSG. Following the sale of Darmian it is believed that Matt Cox will be in the market for a new centre back with last years title hero Daniele Bonera being touted for a return to the Stadio Olimpico. However Sky Sources believe that the club has entered negotiations with Cagliari captain Davide Astori, with Inter centre back Andrea Ranocchia being touted as a possible replacement.

Great sale by you, amazing to see how much his value has increased in only 12 months.
Good job

Dagenham & Redbridge 0-1 Lazio
Klose (78)

Barnsley 1-2 Lazio
Candreva (17)
Lita (27)
Klose (70)

Notts County 0-1 Lazio
Ince (47)

Salernitana 0-2 Lazio
Candreva (7)
Klose (68)

Siena 1-3 Lazio
Ballantini (7)
Klose (45+1)
Ince (56)
Motta (83)

We headed to England for our pre-season tour as the clubs marketing department thought it would be a good idea to cash in on my popularity in my home country. However I was hoping we would play at least one of the top Premiership sides, however there is always a chance for that in this seasons Champions League.

I gave a some youth players a good run-out and also made sure the new signings were well integrated so that they became accustomed to our playing style. However since the departure of Darmian I am still in the market for a top quality centre back. I have a few targets in mind and with the £25m from the deal with Inter it means I can afford to really look for a world class player.

Meanwhile I am still looking at who is a suitable candidate to become Lazio captain. After the issues with Mauri's contract and him being 34 I feel it is time for a change. Our trip to England gave me a chance to evaluate the players and I will announce the new captain before the Supercoppa Italia against Juventus next week.

BREAKING NEWS: Lazio President May Step Down

12th August 2014

Sky Sports News sources believe that successful English manager Matt Cox is set to take over from Lazio president Claudio Lotito.

The news breaks as President Lotito has been rumoured to be suffering from a stress-related illness amid the rumours that he had a part to play in the 2006 Italian football scandal (referred to in Italy as Calciopoli).
The scam involved Italy's top professional football leagues, Serie A and Serie B. The scandal was uncovered in May 2006 by Italian police, implicating league champions Juventus, and other major teams including AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina when a number of telephone interceptions showed a thick network of relations between team managers and referee organizations. Juventus were the champions of Serie A at the time. The teams have been accused of rigging games by selecting favourable referees. President Lotito was never accused of any misconduct but it is now believed that his part in the scandal went unnoticed.

S.S. Lazio have been unavailable to comment but should sources be correct it is believed that manager Matt Cox could be set to become president of the Serie A Champions.

Lazio fans have expressed their disappointment at the news that Lotito's involvement may mean that they lose popular English manager Matt Cox who guided the club to a league title and the Italian Cup title last season. Giovanni Esposito, head of the Official Lazio Fan Club issued a statement to Sky Sports Italia: "It is sickening. The fans have always had a bad relationship with Claudio Lotito and now when things begin to smoothen out this happens. I hope it is all rumours and i'm sure I speak for all the fans when I say we want Matt to stay."

The Lazio president has had various fallouts with the fan-base ranging from selling key players to sacking managers despite good results. Lotito's agent has not given any definitive confirmation that he will be stepping down. However the club have issued a statement saying that the president attended court in Rome today to face the allegations and that Lazio will issue a statement when the allegations are resolved in the coming days.

Ooh, nice twist, although I reckon you'd be a better manager than chairman.

It will be interesting to see how the story develops from here.

Hi lads,

after being featured in Pompeyblue's weekly review with brilliant feedback, I wanted to come back to this story and make it truly great for the upcoming season of Champions League football.

I want you to vote for what you would like to see next:

A - Lotito remains as president and the story carries on with me in charge of the club.
B - I move to become president of the club after Lotito's charges (see update above) and appoint a new manager.

comment below and let me know what you would prefer to see!

Choice A for sure!!

#ChoiceA

Just because I'm "modern"

President Lotito acquitted of all charges

14th August 2014

Lazio president Claudio Lotito will remain in his position at the club after he was acquitted of all charges relating to the 2006 Calciopoli scandal.

The Italian FA and S.S. Lazio FC today announced that the Italian court had heard the charges against the Lotito and the case has now been dropped.
Lazio fans were keen to hear the news as to whether current title-winning manager Matt Cox would be staying on, and today he announced that he would be honouring his contract at the club: "It's been a stressful few days but we've finally reached a conclusion to the saga. The president will be staying on and I will be too. No matter what the circumstances I would not leave the club and it's amazing fans hung out to dry when we have a huge year ahead of us. We have the Scudetto to protect, we need to retain the Coppa Italia and we want to win the upcoming Super Cup."

President Lotito has had various fallouts with the fan-base ranging from selling key players to sacking managers despite good results. But now with Lotito confirming his stay with the club, he has urged the fans that they move on from this issue and put the past behind them.