So this blog is gonna take a very sharp left from my previous nerdgasm blogs of looking at advanced analytics and potential transfers, and take a more goofy approach on the absolutely ludicrous transfers and loans some Italian teams make. Sit back, cause these are some of the most hilarious, weird, and down right idiotic transfers & loans in the history of the Serie-A.
We all clown on Chelsea for having a ton of loans right? 42 to be exact. Well, that pales in comparison to our new favorite club, Atalanta. Atalanta have 56 players on loan. One of these is Franck Kessie, who actually is on loan to a bigger club in AC milan, which is completely ass-backwards. As well as Bryan Cristante, who is on loan to AS Roma. THESE ARE NOT HOW NORMAL LOANS WORK. Loans are intended to either send younger talent to a smaller club to develop, or a more experienced player who has fallen out of favor by the manager, but still has the abilities they want to keep, to a middling club to find their form back. Not sending arguably a Top-3 player of yours to a rival who may actually beat you to a Champions League spot, because of that SPECIFIC loan! Kessieʼs loan is weird too, a two year loan with an obligation to buy. However, because of the financial issues plaguing AC Milan, they might not be able to afford him if they donʼt make a Champions League spot. SO they would have to activate the buy clause just to sell him on so they arenʼt broke. What a shitty situation for a 22 year old with a lot of potential.
Then thereʼs the Cristante loan, which is just fucking weird and hilarious. So he went on loan last summer for 1 year to AS Roma with an obligation to buy for €15 million, if he meets certain performance obligations. This is a recurring theme with these loans. They also had to pay Atalanta an initial €5 Million to even get the loan spell going. Theyʼve ALSO signed him on a deal until 2023. So like what the fuck happens if he doesnʼt meet these initial obligations? Do Roma just not have to pay the initial €15 mil? Do they just rip up the contract that runs until 2023? Am I just an idiot, or like is this actually a really stupid deal? This is hilarious and just the tip of the dipshit-iceberg, if you can believe it.
So those are my favorite dumb transfers, but whatʼs your guysʼ favorite dumb loans or transfers of all time? Let me know on twitter @smittyboy8833, also there will be a link to the LADS discord that I run on there and we can chat about it there as well. Thereʼs a bunch of awesome and hilarious dudes there, weʼre always talking about football, other sports, or whatever other random shit that comes up in chat.
Author: Logan Smith - 22, from Florida. Liverpool fan for 4 years now, also just a huge fan of the sport of football. You can find me on twitter @smittyboy8833