Juan Sebastian Veron has had a far from easy ride in England, but when the Argentinian international stepped out at the Olympic stadium in Rome last Tuesday, he was treated with respect and trepidation by a club that recalls his formidable qualities only too well.
When Veron left Lazio in 2001 for Manchester United he was widely rated as one of the world’s top midfielders. But at Old Trafford he showed his best only sporadically and then mainly in European matches. Despite high hopes of a fresh start at Chelsea, so far, dogged by questions about his fitness, he has failed to impose himself on the team.
Like the Chelsea of 2003, the Lazio Veron joined in 1999 was a club trying to buy success in a hurry. The £18-million they spent on Veron followed a £65-million outlay the previous summer.
In 1997 the then-Lazio owner, Sergio Cragnotti, had tempted Sven-Goran Eriksson to break his promise to join Blackburn Rovers. On arrival in Rome, Eriksson spelt out his requirements for new players, including three from his then-club Sampdoria — the Italian international striker Roberto Mancini, the Serbian defender Sinisa Mihajlovic and Veron.
The Lazio board was perplexed. Mancini, at 33, seemed too old and Mihajlovic’s reputation for ‘gamesmanship†was well established. But the club needed no convincing about Veron, who, not surprisingly, proved the most difficult and expensive (from Parma two summers later) to land.
In December 1999 Eriksson made this prophetic observation: ‘It’s taken a bit of time to get the three players I want because Mancini came directly with me, Mihajlovic the year after and then Veron this summer, but I’ve got them all now. With them in the squad, I have the players I want.â€
Eriksson also had a side good enough to win the Italian title six months later, driven on from midfield by Veron.
Veron’s reputation remains exalted and, were it not for their financial problems, Lazio might well have reclaimed a player who has never made any secret of having left a little piece of his cuore in Rome.
After the match at Stamford Bridge last month, Mediaset TV commentator Alberto Le Guan summed up widespread Italian bemusement about Veron’s status in England.
‘Amazingly, in separate press conferences, both coaches — [Claudio] Ranieri and Mancini — spoke out in your defence, saying that you are one of the best midfielders in the world,†he told him. ‘The problem is that around here, they don’t yet see it that way.†To which the laconic Veron replied: ‘Ah well, that’s normal enough. You can’t always have the press on your side.â€
Interestingly, Veron’s reputation has also suffered in his native Argentina, where he has become the scapegoat for the national team’s 2002 World Cup debacle. In Argentina’s opening qualifier for the 2006 World Cup in Buenos Aires in September, he was booed every time he touched the ball.
But Mancini has never hidden his admiration for the player. Asked about him this week, Mancini replied: ‘I do think he is one of the best players in the world. I don’t agree with those who say that he hasn’t shown what he can do in England. When you get the call from Manchester United, the risks outweigh the advantages because you are joining a club that is accustomed only to winning.â€
Mancini is too diplomatic to add that perhaps there was a more specific reason for Veron’s ‘failure†at United. Used to a free role in Italy, Veron clearly found it hard to fit into the constraints of the United midfield.
Veron is the sort of player for whom the expression ‘midfield general†was designed. To play to his best, he has to run the show, as he did at Lazio, switching from wing to wing, from central defence to just behind the front pair, never tied down by a specific role.
Such a player was never likely to fit into a United format, where positional indiscipline can earn you a boot in the face and where there already was a well-established ‘midfield general†in the person of the captain Roy Keane.
Lazio’s Claudio Lopez is in no doubt about his compatriot and friend. ‘He’s a great player — that’s all there is to it. But when we meet in the Champions League, all of us try to do the best for our team and try to do everything possible to win the game. Friendship comes afterwards.†—