Sabatini: ‘Lazio are dreaming of being the Italian Leicester City’

Sport Mediaset journalist Sandro Sabatini believes Lazio are dreaming of becoming Serie A’s answer to Leicester City, after their remarkable start to the season.

Speaking to TuttoMercatoWeb, Sabatini says that nobody would have bet a single euro on Gennaro Gattuso’s side being top of the table after 11 games.

Lazio are unbeaten and lead on 29 points, the club’s best-ever total at this stage. It’s an astonishing turnaround from the summer, when supporters were protesting against president Claudio Lotito’s running of the club.

“Don’t ask me for predictions, I don’t think I’m the right person,” Sabatini said. “But Inter are the strongest, Roma are on Inter’s level, and Lazio are dreaming of being the Italian Leicester.

“It would be a lovely dream, full of contradictions. Without going into the details of the protests, the fans’ mood was at rock bottom in mid-August, and now they’re in seventh heaven. The president had been accused of years of poor transfer windows, but he’s actually signed some good players.”

Gattuso returned to club football this summer after failing to lead Italy to the World Cup, and Sabatini believes he has silenced his critics.

“He was seen as a coach whose best days were behind him, but he’s revitalised players who weren’t properly valued under Sarri.”

Leicester famously won the Premier League in 2016 after starting the season as 5,000-1 outsiders. Sabatini still thinks Inter and Roma are the favourites, but he expects Lazio to stay in the Champions League race.

“Como are third, even if they had a bad night at San Siro. For me, Lazio are the surprise contenders for fourth place, and they’re putting three big clubs at risk of missing out on next season’s Champions League: Milan, Juventus and Napoli.”