I, for one, feel offended that you didn't include Matri. He's waiting for Allegri's call.
I genuinely forgot him. Allegri will give him a call on Thursday if we get to the group stage.
This is the same as us buying, say, Quagliarella. I will never understand why some big clubs go for certain 26-29yo players and expect them to perform as they've NEVER performed before in their careers. Quags was the very definition of inconsistant before he joined Juve. Now he is suddenly to become this world-class striker? The same goes for Zapata. He wasn't a Milan-level player when he was playing with Udinese, he never will be. Podolski? Same thing. And so on.
I guess it has to do with the atmosphere in a big team, when you play for Milan, Juventus, etc, you HAVE to play at a certain level, especially if you already had a season or two in a little club where you scored 15+ goals each season. So your average Quagliarella/Gilardino/Osvaldo has to live up to even more expectations. Why the clubs go for them anyway? Because maybe they're as good as they thought. Otherwise, they could always say "he was good back there, dunno what happened lol" (Ricardo Olivera docet).
I had great hopes for Zapata, I always thought he was kinda good when he was at Udinese, but after seeing him last year, I have to say that it explains why Villareal got relegated two years ago with him as a starter.
Little prick. He'll forever be stuck in average clubs.
I say he'll remain one year at Roma then he'll leave.