The summer so far: never a dull moment at Lazio

An interesting summer: the return of Maurizio Sarri, the transfer block, the anti Lotito demonstration, the summer friendlies. A lot happened at Lazio during the summer.

We should start the 2025-26 season with the day after Lazio v Lecce which saw the Biancocelesti out of Europe for the first time since 2016-17. A disaster for the club that had hoped the new beginning without Felipe Anderson, Luis Alberto and especially Ciro Immobile would go differently especially after such a positive start.

The fans indicated one culprit: Claudio Lotito.

According to many the squad was weak and Marco Baroni did his best with the little he had. Furthermore, the very choice of Baroni as manager was considered a mistake, choosing a head coach with little experience at a high level.

In the first week after the end of the Serie A speculation started that Baroni was on his way out of Formello. And this is exactly what happened.

Who would be his replacement? The usual names of Miro Klose, Alessandro Nesta, Sergio Conceição and Alberto Gilardino were mentioned plus Gennaro Gattuso. All of this was just pure speculation as Lotito had just one name on his list: the return of Maurizio Sarri.

He did not take much convincing. Sarri wanted to come back after a sabbatical year and felt he had unfinished business with Lazio. On June 2 came the announcement: Sarri is back.

Interview

In his interview with Alfredo Pedullà in mid June for Sportitalia, Sarri spoke of the reason for his return plus many other things.

• Sarri emphasized that his decision to return to Lazio wasn't for convenience or financial gain—it was a choice of the heart.

• He highlighted his deep affection for the club and its supporters and made the decision to come back within 48 hours, despite having other opportunities—including a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia that would have paid him as much in a month as in a year at Lazio.

• He acknowledged that replicating his Napoli style at Lazio isn't feasible due to differences in player profiles—for example, "I can't ask Immobile to play like Mertens."

• Yet, he praised the past achievements: Lazio’s second-place finish (the club's best in 25 years) and a respectable Champions League run, including a close tie against Bayern.

• While hoping for "a small adjustment" to the squad to better suit his football philosophy, Sarri admitted to be aware of the financial constraints at Lazio. He expects limited reinforcements—not major overhauls.

• Sarri revealed that his prior resignation was driven by serious family issues. He felt he lacked the mental clarity to handle the job at the time.

• It wasn’t dramatic or unprecedented—these situations had happened before—but this time he realized he couldn't manage both personal and professional pressures simultaneously.

Summer transfers

The club prolonged Matías Vecino’s contract for another year and did the same with Pedro. The option to buy Nuno Tavares was taken, Adam Marusic was given another year. Danilo Cataldi and Matteo Cancellieri returned to Formello after Fiorentina and Parma decided not to take up the option to buy.

Speculation started with the usual long list of hundreds of names which also included Giacomo Raspadori as the ideal centre forward for Sarri.

The new head coach expected a few changes to the squad. This was not to be.

Everybody knew that Lazio would need to sell in order to buy since they were quite a long way from the necessary liquidity index (0.8). The liquidity index is the ratio between the current assets and the current liabilities. This favours the clubs which are highly indebted since the owners continually inject cash to cover the deficits. Lazio have always had this problem.

But there was a further problem. Lazio had not reached the indebtedness ratio (total debt divided by equity) nor the extended labour cost ratio (wages + social charges + amortization of transfers divided by operating revenue). The consequence was a complete transfer freeze, in other words no incoming transfers were allowed until at least September 1, 2025. A re-evaluation is set for September 30, 2025. If Lazio pass the test they could theoretically sign players on a free transfer starting from October or wait until January 2026 when they would have a free hand.

What happened? Apparently there was a bookkeeping mistake. A certain amount was added to the accounts on March 31 instead of April. The end of March was taken as a reference point for the analysis of the club’s accounts.

In the beginning this was not considered an error. The Italian Football Federation had inserted new parameters and rules plus a new commission to look at the accounts starting from July 1. Since the transfer window began at the same time, the club was not worried. It would be logical to open the transfer window with the new regulations. But then the head of the football federation Gabriele Gravina, certainly not a friend of Lazio's, declared that the new rules would be effective from January 2026. The Biancocelesti were in trouble.

Initially there was speculation that Sarri would resign, but, as he explained in his press conference in July, resignation never entered his mind.

So a quiet summer as far as transfers were concerned with just Loum Tchanouna being sold to Burnley, Nicolò Casale sold to Bologna and a few other minor operations.

Consequences

The Lotito hatred, already pretty strong, exploded. The media, who had lost a major topic of conversation, criticised the club’s hierarchy and the social media did the rest. A summer of hatred, not helped by major communication errors from the club such as a photo of Pedro during his medical alongside a Roma supporter, the leak of the new jerseys shown days before the official unveiling, the over the top positivity of the Lazio communication team.

