blades blog The Resistible Rise of Arturo Lupoli

Posted: February 4th 2009
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Now that Jamie Ward has earned a modicum of respect from the Bramall Lane doubters who questioned his Spireite pedigree, with a goal in extra, added-on, injury plus time to secure us a perhaps undeserved victory at St Mary’s, there is only one other pressing matter pre Wednesday on Saturday – just what’s the loophole with Lupoli?

There’s an easy explanation but I  would appreciate any enlightenment surrounding why a lad who was prolific to the point of just about scoring a goal a game for Arsenal Reserves, should spend the next three years floating about the Anglo-Italian continent as a bit player unused by various managers including most latterly Roeder and Gunn at Norwich.

Should I be pleased Arturo Lupoli has signed on loan for the Blades till the end of the season? Is he David Attenborough’s evolutionary missing link between Chris Morgan and  Kyle Naughton, is he good, is he great or is he another Il Floppo in the guise of previous Italian no-hopers Silenzi or Grabbi (if only because his names ends with an i)

The easy answer is that the lad’s got a huge ego and wants to set the world on fire every time he plays. I know what you’re thinking – you’re thinking that that already rates him higher than 75% of your current playing staff but, as the weary among us know, it also means he’s going to do one of two things. He’s either going to score some stunners, any one of which might be the difference between a loss and a draw, or a draw and a win at this crucial stage of the season, or he’s going to throw a mardy, get dropped and moan like crazy before we pass the parcel and let the next unsuspecting club take their chance on him – masterstroke or mardy bum.

It’s just what aspiring Championship yo-yo sides have to do when the parachute money runs out – take a foreign gobbo on board, risk upsetting the team morale and balance and hope that he grows up and pushes you on to the prem with his audacious chips, Romano body swerves and Etruscan lobs. The fans will be divided – some will say he’s worth the tantrums, others will long for the return of a good ol’-fashioned number 9.

I’ve read comments from Derby fans who’d happily have him back in the side and many others from Norwich who label him as “very tricky, very greedy and not a team player . . .  with an ego and an attitude problem to boot”.

An Italian youth prodigy it was no surprise that Lupoli was picked up by Arsenal. After proving himself in the reserves I’ll guess that his subsequent season-long loan to Derby was probably intended to finesse some of his rougher edges. Although his subsequent move from Arsenal to Fiorentina doesn’t appear to make sense it can be assumed that the superstar pecking order and limited chances in the first team for a lad with an inflated idea of his own importance, made enough waves for him to fail Arsenal analysts’ psychometric tests, so he had to be moved on.

As far as I’m aware though he’s never actually turned out for Serie A’s Fiorentina because he was quickly sidelined out to Serie B’s Treviso on loan and then, within the space of just over a year he turns up at Norwich like some lost Italian soul who’s lost his way in a storm. One can only assume, even if it is harsh, that the key words in this narrative are ‘ego’ and ‘wages’.

The other question mark over the value of the trade to the Blades is whether or not a nippy Italian inside forward is really going to suit our ‘style of play’. I use the quote marks because, like the South Yorkshire weather, our style shifts with the snow drifts and the vagaries of the latest loan signing. So are we now going to switch from a situation where Beattie was the target man (am I the only Blade to find it galling that Beattie and Hulse both scored in their latest outings for rival clubs?) to running neat through balls to a diminutive strike force, including Sharp, Webber, Lupoli and Ward, none of whom could look over my garden fence without standing on the compost bin?

I suppose I’ll have to wait and see. Perhaps I’m being a bit previous, a bit hard on the young Brescian.

I can understand the Lupoli detractors but knocking Jamie Ward leaves a bad taste in the mouth. One goal doesn’t make him a regular but the boy’s stabbed in a last-minute winner in a high-pressure situation in the Championship and I can think of many so-called pedigree players of so-called proven ability who have yet to produce a killer blow to prove their worth. There’s absolutely no point in writing off Ward before he’s been given a chance and, inevitably, made some mistakes.

In that vein let’s give Arturo the benefit and pray that he runs rings round the Wendies thus beginning a long and fruitful initiation into legendary Blades status. Ever the optimist.