Marco Simone: a bargain for Paris Saint-Germain back in 1998
With the international weekend out of the way, we are finally into the closed season. Those pedestrian pre-season matches don’t begin for a month – a whole month – so now’s the time to rediscover life. Alternatively, you could devote your spare time to the utterly futile pursuit of studying transfer rumours. Transfer gossip is football’s equivalent of the those celebrity magazines you find near the supermarket checkout: trashy, pointless and usually entirely fictional, but you find yourself casting an eye over it regardless. You might justify your actions by thinking you’re self-aware enough to know it’s all bollocks, but you’re reading it all the same.
Of course, there will be plenty of actual transfers this summer, but many of them will be almost concluded before we know much about them. The race for talent across Europe is going to be fierce, but there are always bargains to be had. With that in mind, my latest post for Serie A Weekly looks at five incredible talents who got away from Italy – give it a read and feel free to suggest any others.