A second anti-Lotito demonstration took place in Via dei Fori Imperiali (the street that links the Roman Forum with the Colosseum), with 10,000 people attending (though some media have mentioned 15K). Numerous banners had appeared across Rome asking for Lotito to quit. There were  even speculative rumours of a sale of Lazio in mid July, promptly denied by the club.

Movements in Serie A

With the exception of Napoli and Bologna, all of the major clubs changed managers while Juventus continued with Igor Tudor who had come in during the season to replace Thiago Motta. Milan took on Igli Tare as sporting director and called up Massimiliano Allegri. With Simone Inzaghi leaving for Saudi Arabia, Inter chose Cristian Chivu, a former player who had done well at Parma. Roma made a major coup by signing Gian Piero Gasperini who left Atalanta. The Bergamaschi, after initially asking Sarri, chose Ivan Juric who had recently had terrible experiences with Roma and Southampton. Fiorentina let Raffaele Palladino go and in came Stefano Pioli, Marco Baroni after resigning from Lazio moved to Torino.

As far as transfers are concerned the most important ones are the following

Napoli: In Kevin De Bruyne (free transfer from Manchester City, though Napoli paid the player €10 million on the signing of the contract), Lorenzo Lucca (Udinese), Sam Beukema (Bologna) and Vanja Milinković-Savić (loan from Torino); out Raspadori (Atletico Madrid) and Giovanni Simeone (loan to Torino)

Inter: In Ange-Yoan Bonny (Parma), Luis Henrique (Marseille), Petar Sucic (Dinamo Zagreb) and Andy Diouf (Lens); out Marko Arnautovic (contract not renewed), Nicola Zalewski (after having bought him from Roma he was sold to Atalanta)

Atalanta: Nicola Zalewski (Inter), Nikola Krstović (Lecce); out Mateo Retegui (Al-Qadsiah FC) and Matteo Ruggeri (Atletico Madrid)

Juventus: Apart from the definitive signings of some of the players who had previously arrived on loan and with option or obligation to buy (Francisco Conceição, Pierre Kalulu, Michele Di Gregorio for example), in came Jonathan David on a free transfer (previously at Lille); out Douglas Luiz (Nottingham Forest) and Alberto Costa (Porto)

Roma: in Wesley (Flamengo), Neil El Aynaoui (Lens), Evan Ferguson (Brighton on loan), Leon Bailey (Aston Villa on loan), Daniel Ghilardi (loan from Verona with obligation to buy); out Leandro Paredes (Boca Juniors), Samuel Dahl (Benfica), Nicola Zalewski (Inter)

Fiorentina: apart from players previously on loan (Nicolò Fagioli, Albert Gudmundsson, Robin Gosens), in came Edin Dzeko (free transfer) and Simon Sohm (Parma); out Sofyan Amrabat (Fenerbache)

Bologna: in Ciro Immobile (free transfer), Federico Bernardeschi (free transfer), Torbjorn Heggem (West Bromwich Albion), Martin Vitik (Sparta Prague), Nadir Zorotea (Cagliari); out Sam Buekema (Napoli), Dan Ndoye (Nottingham Forest).

Milan: in Luka Modric (free transfer), Samuele Ricci (Torino), Ardon Jashari (Club Bruges), Pervis Estupiñán (Brighton); out Tijjani Reijnders (Manchester City), Emerson Royal (Flamengo), Malick Thiaw (Newcastle), Theo Hernandez (Al-Hilal), Noah Okafor (Leeds)

But there is still time until the end of August.

Pre-season training and friendlies

Contrary to the usual two-three weeks at Auronzo di Cadore, this year Lazio did their preseason training directly at Formello. There are many clubs who do this, particularly those with very good sports facilities.

Six friendlies were organised. A first against Lazio Primavera (3-0, Pedro, Cancellieri and Basic), then a win at Avellino with a last second penalty by Matteo Guendouzi (foul on Tijani Noslin), a loss in Istanbul against José Mourinho’s Fenerbahce (1-0, goal caused by a Guendouzi mistake), 2-2 against Galatasaray (own goal caused by Cancellieri and Mattia Zaccagni), a win in Burnley (Cancellieri) and 2-0 in Rieti against Atromitos (Noslin and Pedro).

The indications so far are that Lazio are still learning. There have been improvements from a defensive point of view – the team is very tight – but problems creating up front. One of the more positive players has been Matteo Cancellieri who will be substituting Gustav Isaksen in the early matches. The Dane had mononucleosis and was unable to train all summer. Two other players, Patric and Samuel Gigot, have had problems too while Matias Vecino should be back in training soon.

The team for Como

Oliver Provstgaard will be taking Alessio Romagnoli’s place in the first two games since the former Milan skipper is suspended. There are three major questions on who will play at Como in the first fixture of Serie A on August 24: Ivan Provedel or Christos Mandas? Danilo Cataldi or Nicolò Rovella? Boulaye Dia or Taty Castellanos?

We will know sometime in the afternoon ….