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LAZIO BIELSA CONFERENCE: 'We offered Pato a four-year-deal”
Director of sport Igli Tare said that “we made Pato an offer that would have made him one of Lazio's three most paid players. For personal reasons, Pato told us that he didn't want to leave Brazil”.
This was followed by a curious passage:
“Bielsa admitted that he'd never known a club that respected him so much.
“His arrival would have been important for both Lazio and Italian football... we're working on every single objective that we agreed with him, barring a few targets which he rejected”.
He continued:
“Bielsa OK'd a number of our targets, including Jardel and Adriano [of Benfica and Barcelona]. We had a plan to buy four players: a centre-back, a left-back, a winger if Candreva left and a striker.
“He expressed some doubts on some of the players, we agreed that he could meet them at Auronzo di Cadore [the club' training camp] and make a final decision during camp.
“Once Bielsa was back in Argentina, he queestioned the signings of Jardel and Adriano, not to mention Arlind Ajeti, whom I'd been to see in France. We told him that we'd do everything possible to satisfy him as much as possible.
“We even gave Bielsa an additional 30 million budget in case he needed more players after the camp. We had the chance to sign Llorente [a young Real Madrid defender]... but he said he wanted to remain in Spain.
“Bielsa even said that Mammana could join us, so we got in line. He was supposed to join for 8 million, we gave Bielsa the chance to talk to River's vice-president to try to offer more, but they'd already sold him to Lyon.
“He wanted Morel, too, but three days ago Lyon told us he wasn't for sale. The fourth defender we'd agreed on was Rodrigo Caio, I'd been following him for two years. However he had to play the Libertadores and the Olympics, so we agreed to negotiate later.
“Bielsa asked us for Jean Beausejour, but he was only an alternative. We were also in talks over a full-back I'd offered, and we'd obtained priority for a winger in case Candreva left. This man, as well as Valencia, are players we offered. We offered all these things to a man who wasn't even our manager yet”.
The club's lawyer, Gian Michele Gentile, also confirmed that “there were no transfer-related clauses in Bielsa's contract. He'll have to deal with FIFA”.
@EdoDalmonte
