Loanee reports: Serie A

Cristiano Biraghi (Inter Milan)

The 27-year-old left back hasn’t had any easy time in his third return to his boyhood club. While he’s made 19 appearances and tallied up 4 assists, he’s born the brunt of many Biscione fans’ bile; to hear some people tell it, he’s solely responsible for the 4 point gap between the Nerazzurri and leaders Juventus. Beppe Marotta is thought to be looking for an upgrade, which is both logical for a team like Inter that’s trying to break Juve’s stranglehold on Serie A and absolutely absurd: he’s been in the team for less than 6 months. While it’d be nice if he’d kicked on, it’s also way too early for the club or the fans to give up on him. This being Pazza Inter, though, it sounds like there’s a real chance that they won’t fork over the €12 million to make his move permanent, which could lead to an awkward reunion in Florence. You have to feel for the guy.

Bryan Dabo (SPAL)

The 27-year-old Burkinabé has immediately paid dividends for the Spallini, earning manager Leonardo Semplici’s trust right off the bat and starting the Coppa Italia match against AC Milan 2 days after the move went official. While that didn’t go too well, his league debut was much more impressive: a full 90 minutes in the middle and assisted the winner in the shocking 1-2 upset of Atalanta in Bergamo. His range, strength, ball-winning, and verticality suit the team’s tactics perfectly, and we honestly hope that he’s having a ball in Ferrara; after describing his solo training sessions this year with Fiorentina as “horrible.” It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that SPAL will buy him outright in the summer, and we truly hope he finds a home there.

Riccardo Saponara (Lecce)

Not much to report here as yet that we didn’t discuss when the move went official yesterday. If you want a tl;dr version of that, though, we think that the Cheese will do well with the Giallorossi as long as he can stay healthy.

Giovanni Simeone (Cagliari)

The 24-year-old Argentinean striker has enjoyed a decent resurgence in Sardinia without blowing anyone out of the water, scoring 5 goals and assisting 3 more in his 19 appearances. While his finishing can still let him down at the most inopportune moments and he continues to run hot and cold—he’s only scored once since putting one past the Viola in November—his work rate and attitude (as well as the dearth of options behind him) have kept him in Rolando Maran’s XI without a second thought. Even with Leonardo Pavoletti returning from his knee injury in April, the Isolani probably aren’t upset about the €16 million they’ll be paying for Cholito come June, even if he’ll probably never become the 20-goal-a-year striker we thought he’d be.

Jordan Veretout (AS Roma)

The 26-year-old French midfielder remains an ever-present for Paulo Fonseca’s men, starting every league match but the first two of the season and nailing down his spot in the Champions League too. While his counting stats are down—just 2 goals and 1 assist so far—his industry and jack-of-all-trades nature have made him indispensable in the engine room for the Giallorossi. They’ll probably feel that the €17 million is well spent when they pay the remainder of his fee this summer, and they’ll be right: now pushing for a role with the French national team, Veretout looks like the kind of canny operator who’ll have a very long and fruitful career in the capital.