If we wanted to make an easy pun, we could say that Schick is chic. Patrik Schick. The 21 year-old striker of Sampdoria, Czech Republic international, is one of the most interesting wonders of the current Serie A.
The centre-forward, 1.87 m tall, has already scored 7 goals in 22 matches. But if we consider not the number of matches, but the minutes played, we will discover that he has scored 1 goal every 112 minutes; really good for a young deb.
And his performances, especially in a global market like the one we have nowadays, has attracted the attention of many big teams across Europe: among them, Chelsea and Manchester United, that see in Patrik the right features to do well in the Premier League.
But Inter Milan are more than one step ahead of the other pretenders: director Piero Ausilio has had a meeting with the player's entourage and is close to sealing a deal, with the president of Suning ready to pay the clause of €25 million.
Another interesting point is that Inter and Sampdoria are agreed that Schick will pass to Inter but will play on loan with Sampdoria for another season, putting off his landing at Milan until the summer of 2018, when he will be more acclimatised to Serie A and more mature.
This negotiation represents just a little foretaste of what the new Chinese owned Inter could do in the next summer: Suning is ready bang down on the game table with a big bag of money ready to spend. The rumors suggest €150 million is ready to be invested in new players. The new president is very ambitious and wants to show immediately that his Inter can bring back the splendour of the Mourinho era and his Treble.
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INTER MILAN WON'T GIVE UP ON CONTE
And who could be the right name to guide this really ambitious project? Who else but the man who was able to win three Serie A championships in a row and is close to winning the Premier League title at his first attempt. Who else but Antonio Conte...
Recently he has declared he wants to stay with Chelsea, but we know that in football what is true today can become the opposite tomorrow. Especially when we talk about big money.
The future of Conte, apart from his own desire to remain at Chelsea, will depend on Suning: they could, in fact, decide to go on with Stefano Pioli who, after arriving three months into the season, with a squad drifting, has been able to give them a way of playing football, to motivate them and to climb the table.
In my opinion Pioli deserves to manage a team with big ambitions and it won't be fair to sacrifice him on the altar in order to give the fans a big name.
AC MILAN TAKEOVER A SHAMBLES
On the other side of Milan, the Rossoneri one, the soap opera of the club takeover has come to its 50th episode, becoming day by day more confusing and absurd.
Now the theoretical new Chinese owners seem to have had problems with the third down payment, saying that there has been a delay in the bank money transfers. As in the last time, there seem to be more excuses to cover something mysterious.
My feelings about this deal? The third deposit won't ever arrive and that old fox Silvio Berlusconi will remain the owner. Yes, but with €200 million more, the amount of the previous two down payments received from the Chinese group.
MAZZARRI AND CORVINO AT FIORENTINA
Something very strange is happening on the route between Florence and Watford. The English press is reporting that Pantaleo Corvino could leave his role as Fiorentina director in order to be appointed at Watford; and, in this hypothesis, there are lot of rumors about his coexistence with Walter Mazzarri.
In Italy the story is completely overturned. Pantaleo Corvino has decided to say thank you to Paulo Sousa next summer and get rid of him: and the name he really wants on the Fiorentina bench for next season, in order to replace the Portuguese manager, is Walter Mazzarri!
What can I say? That the operation-Mazzarri has already started: Corvino has put his name on the top of the list for the role of next manager of Fiorentina and he will do his best to take a manager whom he has always admired and with other clubs had tried to take with him.
He will have to persuade Giampaolo Pozzo: but we know that the Udinese and Watford owner is a man for whom everyone has a price. Even Mazzarri.