Claudio Lotito reveals Leonardo Bonucci and Juan Cuadrado ‘wanted to join Lazio‘, confirms Napoli rejected his €20m bid for Piotr Zielinski and explains why he won’t sign Giovani Lo Celso from Tottenham.
The Biancocelesti president spoke to fans at Auronzo Di Cadore on Saturday and several Italian media, including Goal.com, reported his quotes.
Lazio are still looking for a replacement for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic who has joined Al-Hilal for €40m.
Napoli star Zielinski is Maurizio Sarri’s primary target, but the Serie A champions have rejected Lazio’s opening bid.
“He [Zielinski] is 29 and his contract expires [in 2024]. How much is he worth? I’ve offered €20m plus add-ons, but it was rejected. Now, we’ll make a lower bid, because if you don’t sell on the first day, the offer goes down. It doesn’t take long to spend a lot of money. Would he join us? I think so.”
Lotito confirmed that Ciro Immobile is not on the market despite reports of offers from Saudi Arabia. The 66-year-old continued his chat with the fans by mentioning more players who could have joined the Biancocelesti.
“Cuadrado wanted to join us, same as Bonucci. Three players we had scouted joined Milan. There are choices that must be made and I must accept others’ decisions too. I am not just chasing names, otherwise, I’d get Lo Celso and Leandro Paredes.
“We have all shared the decision to sign two players and hopefully, we’ll get them now. After Milinkovic-Savic’s replacement, we’ll get a deep-lying playmaker which means somebody must leave because we already have Danilo Cataldi, Marcos Antonio and Matias Vecino.”
Lotito had already spoken to Lazio fans earlier this week, revealing that Sassuolo star Domenico Berardi had ripped his contract with Juventus last year.
The Neroverdi director Giovanni Carnevali replied on Sunday morning, saying that Berardi is a “serious professional” and insisting that Juventus hadn’t tried to sign the Italian winger in 2022.