Major Transfer Updates in SerieA

A look into how the major teams in serieA has dealt in the transfer market so far.

League leaders and currently most active in the transfer market, AC Milan started their activities with the negotiation for Antonio Cassano who had fallen out with the Sampdoria president only to join a bigger club with higher ambitions. In the last week, Milan managed to sign two Dutch players in the wake of recent midfield injury crisis- Urby Emanuelson from Ajax and well known Mark Van Bommel from FC Bayern. Milan has done some shrewd business considering all three of their January signings put together hasn't cost them more than €3.3m after Van Bommel requested Bayern to terminate his contract to join the Italian giants for free. Since he has signed his contract with Milan only till June 30,2011 it is more of a short term emergency signing. Another talking point is that all the three players are cup tied and would not be eligible to play in the next rounds of Champions League.

Lazio has added some depth to their squad by signing Guiseppe Sculli from Genoa and if rumours are to be believed Swiss international Ziegler could also join the capital club from Sampdoria.

Juventus, the club which looked more likely the one to splash cash in the market and improve their squad, have been somewhat erratic in their transfer policies and dealings. Earlier when their transfer director Marotta insisted upon signing younger players in view of building a team with long term ambitions, their signing of Luca Toni from Genoa makes little sense. Juventus have always been a club who boasted the most number of Italians and most of them becoming Italian internationals too. But when the Italian national team looks short of new talent, it is always wise to focus on some foreign players who can add further quality to the team. Milos Krasic, their best player among the last summer buys, is a fair indication to why Juventus needs to look beyond just Italians. But all this talk seems to be falling on deaf ears as Andrea Barzagli, another Italian who is nowhere near his peak form, is heading to Turin from Wolfsburg.

Reigning champions Inter Milan have been quiet in January after bringing in Leonardo to the bench and seem to be content with the team they have, highly rated Andrea Ranocchia their lone buy after Walter Samuel was out for the season with injury. However, Moratti has recently expressed his interest in signing Pazzini from Sampdoria as a cover for Milito who has spent most of his time in the treating room this season.

AS Roma, the club themselves, have been in takeover talks for a while now and new signings are highly unlikely. Napoli is on the verge of securing the services of Espanyol defender Victor Ruiz. Sampdoria have taken the young Manchester United starlet Federico Macheda on loan and he is already showing his worth at the Marassi. Massimo Maccarrone looks set to join them as well after an unimpressive stint with Palermo.

Players like Alexis Sanchez (Udinese) and Domenico Criscito (Genoa) are very much the in-demand players even after their club presidents declaring they would stay.