The Risks Behind the Gamble on Aquilani

'La rabona'. Talk to anyone who is into Italian football about Alberto Aquilani and that word is bound to come up. It is how Italians describe an audacious bit of skill where a player backheals a pass while running, a move that done well is likely to put any defence off balance.

Just as Aquilani did at the San Siro on the 11th of November of 2006. It was a fantastic move, one that set Roma on their way to scoring and at the same time silenced the whole stadium as everyone took in what they’d just seen.

For Aquilani, it was a defining moment as he finally started to emerge from the shadows of Roma’s two other home grown stars in the form of Francesco Totti and Daniele de Rossi. Or it seemed like it at the time. Looking back, he never really managed to do that and the quite acceptance of his sale by the Roma fans – where the over-riding sentiment was of relief as the move was to generate some much needed money for them – is not one you would expect for the departure of a local player.

The reason for that is one: injuries. Throughout his career, Aquilani’s talent has never been in doubt. Growing up, he was the star player in Italy’s national youth teams including the Under 19 side that won the European championship back in 2003 where, incidentally, he was voted as the tournament’s best talent. By that time, Aquilani had already made his debut for Roma and was on his way to Triestina to spend a season in the Serie B in order to add experience to his talent.

And gain he did as the eighteen year old quickly lit up the division as he played in all of the club’s forty one games and scored four goals in the process. Impressive stuff for someone so young.

It also ensured his return to Roma and the culmination of a dream. Aquilani was always going to be a Romanista: his father was not only a huge fan but also worked at the ground on matchdays. Indeed, he was working at the Stadio Olimpico in May of 1984 when Roma took on Liverpool in the final of the Champions Cup and even got to touch the famous trophy. An omen, perhaps.

For Aquilani, therefore, playing in the red and yellow of his home city’s club was what he had always wanted. Yet fitting into the side wasn’t that easy. Roma already had De Rossi playing in the centre of midfield, Aquilani’s nominal position whilst the role just behind the team’s strikers was normally reserved for Totti. With the Brazilian Rodrigo Taddei, another local favourite, also guaranteed a starting spot in midfield, space for him was limited.

Yet he was too good to leave out and eventually managed to find his way into the team. Which is when misfortune struck: a training ground injury meant that he missed half of the 2006-07 season and another injury, this time at Old Trafford, cost him three months of the following campaign. Then came last season where Aquilani was injured most of the time this time for no clear reason.

It is those injuries that made the Roma fans forget how good he is. That Roma had refused Juventus’ reported €30 million bid for the midfielder last summer – ironically, the then Juventus manager Claudio Ranieri saw him as a better option than Xabi Alonso – had come to be considered, in hindsight, to be a bad move by them. Better get rid of Aquilani while someone was still willing to pay good money for him, was the over-riding feeling.

Lost amid all of this was the reason why Aquilani had often been missing or, rather, why he was missing for so long after each injury. In recent times, Roma have had quite a troubled relationship with their medical staff and the frequency with which their players got injured or failed to recover raised doubts over their efficacy. There were rumours that appointments with the medical staff were made because of who they knew rather than because of their skills, that Luciano Spalletti had asked for advice from outside the club whilst some players refused to be looked after by the club’s doctors. All this led to the dismissal of Mario Brozzi, the head of Roma’s medical staff.

Therein lies the big hope: that rather than being a fragile player as has been hinted in some quarters, Aquilani had simply been treated badly.

His transfer remains, in all honesty, quite a big gamble by Benitez. Yet it isn’t anything that he hasn’t done before: remember the incredulity when Javier Mascherano was signed? This was a player that couldn’t get a game for West Ham and suddenly he was given a starting role for Liverpool. Benitez, however, had seen Mascherano play before he had come to England, he knew how good the midfielder could be and how he was going to fit into his tactical schemes.

The same logic has been applied to Aquilani. Whilst he might not have the same passing range as Alonso, the Italian is much more dynamic which fits in nicely with Benitez’s desire to have a team that plays at a high tempo which has the opposition constantly on the back foot.

Here you can see Aquilani's rabona (and count the number of times that the commentators mention it)

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